Pitstop with Sarah Levinger
237 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 1 year ago - ★★★★★ - 14 ratingsFeeling stuck in your Shopify and ecommerce store? Host Sarah Levinger helps you get unstuck answering your questions directly, and bringing on the experts who can tune you up, while you tune in.
Increase your ROAS, update your flows, and increase your revenue, all in less than an hour a week.
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Episodes
Connect With Your Customers - Sylvester Louis Castillo
June 24, 2021 09:05 - 7 minutes - 7.22 MBDespite being very common for personal use, SMS outreach for connecting consumers with business remains under-utilized, often misunderstood and an infrequently-turned to tool for customer engagement. Although an incredibly cost effective option, most businesses fail to see the true potential for consumer outreach. Beardbrand is not such a company, says Castillo, and your brand shouldn't be either. Measuring Up The biggest problem most companies have with using SMS is not knowing how to m...
Keep More Customers Coming Back - Jacob Sappington
June 22, 2021 09:05 - 8 minutes - 7.7 MBToo often, business owners think about retention as having to go out and drag customers back so they can shop at your store again, says Sappington. They design a few basic single-use messages, or automatically repeating discount offers, then assume everything will work out for the best, and if the customers don't come back, that's just how their consumers behave. You get what you put into your retention marketing Instead, consider retention to be the basic goal of any customer-outreach,...
The Truth About Email Marketing - Jacob Sappington
June 21, 2021 09:05 - 7 minutes - 6.98 MBSocial media promotional buys and Facebook ads may seem like an attention grabbing, high-risk for big-potential reward gamble, but it's the dependable and cost-effective email that consistently pays the bills and keeps the lights on. Says Jacob Sappington, too few business owners really understand the importance email plays in the majority of their sales, or how to properly utilize them. Despite having healthy and productive email systems, or investing in optimizing their email systems, too...
Quality, In Great Quantity - Taylor Lagace
June 17, 2021 09:05 - 8 minutes - 8.2 MBYou have to know how to walk before you can try to run, and the same goes for dealing with influencers. These content creator's audiences come in all shapes and sizes, from the very small and niche to the extremely broad and mainstream, and can generally be separated into two types: the Micro Influencers and the Macro Influencers. Macro influencers are often celebrities with impressive personal brands themselves, and while they have vast reach, they are incredibly expensive to do business...
Give A Little To Get A Lot - Taylor Lagace
June 15, 2021 09:05 - 11 minutes - 10.1 MBIt doesn't matter how good the sales figures are, when store owners are told their best bet for a positive influencer-relationship is to simply give some of their product away, they start having second thoughts. "Shouldn't I get something in return?" When you work in the world of e-commerce, so much of your life revolves around transactions, and it can seem very strange to offer costly items in return for no guaranteed promotional content. The secret, explains Lagace, is to trust your in...
Win Fans & Influence Customers - Taylor Lagace
June 14, 2021 09:05 - 14 minutes - 13.7 MBWorking with influencers can be an incredibly financially reward experience for some brands, and a frustrating nightmare for others. A great brand-influencer relationship can thrust your business into the international spotlight and near overnight success for pennies on the dollar of what a traditional promotional campaign would cost. Meanwhile a mismanaged or ill-planned promotional campaign can devour promotional budgets, distance already invested customers and leave you picking up the pie...
Laugh All The Way To The Bank - Lianna Patch
June 10, 2021 09:05 - 10 minutes - 10 MBA joke may be cheap, but the effect it can have on your conversion rate is simply priceless. That's what Lianna Patch believes anyway, and as both a comedian and founder of a successful e-commerce copywriting company, she may be on to something. Most brands tend to shy away from using humour in their website and promotional copy, feeling that it doesn't fit into their brand identity, worried that they won't be taken seriously among their peers in the industry, or downright certain that they...
Play To Your Audience - Lianna Patch
June 08, 2021 09:05 - 13 minutes - 12.7 MBIf you want your shot at the big time, says e-commerce copy-editing expert and comedian Lianna Patch, then you've got to tighten your act up beyond the basic general conversion optimizing, such as image load time and page speed, tightened copy, segmented lists, presented social proof, reviews, guarantees and all the other fundamentals you see everywhere. Here are 3 above and beyond features every great converting website share, milestones of quality and creativity, that can help you eleva...
