Ecommerce: The Hammersley Brothers Ecommerce Podcast

Your bestsellers can look available while the sizes your customers want are sold out. We made that mistake in our own Shopify bedding business, with replacement products available further down the collection pages.

Want help identifying what is holding back growth in your ecommerce business? Apply to work with the Hammersley Brothers:

https://go.hammersleybrothers.com/apply-now/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=shopify_stock_mistake&utm_content=description

In this episode, Mark and Ian explain what happened and discuss the stock, merchandising and advertising decisions to review before Black Friday and Christmas trading.

We cover why selling out is not always a success, when spending more on advertising makes little sense, and how to investigate products you could have sold more of last year.

We also discuss avoiding panic hires, helping your ecommerce team understand what matters, and using AI to analyse business data without handing over the decisions.

Subscribe for practical ecommerce conversations about sales, margins and profitable growth.

 

P.S. Whenever you’re ready... here are 3 ways Ian and I can help you grow your ecommerce business:

 

 

1. Talk to us. Book a call with us and let's talk about accelerating your growth - https://go.hammersleybrothers.com/apply-now/

 

2. Grab a copy of our book - https://gohigh.hammersleybrothers.com/get-the-book

3. Follow the Hammersley Brothers on Instagram and connect with e-commerce owners who are scaling too - 
https://www.instagram.com/hammersleybrothers

Why do successful ecommerce brands suddenly stop growing?

After reviewing 100 ecommerce businesses and working with thousands of brands over the years, we identified the seven most common bottlenecks that prevent ecommerce companies from reaching the next level.

Watch the full episode to discover where your ecommerce business may be getting stuck and what you should focus on next.

Subscribe for practical ecommerce growth strategies based on real businesses, real numbers and decades of experience.

 

P.S. Whenever you’re ready... here are 3 ways Ian and I can help you grow your ecommerce business:

 

1. Talk to us. Book a call with us and let's talk about accelerating your growth - https://go.hammersleybrothers.com/apply-now/

2. Grab a copy of our book - https://gohigh.hammersleybrothers.com/get-the-book

3. Follow the Hammersley Brothers on Instagram and connect with e-commerce owners who are scaling too - 
https://www.instagram.com/hammersleybrothers

In previous episodes, we explored the strategies that help an ecommerce business navigate each stage of growth.

Now, we use our premium bedding brand as a real-world case study, following its journey from an unproven store with underperforming ads to a multimillion-revenue business entering the scaling phase.

Inside the episode:

 

• How to validate whether strangers will buy from an unknown brand
• Why some sales can be more encouraging than a low ROAS
• How to identify winning products and eliminate distractions
• Why mastering one advertising channel can beat trying everything
• How reviews, trust and positioning increased conversion
• Why average order value became the key to doubling ad spend
• How better supplier margins and payment terms accelerated growth
• How to make safer stock decisions during rapid growth
• Why every ecommerce type requires a different strategy
• What changes when a business moves from 5 million towards 20 million

 

You do not need more random tactics.

You need to understand your ecommerce type, your current revenue stage and the specific constraint preventing you from reaching the next level.

Watch the full episode to learn how to stop operating emotionally, build a reliable growth model and make better decisions with advertising, stock, margins and cash flow.

 

P.S. Whenever you’re ready... here are 3 ways Ian and I can help you grow your ecommerce business:

 

1. Talk to us. Book a call with us and let's talk about accelerating your growth - https://go.hammersleybrothers.com/apply-now/

 

2. Grab a copy of our book - https://gohigh.hammersleybrothers.com/get-the-book

 

3. Follow the Hammersley Brothers on Instagram and connect with e-commerce owners who are scaling too - 
https://www.instagram.com/hammersleybrothers

What should an ecommerce founder actually focus on once the business reaches 5 million in annual revenue?

In the fifth episode of our ecommerce growth series, we explain how the founder’s role, financial priorities and growth strategy must change as the company moves from 5 million to 20 million.

At this stage, tiny improvements can produce huge results. Better supplier terms, stronger margins, improved conversion rates and smarter cash flow decisions can add millions in revenue and profit.

But this is also where businesses become bloated, founders hire the wrong senior people and teams start chasing numbers that do not benefit the overall company.

 

In this episode:

 • How to use your customer list, reviews and brand trust as a competitive moat
 • Why a 2 percent margin improvement can dramatically increase profit
 • The supplier, shipping and transaction fees you should renegotiate
 • Why ecommerce advice for huge brands rarely works for smaller businesses
 • When checkout optimisation and small conversion wins finally matter
 • How to remove the founder from routine work without losing the company culture
 • The difference between delegating and abdicating responsibility
 • How to structure expansion into new markets
 • Why revenue attribution numbers often do not add up
 • How to build a business that an investor would actually want to buy

 

This stage is not about chasing every new tactic. It is about doing the right things exceptionally well, protecting the company’s profit, and using your scale to pull further ahead of competitors.

P.S. Whenever you’re ready... here are 3 ways Ian and I can help you grow your ecommerce business:

1. Talk to us. Book a call with us and let's talk about accelerating your growth - https://go.hammersleybrothers.com/apply-now/

 

2. Grab a copy of our book - https://gohigh.hammersleybrothers.com/get-the-book

3. Follow the Hammersley Brothers on Instagram and connect with e-commerce owners who are scaling too - 
https://www.instagram.com/hammersleybrothers

This week on the Hammersley Brothers Ecommerce Podcast, we continue our five-part series on the stages of ecommerce growth.

In part four, we explain what really changes when an ecommerce business grows from 1 million to 5 million per year.

This can be one of the most exciting stages of growth, but it is also one of the most dangerous. Hiring larger teams, working with more agencies, expanding into new countries, adding products, and increasing fixed costs may cause revenue to rise quickly while profit quietly disappears.

In this episode:

Why businesses get stuck between 1 million and 5 million

How hiring expensive experts can reduce profit instead of increasing it

Why every employee, agency, and supplier should follow the same number

The danger of expanding into new countries too early

Why adding more products can damage cash flow and stock management

How to calculate the true cost of a new warehouse or team member

Why growing revenue does not always increase the value of your business

How better supplier relationships can improve margins and payment terms

Why repeatable systems are more valuable than new ideas

How to architect the numbers required to reach 5 million

At this stage, growth cannot be left to chance. You need to understand exactly how your marketing spend, margins, stock, fixed costs, and profit work together.

Otherwise, you may build a much larger business that makes less money.

Subscribe for the final episode in the series, where we cover the journey from 5 million to 20 million.

 

P.S. Whenever you’re ready... here are 3 ways Ian and I can help you grow your ecommerce business:

 

1. Talk to us. Book a call with us and let's talk about accelerating your growth - https://go.hammersleybrothers.com/apply-now/

 

2. Grab a copy of our book - https://gohigh.hammersleybrothers.com/get-the-book

3. Follow the Hammersley Brothers on Instagram and connect with e-commerce owners who are scaling too - 
https://www.instagram.com/hammersleybrothers