#116: What’s Happening In Ecommerce & Marketing?

Please support the show if you liked today's episode:

• By rating and reviewing the show in the app that you are listening to, you will enable us to invite bigger and more impactful guests.
• Please subscribe and get notifications when new episodes are released. Sign up with your email below.
• Share the podcast with your family, friends, and co-workers.
• Tag the podcast on Instagram @clauslauter and let me know what you like about it.
• If you like the content and would like to support the podcast, you can buy me a coffee here.

Claus Lauter: Hello, and welcome to another episode of the eCommerce Coffee Break. Today I wanna pick a expert's brain on what's happening in eCommerce and marketing right now, so therefore, have invited the Dimitris Skiadas. He is a digital entrepreneur, eCommerce expert, was 10. Years' experience of scaling stores to seven and eight figures.

He speaks Google Analytics. I would get to that in the moment. And is an international public speaker and trainer. In addition of being all this, he's also the host of the Greek Mastermind event. He's a restaurant owner, a proud husband, a father of two daughters, and he's living in Athens in Greece. , hello Dimitris.

How are you doing today? Hello?

Dimitris Skiadas: Hello. I'm, really happy man. You did an amazing, intro for me. Thank you very. I'm , really happy to be here , , and start talking about what is happening into our world,

Claus Lauter: basically. . Exactly. Yeah. So you are in the game for quite some time. , you have pivoted from one thing to another, so we have a very good overview of, what's happening.

So now know that you're just back from the gig as a restaurant owner, which is something completely different. But your background obviously is coming from figures, from numbers, from Google Analytics and how to run an online business. Maybe just give me a bit of a rundown where you're coming from and what did you get to where you're now?

Dimitris Skiadas: So I started, , 12 years ago I started to be, , an accountant and, everybody was mistreating me. , go make me a sandwich. Go fix that, do the. thing , mop the floor. And I'm like, Okay, life has to be, , to be something better. So I started looking for ways to make money, make money online.

I started running into affiliate marketing and article marketing back in the day, and forum marketing. And then , I found a local agency. Here in Greece, , like 2010 where I would said, You know what I want to learn. I'm willing to work for free and I will do anything. I just want the knowledge, , to.

To keep going, et cetera, et cetera. So, eCommerce in Greece was not that popular in, , 2010. And you can imagine that back then with seo, engine optimization and, , Google adss was the most famous, , traffic source. It was really. Easy to get the very, very first one for pretty much every keyword. So that was really, really fascinating.

Although it wasn't that much of a traffic, but still, it was amazing for me, , to see like, Oh, people that buy online and I can sell, , watches and jewelry and this and this and that, et cetera, et cetera. I started learning there. I started, , making okay, , money for Greece. , I wanted something different, so I started jumping.

From one thing to another. I worked many years , as an assistant accountant. , and then I said, You know what? No, this is not for me. I want to do something different. So I jumped into a really big agency, and this is where in 2013. And this is where I really understand the power of Google analytics, of data and how we can optimize, because I had no clue, right?

In the very first agency, we just run traffic. Okay, that works. That doesn't, okay, let's move into another one. But when we are dealing with really big budgets like. 200 K, 300 K per month, even for grease, it's a really , big numbers to handle them. And then we have to start looking at Google Analytics and where does the traffic come from and what do they do and where do they drop off and how much does it take, , for a website to load and why 95% of the people are living.

So these are all the questions that every business owner. , either , you have an eCommerce brand, or let's say that you have a lead generation business or an agency or consultant, or you're a doctor. Like no matter what, if you're doing something online, it's really important to understand the number.

So I started deep diving, , into that and. I became, , really known, , in the industry, because I started going into Facebook groups and I started jumping into interviews and doing like mini courses and videos, et cetera, et c about the importance of Google Analytics and your numbers and

how you can capitalize on that. And one thing led to another, , they started inviting me,, into doing a lot of public speaking, , gigs, especially , before Coronavirus and I started launching courses. I started, , working, , with a lot of eCommerce brand and started helping them, , scale to seven and eight figures and all that without spending any extra money, , on Advertis.