Punch-Up Your Shopify Page - Lianna Patch
June 07, 2021 09:05 - 14 minutes - 13 MBE-commerce can be very difficult. There are a thousand and one things you have to keep track of, stay ahead of and prepare for, yet any of them could start dragging your business down while your attention is elsewhere. These all too common and easily preventable mistakes are no laughing matter, says comedian and copywriter Lianna Patch, who wants to make sure your Shopify store doesn't turn into a bad joke. Here are her top 4 most irritating Shopify mistakes eager new business owners make a...
King Of Your Own Castle - Conor Lewis
June 03, 2021 09:05 - 15 minutes - 13.9 MBOver the last two episodes, Conor and Lucas have shown you how to build brand anticipation, how to capitalize on it using crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and how to continue to grow from there, but what happens when you've gotten too big for that small kickstarting-pond? It's high time for you to break out, and found your own online realm to reign over, says Conor, who shares how he took FORT from one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns ever, to one of the hottest up and coming...
Build Your Kickstarter Kingdom - Conor Lewis
June 01, 2021 09:05 - 15 minutes - 13.9 MBRaising over $3 million through Kickstarter, over $2 million of that in less than half a day, doesn't come easy, even for the Conor Lewis, who did just that. Investors didn't just flock to the page for FORT by coincidence or a passing curiosity, Lewis and his team carefully built their ad campaign brick by brick to make sure their kid friendly castle concept didn't topple under siege. Here are some of the insights and brand-awareness battle tactics he shared with Lucas and Pitstop for crafti...
The King Of Kickstarter - Conor Lewis
May 28, 2021 09:05 - 14 minutes - 13.4 MBWhile Kickstarter remains one of the best platforms creators can use to get interest and investments in their new innovations, it has lost some of its luster over the decade since it first debuted, and is far from the only hot spot for fresh ideas anymore. Rather than hosting the first looks at new and exciting products and services, Kickstarter has found an unexpected niche, allowing consumers to invest in innovations they're already excited about, and have been eagerly awaiting. That's h...
Automating Customer Service With Gorgias - Jason Wong
May 27, 2021 09:05 - 13 minutes - 12.8 MBWhat can your business do to automate the customer support process to save not only you and your team money and time, but the customer's time as well? Automating turns any customer support process into customer success, with each automation saving you, on average, one minute, which can quickly compound into hours per week extra that you can take advantage of, freeing you up for more important and valuable work. Doe Lashes own Jason Wong explains how you can get your average ticket-time down ...
Automate Away The Wait - Jason Wong
May 27, 2021 04:05 - 12 minutes - 11.5 MBWhat can your business do to automate the customer support process to save not only you and your team money and time, but the customer's time as well? Automating turns any customer support process into customer success, with each automation saving you, on average, one minute, which can quickly compound into hours per week extra that you can take advantage of, freeing you up for more important and valuable work. Doe Lashes own Jason Wong explains how you can get your average ticket-time down ...
Touring The ShipBob Warehouse - Jason Wong
May 25, 2021 09:05 - 12 minutes - 11.9 MBA clean warehouse is as important to a business that ships out their product as a clean kitchen is to a restaurant. How your company and employees treat the space where you do your most important work speaks volumes about how they and you treat your business overall. When cosmetic entrepreneur Jason Wong joined ShipBob for a tour of their Fulfillment Centre warehouse, he found a workplace in perfect flow and harmony, where problems were anticipated by design, and errors were corrected bef...
Redundancy, Rinse and Repeat - Jason Wong
May 25, 2021 04:05 - 11 minutes - 10.7 MBA clean warehouse is as important to a business that ships out their product as a clean kitchen is to a restaurant. How your company and employees treat the space where you do your most important work speaks volumes about how they and you treat your business overall. When cosmetic entrepreneur Jason Wong joined ShipBob for a tour of their Fulfillment Centre warehouse, he found a workplace in perfect flow and harmony, where problems were anticipated by design, and errors were corrected bef...
