Eric Bandholz

Articles by: Eric Bandholz

Eric Bandholz

Eric Bandholz is the host of "Ecommerce Conversations," Practical Ecommerce's weekly podcast, and co-founder of Beardbrand, a leading men’s grooming company that focuses on beard care. With the help of his co-founders, he’s bootstrapped Beardbrand from zero sales to a multi-million dollar business.

Eric is an ecommerce authority, having spoken at dozens of industry conferences and meetups.

Contact Eric via email or LinkedIn.

Business
LiveRecover Founder Sells Company, Buys OrderBump

February 4, 2022 • Eric Bandholz

Dennis Hegstad co-founded LiveRecover, an SMS app, in 2018. He sold the company in 2021. "I became bored," he said. So he purchased OrderBump, a Shopify app for product upsells.
Business
Former Ecommerce CEO Asks, ‘What’s Next?’

January 28, 2022 • Eric Bandholz

Entrepreneurs can find themselves looking for work rather than hiring it. That's the case of Andrew Faris, a successful digital marketer and ecommerce aggregator.
Business
Paid Search Drives Kuru Footwear to 2021 Success

January 21, 2022 • Eric Bandholz

Sean McGinnis arrived at Kuru Footwear, a direct-to-consumer brand, in 2020 as chief marketing officer. One year later, he's president of the company, and sales are booming.
Business
TikTok Marketing Is Hard Work

January 14, 2022 • Eric Bandholz

Ryan Magin founded Viral Edits, an agency, roughly two years ago. He creates original and repurposed videos for brands and influencers, focusing on TikTok and Instagram. The process is much more difficult than it appears, he says, requiring hours of video watching and editing.
Business
‘I Like Starting Things,’ Says Serial Entrepreneur

January 7, 2022 • Eric Bandholz

Having arrived from Estonia 14 years ago, Peep Laja has launched three companies: CXL for e-learning, Speero for conversion consulting, and Wynter for B2B customer intelligence. He shares his journey in this week's "Ecommerce Conversation" episode.
Staffing
MarketerHire Exec on Freelancers, Content, SEO

December 31, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Tracey Wallace is a writer turned content marketer turned SEO pro. She was the head of BigCommerce's content team and now serves a similar role for MarketerHire, a marketplace for freelance marketers, which launched in 2019.
Customer Retention
Subscriptions, Books Drive Man Flow Yoga

December 17, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Dean Pohlman is a global authority on yoga instruction for men. He's written best-selling books on the topic and conducted hundreds of in-person classes. His company, Man Flow Yoga, is thriving with an on-demand instructional program driven by paid subscriptions.
Business
‘Modern Wisdom’ Is a Media Sensation

December 10, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Chris Williamson is a modern-day polymath with a fitting podcast. It's called "Modern Wisdom." Launched in 2018, it has experienced a whopping 30 million downloads across 400 episodes. He told me, "We talk about human nature, marketing, philosophy, life, life hacks, biohacking, fitness, health, pretty much everything."
Business
Barbell Logic Rides Shift to Online Fitness

December 3, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

The pandemic has upended the fitness industry. Having no access to public gyms, millions of folks turned to at-home workouts. According to Matt Reynolds, the founder of Barbell Logic, an online strength coaching company, the shift is permanent.
Business
The Right Answer to ‘What Do You Do?’

November 26, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Clay Hebert once attended a conference in San Diego. He sat next to a fellow who inquired about his work. "What do you do?" the fellow asked. Describing the encounter, Herbert told me, "That question stumped me." Hebert had fumbled his introduction to Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPress.
Business
The Beauty of Bootstrapping a Business

November 19, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

"Ecommerce Conversions" is my weekly podcast interview with an entrepreneur. But this episode is different. I'm interviewing no one. Instead, I'm addressing a singular topic: bootstrapping.
Customer Retention
Subscriptions Power Disco Past iOS 14.5, Amazon

November 12, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

The year 2021 has been a doozy for Ben Smith. In March, he celebrated an investment round for Disco, his direct-to-consumer skincare company. In April, Disco's customer acquisition cost increased by a whopping 300% with the release of iOS 14.5. In May, he began selling a top item on Amazon.
Business
eCommerceFuel Founder on Work-Life Balance, Priorities

November 5, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Andrew Youderian is the founder and CEO of eCommerceFuel, a leading online community of established store owners. He oversees a diverse team and manages a growing business with worldwide members. Surely, one would think, he works long hours with little downtime.
Business
21 Years In, 2BigFeet Charts Opportunities, Growth

October 29, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Where can you find a size 24 men's shoe? At 2BigFeet.com. Brandon Eley co-launched the business in 2000, before Google AdWords and long before Facebook and Shopify. "We've seen a lot of changes in 21 years," he told me. "Keyword stuffing was legitimate search engine optimization back then."
Business
Gas Station Coffee Spurs Golden Ratio Founder