If we know for a fact that three out of a hundred people, let's say, , just an example, buy from an eCommerce store, Okay, what happens with the rest 97? Because it's not like we are down on the streets and it's guerrilla marketing and that where, hey, we are selling this and this and that, and whoever comes.

It's supposed to be targeting, right? Let's say that we sell yoga clothing. It's supposed to, we do a targeting. And then I started learning about the customer avatar, the deal targeting the creatives. And this is where, , you realize that eCommerce, it's not. , as easy as it used to be anymore. And right now eCommerce has become a lot more difficult, , than it used to be.

And especially with drop sipping that people didn't have to hold inventory and stuff, and they were making like really good money scaling and then boom, , they're going down now. I believe that it's, , more for people that are willing. to take the time, , to understand, , who is their ideal customer?

. . What does he or she want to buy? , what is the deepest fears, the needs, the desires? What magazines do they read? Do they have a family like start Craft? The ideal customer avatar and asking them, , with surveys and chats, it becomes a lot more serious about understanding who is your ideal customer and how you can serve them.

, this is what we have been doing for, the past so many years. , I run an agency right now, , where we focus a lot, not only on the customer acquisition like Facebook and Google adss, but we also focus on what we call cro. Conversion rate optimization, how we can keep bringing more people in retention, marketing, , email marketing.

And lately we have been, , we want to focus a lot more onto the creative game because it doesn't, this is something that we start working, slowly right now because we see that , , a lot of the traffic sources. Facebook and Instagram and TikTok and YouTube, we see that the creators, they get depleted really quickly.

So we need to identify how we can serve the potential customers best by showcasing the products and reviews and, , unboxing and, , udc user generated content and testimonials and all that kind of stuff. So we can be as an agency, like a full 360 agency that we can serve all the solutions.

Claus Lauter: Yeah. You're talking my language there. , looking at the numbers is still the same and it's the same importance. Even more important than it was in the past. In 10 years. A lot of things have changed in the interwebs, , trends came and went and so on and so forth. , is there something in the eCommerce industry or digital marketing industry which that people are still doing and they should stop doing it?

Or is there anything that has you surprised in this regards lately? So

Dimitris Skiadas: I think that, , it's not something that people, they need to stop doing it because I say so because, or you say so. I think that people realize really, really quickly that throwing an ad, quick ad up there, Hey, this my product buy now save 50% of, , only minus $50 or whatever that is, doesn't cut it.

Okay. It's like we are going, and this is an example that I have been using for years. It's like going into a bar and, , you want to find a girl and going directly and tell the girl, Hey, I want to have sex. Even if you are Brad Pit, , maybe if you are Brad Pit, but no matter how good looking you are, or let's say , I want to get married.

that's going to seem crazy. Okay. If she's also crazy, maybe she says yes. But in reality right now is that you need either Joran and eCommerce store, I know that , we speak mostly about e-commerce, but I want to expand it all in all business.

that they do online stuff, okay? Either regarding to e-commerce or mid generation or whatever you sell, software services, et cetera, et cetera. You need to pre educate the people. You need to make what is known as the KLT factor, know, like, and trust people. It's not like you can be the. Entrepreneur in the world, you can be master in your craft.

You might have spoken into many events, You might have done masterminds and courses and , when to help, like really, really big companies. If you go to someone, that doesn't know who you are or except, let's say that you might be Amazon. Okay? Amazon doesn't anymore need to build the trust, but still, I'm sure that even Amazon, if they have like a 10% conversion rate, they need to optimize for that 90% that doesn't buy.

One thing that I still see people doing, but I don't think that they're doing it for long because it hurts to lose money. It's just throwing an ad out there and pray that it works. That doesn't happen anymore. It became extremely difficult, especially after, io 14 and all the tracking. , I'm a numbers guy and I hate the fact that we cannot track anymore, , as we used to be and.

We try to have like solutions, et cetera, et cetera. Nothing tracking is never going to be a hundred percent accurate anymore. Okay? That's my opinion. but the thing is that you need to take the time. To prepare content, to educate people to go ahead and to start asking people, okay, what do they really want?

What I was saying earlier,, with a survey , , on email and, give them a small incentive, a small little gift in order for people to reply, , to your service from your chart chat, , and. From your setup in your store, you can learn a lot about what people want. . In terms of product, in terms of service, in terms of, whatever that is.