Swing For The Green - Harley Abrams
May 20, 2021 09:05 - 15 minutes - 13.9 MBAs Operations Manager for SuperSpeed Golf, Harley Abrams knows that the main channels for consumers into golf, the two primary ways that players get the equipment they need to play the game, are direct to consumer sales, such as ordering clubs, bags or apparel straight from Ping or Titleist, and big box stores like Golf Town, who specialize in having every major brand names at brick and mortar locations, but generally make their profits on marking up the product offered. Unique to golf th...
Up Your International Game - Harley Abrams
May 18, 2021 09:05 - 12 minutes - 11.6 MBGoing for that long drive into international markets can be a tricky shot for any growing e-commerce business. There are any number of hazards and unexpected obstacles along the way that you'll have to avoid or overcome. Harley Abrams, Operations Manager at SuperSpeed Golf, has already played through to the greens beyond, and has some important pointers for you to pick up. Localize your user experience: An international customer already has the frustration of dealing with higher delivery co...
Teeing Up Your Shipping Costs - Harley Abrams
May 17, 2021 09:05 - 14 minutes - 13.1 MBAn often solitary game, played in the wide open spaces of spacious fields and breezy pastures, the popularity fo golf exploded over the past year and a half as Covid-19 brought nearly every other sport to a sudden halt, forcing many to delay games and restrict players. With at most four participants per group, spread out over hundreds of square feet at a time, golf is the perfect sport for the infectious-aware, and consumer buying habits have proven this. With traditional sporting-goods stor...
BONUS: Rolled Up with Omnisend CEO Rytis Lauris
May 14, 2021 09:05 - 36 minutes - 33 MBNeedless to say, the Walt Disney Company has become one of the largest single business entities, in the world of media at least, that have ever existed, crawling their way up from two brothers and an easel to a global land development and merchandise producer. no matter how big a company like Disney gets though, there are still some very important lessons even single-operator small businesses can take away from the monopolistic House of Mouse. Take for instance the way they treat and intera...
The $1000 Marketing Launch
May 13, 2021 09:05 - 7 minutes - 6.7 MBLaunching any business is a leap of faith, a gamble that your belief in a product will be shared by enough consumers that your investments in it, both time and money, will be paid back and then some. Keeping your opening capital spending under control can make or break many new businesses or product roll outs, with marketing costs always threatening to spiral out of control. Here's two ways you can avoid runaway spending and have a successful marketing strategy for as little as one thous...
Lockdown Your Key Performance Indicators
May 11, 2021 09:05 - 7 minutes - 7.31 MBKnowing your KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, is a must for any Shopify or e-commerce business looking for reliable and sustainable growth as they expand from small to medium to large scale operation. Here are three main factors you should include when searching for and considering your KPIs. Conversion Rate: Determining what your conversion rate is saying about your site's performance depends on what you're looking for. If you spend a large amount of your budget on advertising, you'l...
Make Amazon Pay With These Basic Steps
May 10, 2021 09:05 - 5 minutes - 4.9 MBDespite their bad reputation over some business practices, Amazon is an important and powerful tool that you can use to test your wholesale or retail strategy without having to dive into the deep end before you've learned how to swim. The searches on Amazon are very purchase-intensive, the vast majority of user who look for an item aren't looking to read reviews or how-to's of that product, they're looking for the product itself with intent to buy. This means you can use the platform to ...
Is Going Headless Right For You? Part 3 - Ben Kennedy
May 07, 2021 09:05 - 16 minutes - 14.7 MBYou've decided that going headless with your Shopify or e-commerce store is the best option for growing your brand and company, you've learned how headless builds can be tailor made to fit the needs of you and your customers, now's the time to figure out who you're going to choose as a service provider. Yes, you could hire a team of developers, or rely entirely on your own in-house team if they have the skills, but chances are your staff aren't experts on Shopify app building, or ecosystem i...
Is Going Headless Right For You? Part 2 - Ben Kennedy
May 06, 2021 09:05 - 18 minutes - 17.3 MBSo now that you are certain a headless build is the best approach for your store, and you've contacted and contracted a service provider, how do you actually move forward? What do you do first to get the speed your customers require? As mentioned in the previous episode, one of the primary draws for going headless is the potential boost in speed you can bring to your store and the quickness and efficiency of your users experience. But how exactly do you achieve this boost in speed? First, w...