October 22, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Solving a personal hardship may be the most common motivator for starting a business. Clark Nowlin's hardship was acidity in coffee. It wrecked his stomach. Golden Ratio Coffee is Nowlin's answer. It's a producer of low-acid coffee.
Business
Amid Facebook Ad Turmoil, Supply.co Retrenches

October 15, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Patrick Coddou is a direct-to-consumer pioneer, having launched Supply.co in 2015. The company designs, manufactures, and sells premium shaving products — all to great success. Until April 2021. That's when Apple launched iOS 14.5, upending Facebook's ability to hyper-target ads. Coddou's company relied on sales from those ads.
Business
Mental Conditioning Is Vital for Entrepreneurs

October 8, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Lauren Johnson says high-performing entrepreneurs have similar characteristics as professional athletes. Both have mental traits that lead to inevitable success.
Influencers & Affiliates
PPE Provider Thrives on Influencers (and Hollywood)

October 1, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Roman Zrazhevskiy's company, Mira Safety, sells protective gas masks. It launched in 2018. The masks protect against tear gas, chemicals, and, yes, viruses. Still, reaching prospects was a challenge.
Business
Lessons from Bankruptcy Drive Ecom Agency Founder

September 24, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Josh Durham knows the downside of entrepreneurship. He founded an ecommerce company in 2015 and quickly grew revenue. Then it went out of business. Fast forward to 2021, and Durham has bounced back. He launched a successful marketing agency, Aligned Growth Management, that builds on his own early-day lessons.
Business
Should DTC Brands Sell to Mass Merchandisers?

September 17, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Beardbrand's products are in all 2,000 Target stores. Lindsey Reinders, my business partner, drove that project in 2018. Selling products to mass merchandisers is a goal of many direct-to-consumer ecommerce brands. Has selling to Target worked out for Beardbrand? I asked Lindsey that question and more.
Business
Software Exec Shifts to Bicycle Components, and Thrives

September 10, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Brian De Groodt launched Dispatch Custom Cycling Components in 2018 after a long career in enterprise software. The company sells bicycle headset caps, which sit atop the stem connecting handlebars to the frame. Customers can customize the caps, adding uniqueness to their bikes.
Staffing
Foundr Owner on Burnout, Recovery, Priorities

September 3, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Nathan Chan seemingly had it all. His business, Foundr, is hugely successful, combining media with entrepreneurship training. He interacts with prominent global founders. Then came burnout.
Business
Hyve Founder: Bacteria Is Helpful for Home Cleaning

August 27, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Shreya Patel is a biologist and healthcare administrator who seeks to change how folks clean their homes. Products that kill bacteria do more harm than good, she says. And that's why she launched Hyve, a direct-to-consumer seller of household cleaning goods.
Business
Apparel Merchant Is the ‘Godfather of Memewear’

August 20, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Ardon Lukas wore a shirt to this interview from his online apparel store, Shirtwascash. It was a velvet tank top with a photo of Elon Musk smoking marijuana during a podcast. "I see my role as broadening people's perspectives," he told me.
Business
‘Intrepreneurship’ Has Rewards, Says Company Founder

August 13, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Bryan DeLuca has a name for folks who build brands within large corporations. He calls them "intrepreneurs." He should know. Having co-founded and then sold a successful ecommerce business, DeLuca worked for a traditional retailer, creating brands within the company.
Business
Greenbelly Thrives with Backpacking Meals

August 6, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Chris Cage founded Greenbelly, a maker of high-nutrition meal bars for backpackers, after leaving his accounting job and traveling the world. That was in 2014. Fast forward to 2021, and the business is thriving.
Business
Entrepreneur Loses $6 Million, Bounces Back

July 30, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Shakil Prasla recently made a big mistake. An astute ecommerce operator and owner, Prasla purchased in late 2020 Covid-related protective gloves at roughly twice the ultimate selling price. His company, Gloves.com, lost $6 million.
Business
Keyword Sleuthing Propels Niche Publisher

July 23, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Merchants know that content marketing can engage and retain customers. However, identifying a topic that prospects want to consume — read, watch, listen — is often difficult. But not for Kyle Boureston.
Business
Hustle Exec: Ecommerce Firms Should Acquire Content Providers

July 16, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Adam Ryan joined The Hustle in August 2016, four months after its launch, as a part-time advertising salesman. By February 2021, when HubSpot acquired it, he was president. Ryan is now an investor and consultant, advising companies on content strategies that engage prospects.
Business
Happiness, not Profit, Drives Grasshopper Founder

July 9, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Having sold Grasshopper, the virtual phone service, for $175 million in 2015, David Hauser assessed his priorities. Grasshopper was his third launch and exit, following ReturnPath (email services) and Chargify (subscription management).