Okay. you need to ask people and see what people are looking for. And also we need to go ahead and start installing in our stores apps like ho. That we can have all the surveys and we can have. , all the, graphs that where people are looking for and where are they dropping, And we can see recordings of those people.

Okay, what are they doing? Maybe it's because it's clear for us that I, Hey, Damas, you need to click right here to buy the product. It doesn't mean that it's clear for everyone. So in my opinion, people need to stop throwing shit in the world and. Sticks and they need to spend more time understanding who is their ideal, customer and have a better understanding, , on how they can serve them better and how they can , , educate their audience.

If you are, for example, into the yogas and you're selling leggings instead of just selling the leggings or the yoga bricks or whatever that is just, and if you don't want to do it yourself, Hire an influencer, okay? Work with someone and do , five yoga poses in order to lose, , weight or whatever that is.

, seven tips in order to do blah, blah, blah. Start educating people and when's the right time you create the warm audience of all the people that dread that blog or saw that video. Then you can create a custom audience, let's say on Facebook of all the people that viewed 95% of that video.

If that video is like four minutes long, 95%, or even 50% long, let's say someone who watch two full minutes of that video has better chances of converting into your yoga leggings than someone who has no idea who you are. then the. With 50% of, and by now, that type of a will convert much, much better.

That's my opinion. . Very

Claus Lauter: good. A lot of people who started with drop shipping are still, , going to start with drop shipping. There's still a lot of people jumping on this bandwagon. they are solar entrepreneurs. They do it as a side hustle, or they have a brick and mortar store and they wanna venture into online commerce.

Now they have a lot of things on their plate, so there's a thousand different moving parts, and they're not necessarily an expert in any of that. What would you recommend. Should they start focusing on, or what should they outsource? As quick as.

Dimitris Skiadas: So let me first start by saying that I really admire these people because it's not running an eCommerce business, or either it's drop sipping or it's spring of demand, or it's like your own brand.

It's a difficult business like every other business are Running a business, it's difficult and I'm second tired of seeing all. TikTok videos where I, really love tos, but I'm sick and tired of showcasing Oh, how easy it is and like you press one to three and you start printing money.

No, it's not like that. It never was like that. Maybe it was a little bit easier, but it never was as one to three. And then you see all the government, that, Dude, I try that it doesn't work. I try that it doesn't work, being an entre. It's not for everyone. This is the number one thing that I would have to say.

So for those that are really, really committed, big props, my congratulations because it's a really difficult business. , I know this business, but I say that because I spent way too many years, especially in commerce and I understand like all the good stuff and all the bad stuff.

So congratulations because it's a really. Difficult business. The main thing, if you ask me today, if you ask me like two, three years ago, maybe I would give you, , a different answer. But if you ask me today, I would all read about human psychology. I would all read about books like.

This advertising by Drew Eric Whitman. This is like my Bible, okay? I bought this book because I like to write dates when I buy this book. I bought this book on 2015, and I have this book always by Side because understanding human psychology, what makes people tick and copywriting. It's the number one thing that I would study because at the end of the day, in order for us to make money, a sale needs to happen, right?

Either the sale, it'll happen face to face, where millions of that happen every single day on the stores, on the street, everywhere, like in the world, or it has to happen online. And if it has to happen online, either what is going to be the medium? Either a text format. Either a photo or either a video format, no matter what is the format.

? It doesn't really matter, but what are you saying? In this actual words that really matters. So I would take the time to understand those two things like human psychology, what makes people ? Bye what makes people, , buy what people love or what people hate? What are the fears, the desires?

Like understand more about the people and more specifically about the market I'm in. then the number one thing I would say copywriting. because you get to learn, you can sell a lot more by, , trying to learn better copy. Either you write on your landing page, either in your ad, either it is on your emails copy is what makes everything different and gives another book that I also commend Copywriting Secrets, by Jim Edwards.

Great book. I've read. Many, many times. And here's another one that's not so much about eCommerce, but a hundred million offers, , with Alex Romeos. That book is like really, really famous. , the last year or so. I have this three books by my side because at the end of the day, it all Facebook adss, they cannot sell a bad product.