Is Going Headless Right For You? - Ben Kennedy
May 04, 2021 09:05 - 20 minutes - 18.7 MBTaking your Shopify and e-commerce sites headless seems to be the hottest new trend for store owners, but for those who worry it’s more a matter of hype and hope than high performance, questions remain about whether going headless is the best option and avenue for their business. Together, Lucas and Ben address some of your most pressing questions about making the switch to headless -e-commerce. Why should I go headless? A faster website is a better experience for the customer, which leads ...
Shipping To Canada
May 03, 2021 20:31 - 6 minutes - 6.01 MBWhile the e-commerce explosion set off by last year’s COVID 19 pandemic has calmed and settled down as the crisis continued and people found ways to adapt their old ways of doing business to this new reality, online sales continue at a pace only dreamed of a few short years ago. This has given Shopify and e-commerce retailers unexpected avenues of revenue, and made available previously unexplored consumer groups and buying cultures, even just next door. Here are some important import/export ...
Shape Up And Ship Out With ShipBob
April 30, 2021 18:15 - 4 minutes - 4.17 MBTypically one of the more difficult aspects of running any retail operation, be it on or offline, inventory planning and management have broken many otherwise healthy and successful brands even at their best. Considering the extra complications, disruptions and global incidences that have caused shipping, production and manufacturing to slow to a trickle world wide, managing and maintaining some control over your store inventory and supply chain has gone from otherwise difficult to stressful...
Adobe Summit 2021 Week Wrap Up with Philip Jackson
April 29, 2021 18:05 - 34 minutes - 31.2 MBAnother Adobe Summit has come and gone, with all the revelations of digital innovations, deep dives into detailed public discussions, and A-list celebrity schmoozing that includes, in so-far as a global economy shaken, confused and disrupted by the last year and a half's COVID-19 pandemic can manage. Lucas's fellow e-commerce expert Philip Jackson shares his highlights of this year's announcements, a few surprises to keep your eye on, and the newest developments to help e-commerce retailers...
Summer Holiday Marketing Part 2
April 27, 2021 21:05 - 6 minutes - 5.82 MBIn the last episode of Pitstop, Lucas detailed how any Shopify or e-commerce store owner can use the hundreds of minor and major Social media Holidays to reignite their brand engagement both during the doldrums of summer and all year 'round by being unexpected, being generous and being recognizably human and playful, before most importantly listening carefully to any and all feedback received from clients and customers. To aid in those SMH engagement campaigns really landing home and hitti...
Summer Holiday Marketing Part 1
April 26, 2021 21:24 - 7 minutes - 6.85 MBAre you finding that your promotional campaigns aren't hitting quite as hard as they have in the past, that the dog days of the summer sales slump are too much to handle, or your expectations for your biggest selling days of the year fell flat? The problem may be with how and when you're rolling out your messaging. Typically, consumer behaviour is relatively easy to predict; certain selling holidays will always deliver at least some sales, even during dramatic economic downturns. December ...
Podcasting For Profits
April 23, 2021 09:05 - 6 minutes - 5.89 MBWhere radio once ruled the airwaves, podcasts currently reign as one of the primary new medias of the 21st century. Along with social media and vlogging, podcasts have become a ubiquitous part of our modern lives, a key feature in many people's mediascape, and play a fundamental role in the democratization of content. Anyone can create one for practically little to no charge, covering any topic, and reach massive audiences, while having as much room to grow creatively as its developers are c...
Saving The Day - TJ Mapes
April 22, 2021 09:05 - 10 minutes - 9.34 MBEvery dog gets its day, and thanks to the popularity of social media holidays, so does every person, place, thing and activity too. Anything from traditional holidays like Labour Day and Thanksgiving, to annual and reoccurring events like Daylights Savings and Leap Day, and frivolous novelty days like National Fleece Day or Pancake Appreciation Day get the spotlight usually once a year, and rarely is there a week without at least something to celebrate. Some are steeped in history and tradit...
