In a word, Chris Lynch is cool.  So is his brand Everyday California.  It’s not a surprise then, that what started as an adventure tour company also became a super popular apparel line.  But Chris and the Everyday Cali team didn’t stop there… The brand has now grown to include flip flops, beer, CBD and even a line of sunscreen.  So what separates a solid business move into new products vs. an unhealthy distraction?  When should you partner, license, go on your own, or scrap an idea?  Here’s what we dive into on this episode: 

• When to lawyer up and why it’s sooo worth it
• Be patient - speed in some instances almost guarantees that you land on your face.
• One of the best questions to ask about adding a new product is “does it feel right?”  
• How Chris and team partnered with a brewery on a California IPA and a CBD company to make a CBD product all while strengthening their core brand offering.
• Lessons learned from a few license deals
• How and why Everyday Cali is launching a brand new sunscreen - if you’re considering a line extension, you’ll love Chris’ advice. 

Mission meats is just a few years old, but it’s gobbling up market share in the red-hot meat snack category.  Peter Awad is a long time eCommerce pro.  He started selling auto parts on eBay in 2000.  Now he and his co-founder Nick have built a meat snack store with a mission.  They’re using profits from eCommerce to help fight deforestation, educate children in Africa, and support homeless women and children.  

But they don’t just have big hearts, they have some serious marketing chops too.  

In this episode, we explore the challenges and opportunities of marketing a product that could literally appeal to anyone.  We also explore how to maintain the balancing act of growing your own store AND growing on Amazon. 

• How to treat Amazon from a merchandising perspective. 
• Prospecting for new customers - Is this and Amazon first or Shopify first strategy
• How to increase repeat purchases in a fun way
• How pride or ego can limit growth with any paid ad channel
• Crazy CRO tests and the practice of asking “what if the opposite were true?”
• Important mindset issues that help fuel successful entrepreneurs

• How to have the right mindset for navigating volatility (this is more important than you think)
• What to do when ad performance tanks
• Where you should tinker to improve performance and where you shouldn’t
• Why this is still the greatest time in history to be a marketer - volatility and all.
• 3 Spot checks to make sure you are ready to scale traffic
• The impact of the California Consumer Privacy Act and new changes coming to iOS 14….the good, the bad, and the scary. 

This year’s online holiday shopping season will be one for the record books. Most people say they’ll shop more online or exclusively online this year.  And online shopping will also start earlier this year, indicated by Google study results where 69% of holiday shoppers say they will shop earlier this year to avoid items being out of stock.

To dominate the Cyber 5 this year you need to:

• Get the most from your remarketing efforts,
• Cover any gaps you have in your search and shopping efforts,
• Run compelling offers and ads that compliment your brand, and
• Get your Top of Funnel efforts dialed in.

Check out our latest blog outlining these helpful tips and the video replay from our recent webinar with Google, and be on the lookout for the audio version in this week's episode of eCommerce Evolution.