. , as the goal of Facebook has, is to sell the click, right? They cannot turn a bad product into a good one or vice versa. people say, Oh, Facebook has, don't work anymore and blah, blah, blah, blah.

And yet that is somewhat. That they don't work as they used to work, but they still work. Right? I know tons of people that they're still spending, , a lot of money on Facebook advertising, but. The fact is that they have an actual offer. They have a store that is really, really optimized. Okay? It loads quickly.

They have real clear photos and videos that are showcasing the product. They learn how to write copy, and someone doesn't care whatever that you are selling is like. , who cares what it can do for them? What's in need for me? So, , they write, , an actual art copy, which is focused on the benefits of the product.

And why should people buy? People, they don't buy the screw driver, , to put a hold in the wall. People buy the screw driver because their wife is asking them for the past two weeks to put that painting on the wall and they're like, Oh shit, I'm bored, and blah, blah, blah. And , they go into the store, or they buy online because they want to have an actual afternoon where it's like free of that.

This is what people care. So this is the number one thing that I would personally focus and tell people to

Claus Lauter: focus as. . Yeah, there's a very lot of good information there. I think people need to listen two or three times to this podcast to extract all the good things that you just mentioned, and a hundred percent was here.

So obviously you need to have the right audience. You need to have your value proposition right, which gets you in copywriting, and then you need to learn copywriting. So that being said, eCommerce, getting started and eCommerce is a lot of learning, and I think you need to be prepared for lifelong learning because.

Chasing a moving target there with changes by the hour. Coming to that, I know it's always difficult to predict the future for the next couple of months or a year, but what would your prediction of what's happening in the market right now? What do you see as changing there? What would you say?

Dimitris Skiadas: So I believe that, ,

no matter what happens, people are going to keep buying. That is never gonna change. I think what is going to change is the medium. I think that Facebook adss, , are going to be still here after five, 10 years. Google Ads the same. YouTube are the same. Email marketing, TikTok, et cetera, et cetera. I think that people, the entrepreneurs, the business owners, need to.

The skills it actually circles back to what we said right in the beginning, Okay. That it's not as easy as it used to be. So we need to learn copywriting and we need to learn advertising and human psychology and things that are going to improve our convergence and sales. And also, one thing that I would like to say is that how we can also.

Improve our overall customer experience and overall customer service and this is something because of being a restaurant owner, I saw that myself, for the past, , two and a half months that I was in the island. , being there with the people. Talking with the people every single day.

If you show people. that you respect them you don't see them as tourist and you don't see them as pockets or credit cards or PayPal or whatever that is, people that just want to feel appreciated. That is all. This is my number, one, understanding Why do I focus on that? Because this is something that will never change no matter what changes in the world.

And then we have like recession and then war and Putin and Biden and , I don't want to get into politics and honestly, , I don't care. And I don't know much about what happens. , I like to focus, , on my job. People are still going to be buying. Either that it's like a service or they buy eCommerce products, et cetera, et cetera.

I think where we need to focus is like optimize our stores to be quick because people, they don't have the patience anymore to wait for 15, 20 seconds for your website to load. ?

And then the price is changing. Like these are gimmick tricks that we have been taught, but these don't cut it anymore. We need to treat people , with respect and also it reach out to people.

And that's one of the thing that, , I see a lot, even big companies that we are working, they don't get to see to do that often. Like it reach out to people either by email or on the. like we are always trying to find other new people to buy our staff. New people. New people, new people, new people, but in my opinion, the best people that we can.

A lot more except that we are selling, I dunno, mattresses and we are good for like 10, 12 years. It's people that they have already bought from us, our people they have already trusted us with. Their money will give them a really, really good customer experience. And then we don't even send an email, but we call.

Okay. People, they don't like to be on the phone. People hate the phone. ? But when you show people appreciation, then you call them and then you say, Hey, my name is Deri and I'm with, , trust beard uh.com. You recently bought, , this product from us and I wanna make sure that you're really, really happy if you had any complaints.

Don't even try to sell to people. Just ask people genuine. , genuinely. But in the back of your minds, like people are going to be appreciated. And also you can, , tell people like, Hey, you know what? Based on what you bought, we also have this other X, Y, Z product that goes really, really well.