Stay Connected With Post Purchase Emails - TJ Mapes
April 20, 2021 09:05 - 15 minutes - 14.1 MBIn a recent post on Mangrove Digital, company founder TJ Mapes espoused the importance of not just sending automated post-purchase emails to your customers, but re-engaging them all over again, educating, exciting and delighting consumers into returning time and again. As Pitstop listeners know, post-purchase email flows aren't just the digital equivalent of "thank you, come again", but actively and reliably increase an e-commerce store's referrals, reduce product returns and increase supp...
Deliver More For Less
April 19, 2021 09:05 - 6 minutes - 6.05 MBA struggle all too familiar to every store owner, online or off, shipping costs can make or break e-commerce retailers both big and small. While the e-commerce giant Amazon can offer low-cost or even free shipping on most if not all of their items, the idea of any other Shopify or online retailer offering competing delivery rates is simply beyond unreasonable, and would soon sink even a successful business. Thanks to their enormous profit margin, Amazon can afford to keep their rates low, t...
Mother's Day Opt Out
April 16, 2021 09:05 - 6 minutes - 5.87 MBSummer tends to be the season of downturns for online shopping; consumers are more likely to be out and about, typically visiting shops in person or travelling, and there are no blockbusting gift or sale-related holidays until well into the fall. As such, Shopify and e-commerce store owners may find the summer months to be a drag, with no great events to theme any product pushes around, save the simple fact that it is summer, and much less consumer interest or traffic. That's where non-bank ...
Avoid Technical Debt - Anne Thomas
April 15, 2021 09:05 - 14 minutes - 13.3 MBShopify themes are more than just how a site looks, they're how a site feels, how a site acts, and how customers interact with your product and brand. They are your front line, your back bone, and whether using a free or premium Shopify theme, maintaining that front line in peak condition should be a priority for any store owner. One common but crucial mistake made by Shopify users is not updating their themes more often. While it can be a pain to have to constantly deal with, updating your...
Show, But Don’t Forget To Tell - Anne Thomas
April 13, 2021 09:05 - 10 minutes - 10 MBOwning and operating your own Shopify store can be both exciting and overwhelming for even the most seasoned business-minded seller, and there are many pitfalls to avoid while building and maintaining your shop. According to mobile UX design expert Anne Thomas, all too frequently a store owner will spend too much time, attention and overall resources on making sure their site looks fantastic over desktop, the most universal and frequently best looking medium for display, but won’t consider h...
Know Your Mobile - Anne Thomas
April 12, 2021 09:05 - 12 minutes - 11.4 MBAn expert designer of Shopify add-ons and template packs, Toronto based Anne Thomas knows that the mobile user experience is the frontline for the modern consumer. While you never know how customers will be looking at and engaging with your site, an increasing number of users are navigating online over their mobile devices, some doing all of their shopping from the palm of their hand. An optimized, easy to navigate and enjoyable user experience over their mobile device will drive both increa...
Follow The Data, Not Your Gut - Quintin Schnehage
April 09, 2021 09:05 - 16 minutes - 14.9 MBShopify and e-commerce store owners, ask yourselves, do you really know what your customers are doing on your website? With heat mapping, you can put that question to work, and see a profitable return. Heat maps are an indispensable tool in the UX designer's kit, a powerful weapon against the forces of chaotic layout and interrupted flow. Try as hard and for as long as you may, sometimes what you think of as the ideal customer interface and user experience, what comes natural or intuitive ...
User Centred Design - Quintin Schnehage
April 08, 2021 09:05 - 16 minutes - 14.7 MBFar from the days of busy, gif infested homepages and gimmick based websites, modern online design seeks to make the user experience both subtle and supportive, and is built from the ground up to best optimize user centred design. While design fetishes come and go, like neon synth wave or cottage-core, the fundamentals of an experience-assistive user design remain the same. Following these key tips and tricks will help drive your consumers effortlessly through your store, and more frequently...
Push It Real Good - Greg Zakowicz
April 06, 2021 09:05 - 17 minutes - 15.8 MBDespite having a bad reputation thanks to unscrupulous internet marketers, push notifications are an essential accompanying tool for any messaging campaign. In the last year alone, push notification use has seen an incredible 1000%-plus increase, with an average 50% open rate, and a 500% increase in conversion rates, year after year. While push notification use in online shopping environments is still in its early days, there are some stand-out features that early adopting Spotify and e-comm...