Do you want me to inform me about that? This is something that we have been doing for years and we have been, , telling our clients to do, and not everybody does it to be honest, because they feel I don't want to be on the phone and have other stuff to do, blah, blah, blah. But email still works.

Advertising still works. SEO still works, but telephone still works. Even the simple stuff like abandoned cards. , and people tell me like all the time, Oh, give me a script. I'm like, You don't need the script. Like literally pick up the phone. Hey. Hello. This is Mr.

, John Jones. Yes. Hello, this is Amit from, , Trust the Beard. I just saw, , your new information. You were trying to buy the x, Y, Z product. Did you have a problem Sir? Can I help you with something? I did that myself a couple of years ago because I like to experience firsthand before I get to teach it to someone else, an employee, and make an SOP for that.

I did that myself, unlike one person told me, , , I just, uh, regretted by Okay. I didn't want to push him. So I'm like, Okay, thank you very much. One person said, you know what I want to think, , maybe I will do it later. He didn't do it. One person said, Oh, you know what?

I have no idea. Maybe my mom did it. , I will call you back. She never called. Okay. I thought even that with like mostly excuses, ? And people just don't wanna say , maybe it's too expensive. Maybe I didn't have the money. Maybe my kids started crying and I forgot about it.

Like, whatever that is. But you also get to learn a lot more about your customers or potential customers. Okay. , no matter what the future to, , answer, , your question, no matter what the, future, we bring, if we stick to the basics if we don't, , get to focus on the latest hack, trick, and , if we get to focus.

On what was working 10 years ago, five years ago. My opinions like it'll keep working 5, 10, 20 years ago. Maybe it needs some little of a twist, but if you saw people appreciation and if you are seeing them as deep pockets people, they want just to feel appreciated.

So this is my humble opinion. ,

Claus Lauter: one question before we come to end, and it's a bit of a rumors and a bit of a prediction that I had like a year ago. So when iOS 14.5 came out and took away all the data from Facebook and , other platforms, my prediction or my gut feeling was Apple will come out with their own app platform.

So some signs on the horizon that might happen or not. What's your take on.

Dimitris Skiadas: It is happening already. I read an article two, three days ago that said that , they're just coming up with , their own platform.

Like honestly, did anyone believe, especially not the people that they don't care but us in the industry, that Apple did really care about the privacy of the people. The care is about making more money. And although I don't want to lie, it has been a really, really stressful year, we had a lot of clients that left the agency, , ads, that they started other accounts getting disabled for no reason, , tracking all over the place.

It took a really, really big. And honestly, this is why I always love because I'm a Google boy. I started from Google Ads and this is like my bread and butter. Always focus on that like search and the engine traffic. No matter what happens, I try to see, , for a good reason. So if Apple is going to be coming with their own art platform, that's like music in my.

If I can find more different ways that we can, serve more advertising, , to potential clients and the targeting is right, and if I put $1 in and I can make , $2 back , , without unethical stuff or black hat stuff, yeah, I'm all done about it.

So let's see where does that take us? Because the last year and a half, I don't want to lie it, it has been really difficult.

Claus Lauter: Now it has been for many people out there and , I'm sure within the next six months we will see Apple coming up with a platform and then learning starts all over again.

Demetri is very insightful information there. Where can people find out more about you?

Dimitris Skiadas: right now we are onto a revamp or making our, , sites and services and stuff like that because we always went. Work , with, , referrals , and , different kind of ways. So either they can find me on Facebook where I search some good stuff.

Either Dimitris Skiadas or on Instagram, Dimitris Skiadas. Or if they search for trust the beard Dimitris. Trust the beard. I'm on Instagram as well. And try, , to share an inside life of, , what we do. A little bit of family a little. Tips and tricks and a little bit of traveling.

Claus Lauter: Cool. Definitely trust the beard.

I will put all the links in the show notes that people can reach out to you and get in contact with you. Thanks so much for the time. I really appreciate it you jumped on the call today and talk soon.

Dimitris Skiadas: Thank you so much. It was a real pleasure. Thank you so much. Thank you. Bye Byebye way.