Reach Out And Text Someone - Greg Zakowicz
April 05, 2021 09:05 - 16 minutes - 15.1 MBWhile SMS has been growing as an outreach option used by businesses for the last half decade, the 2020 Covid Pandemic forced companies to find new ways to interact with their clientelle, be it for sales or to just keep them engaged with the brand during turbulent times. As a cost effective, personal and immediate way to communicate with customers in a safe and socially distanced manner, SMS messaging has become a must-have tool for any surviving store, e-commerce based or traditional brick...
No-Brainer Game Plan - Greg Zakowicz
April 01, 2021 09:05 - 21 minutes - 19.8 MBYou've listened to Pitstop and Rolled Up for great e-commerce tips and tricks, you've heard about all the benefits and profits to be had from expanding your customer outreach and engagement, and you've decided to work with an automation campaign through a great company like Omnisend, so what now? What's the next best steps you can take to get the absolute most out of your automated messaging campaign, and the biggest bang for your marketing buck? Greg Zakowicz, Omnisend's own Director of Co...
Checkout These SMS Collection Tactics - Lucas Walker
March 30, 2021 09:05 - 10 minutes - 9.26 MBSo you've managed to get your customers to hand over their SMS numbers, what now? How do you take full advantage and use to get the most out of their interest and contact information in a way that doesn't feel like you're spamming the customers with needless and unwanted messages and offers? Look to industry leaders and how they handle their SMS collections, says our own host of Pitstop and Rolled Up Podcasts, Lucas Walker. Beardbrand has created a mostly interactive SMS based system, in wh...
Double The Offer, Double The Outcome - Jeremy Horowitz
March 29, 2021 09:05 - 13 minutes - 12.4 MBRealistically, while you have a core group of loyal and passionate customers, the majority of those who enjoy your product and share their contact information with you won’t engage with or even open all of the messages you send, no matter what offers they contain. Email offers can often be ignored, forgotten, or caught up in spam filters and never seen at all. Diversifying your methods of contacting your customers, by using both email and SMS automated systems, will not only increase your st...
Pretty Fly For Shopify - Jeremy Horowitz
March 26, 2021 09:05 - 10 minutes - 9.71 MBWhile after-sale offers are a fantastic way to bring customers back for one last offer, what can an e-commerce or Shopify store owner do to increase the average order value from their consumers before they leave in the first place? According to Jeremy Horowitz, inline toss-ins included in your shopping cart flyout may just hold the secret to making that last minute sale. Easy to program into any e-commerce or Shopify store, cart flyouts are a staple of the larger online shopping services, l...
Text Sells - Jeremy Horowitz
March 25, 2021 09:05 - 14 minutes - 13.5 MBJust because your customer has completed their transaction and left your Shopify or e-commerce store doesn’t mean there isn’t still the opportunity to capitalize on their spending mood or habits. Order Bumps, automated post-purchase SMS or email messages featuring quality products and alluring sales, can see not only a take-rate of 2-5% consistently and immediately, but a 10% to as a much as 40% boost in the Average Order Value across your entire store. Considered the secret weapon of the ...
Win The SEO War - Steve Toth
March 23, 2021 09:05 - 10 minutes - 9.25 MBWhen looking at how to improve your customer’s overall engagement with your store, along with their buying experience, always ask yourself the following questions; what stage of the store ‘funnel’, that is from the general landing page to the specific purchase, are your customers sitting at? What are they thinking or asking about at the different stages along the way, and how can you make sure the pages they are on at those stages serve their questions and needs, rather than interrupting the...
From Internal Linking To Search Engine Exceptionalism - Steve Toth
March 22, 2021 09:05 - 12 minutes - 11.3 MBWhen empowering your webpage, Shopify or other e-commerce store to optimize and improve your search engine appearances and ranking, there are specific questions you have to ask yourself concerning anything you include on your pages: How do I create the best experience for my webspace visitors? Am I showing the right products? How am I showing the right products? Am I showing a guide how to use this product? Am I giving the customer all the information they need to know to make them s...