Amazon can take up to 50% of your revenue, and DTC brands are still scaling profitably. Here's the complete breakdown of when Shopify brands should launch on Amazon, how to protect margins, and why your wholesale strategy might be sabotaging your marketplace success before you even start.

Mark Lathrum is the Founder and GM of Tiide Commerce, an Amazon growth agency that's helped DTC brands scale from first launch to eight figures on the platform. With almost a decade in the Amazon ecosystem, Mark specializes in helping Shopify-first brands navigate marketplace economics, avoid cannibalization, and unlock incremental revenue

What You'll Learn:

→ The real breakdown of Amazon's 40-50% fee structure (and why it's still profitable)

→ When Shopify brands should actually launch on Amazon (revenue threshold + readiness checklist)

→ FBA vs FBM: Why 95% of brands should choose FBA despite the fees

→ How to price $2-4 higher on Amazon without customer complaints

→ The wholesale trap: Why 60% of wholesale products leak to Amazon and ruin your launch

→ Why you can't spend on Amazon like you do on Meta (and what to do instead) → Product selection strategy to avoid cannibalizing your DTC channel

→ When to hire in-house Amazon talent vs. working with an agency

If you're a DTC founder or operator doing $1M+ on Shopify and considering Amazon as your next growth channel, this episode gives you the complete framework to launch strategically, protect your brand, and scale profitably on the world's largest marketplace.

Connect with Mark:

linkedin.com/in/marklathrum

Mark’s Agency: https://tiideco.com/

Connect with Matt:

https://x.com/mattlady

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattlady/

The Performance Marketing Agency for eCommerce & DTC Brands: https://www.klientboost.com/

00:00 Amazon takes 40-50% of revenue

01:01 When Shopify brands should launch on Amazon

02:25 Inventory requirements and working with experts

03:35 FBM vs FBA: The 95% rule explained

04:30 Breaking down Amazon's fee structure

05:49 Why you can't scale spending like Meta

07:20 The review and ranking throttle explained

07:50 Product selection to avoid cannibalization

09:15 Pricing $2-4 higher on Amazon strategy

11:45 Bundle and multi-pack tactics

13:30 Amazon's search algorithm dynamics

17:15 Category and keyword strategy

20:15 Brand consistency across channels

21:00 Packaging inserts: What's allowed vs banned

22:16 Cannibalization concerns addressed

23:48 Wholesale warning: 60% leak to Amazon

25:09 In-house Amazon hire vs agency ($10M threshold)

28:07 Final takeaways

Most DTC brands waste time optimizing retention when they should be testing offers. Matthew Holman, who's worked with 150+ subscription brands doing up to nine figures in revenue, explains why the brands growing fastest aren't focused on churn—they're focused on acquisition. If your subscription program feels stuck at $1-2M in revenue, this conversation will show you exactly where to focus your energy.

Matthew Holman is the founder of Subscription Prescription and a subscription consultant who's helped brands add hundreds of thousands of subscribers. His clients include companies doing $10-15M per month in subscription revenue.

What You'll Learn:

→ Why subscriptions isn't a retention game (and what it actually is)

→ The two reasons people cancel subscriptions—only two

→ Key benchmarks: save rates, churn rates, and take rates that matter

→ Why improving take rate from 35% to 40% beats any retention optimization

→ How to calculate LTV so you know what you can afford to spend

If you're a DTC founder or operator at a $1-20M brand trying to scale subscriptions profitably, this episode gives you the strategic framework to stop spinning your wheels on low-impact retention tactics and start growing through smarter acquisition.

Connect with Matt:

https://x.com/mattlady

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattlady/

The Performance Marketing Agency for eCommerce & DTC Brands: https://www.klientboost.com/

Connect with Matthew:

https://x.com/subscriptiondoc

https://www.linkedin.com/in/holman-matthew/

https://www.thesubscriptiondoc.com/

00:00 Why subscriptions aren't about retention (intro)

00:58 Biggest misconception: retention vs acquisition focus

02:25 Where to start when subscriptions feel neglected

04:30 Three critical touchpoints: onboarding, billing, cancellation data

05:30 Key metrics audit: what experts look at

07:00 Save rate benchmarks: 10-15% vs 20%+ elite performance

09:00 Monthly churn rates: what's good vs what's realistic

11:20 Understanding take rate and why it matters most

13:30 Testing offers: the acquisition side most brands ignore

15:47 Where to start: art and science of prioritizing

16:30 The math: 35% to 40% take rate vs reducing churn

18:36 Low lift, high impact framework for limited resources

19:10 Calculating LTV to know what you can afford to spend

20:03 Brand personality in subscriber communications

21:33 Episode wrap and next steps in the series

Most email marketers optimize for the wrong metrics and wonder why revenue doesn't move. Customer lifetime value, click through rates, email sales. They sound important, but they're either unmeasurable or they're premature focuses that waste your time.

Samar Owais is the founder of Emails Done Right (emailsdoneright.com), an email retention strategist who's helped DTC brands increase revenue by focusing on what actually matters: average order value.

In this episode, Samar breaks down:

→ Why customer lifetime value is a subjective, unmeasurable metric that wastes brand resources

→ How to optimize for average order value using bundles, subscriptions, and customer segmentation

→ The surprising customer research insight that secretaries place orders for professional buyers

→ Why click through rates and click to open rates are diagnostic tools, not optimization targets

If you're an ecommerce operator, email strategist, or retention marketer trying to increase email revenue without chasing vanity metrics, this episode gives you the framework to focus on what drives real results.

00:00 Why CLV is fundamentally broken for most brands

01:38 The correct metric to optimize first (and why)

03:15 60-70% success rate selling to existing customers

05:05 Bundles strategy for increasing average order value

06:08 Why customer lifetime value is too subjective

08:36 Customer research insight: Secretaries place the orders

09:36 Why click-through rates are a distraction

12:45 How to diagnose problems vs optimize for sales

15:30 Voice of customer research changes everything

18:38 The sock detail that professional buyers actually care about

19:30 Product expansion opportunity most brands miss

21:39 Should hyper-niche brands expand their product line?

22:51 Key takeaway: AOV beats CLV for early stage brands

Find out more about Samar: https://samarowais.com

Take the Email Strategy Quiz: https://emailsdoneright.com/quiz

Check out the eCommerce Email Bootcamp: https://emailsdoneright.com/eebc-special-admission

Connect with Matt:

Twitter (or "X"): https://x.com/mattlady

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattlady/

The Performance Marketing Agency for eCommerce & DTC Brands: https://www.klientboost.com/

Most DTC brands are sending 50-100% more emails than they need to hit the same revenue targets. The problem isn't frequency, it's segmentation. When you don't know where your incremental revenue breaks, you're just burning list health and paying double your ESP bill for zero return.

Eric Rausch is the co-founder of New Standard, a top-tier email marketing agency specializing in retention strategy for seven and eight-figure ecommerce brands. His approach to segmentation has helped dozens of brands unlock 20-40% more revenue without increasing send volume — and in this episode, he's breaking down exactly how to do it.

→ Why most brands waste 150,000+ emails producing $0 in incremental revenue

→ The exact engagement windows to test: 15-30-45-60-90 days for non-buyers, 30-60-90-180-365 for buyers

→ How to run incrementality tests that prove where your revenue actually stops growing

→ The "buy or bye" philosophy: why Eric kills non-buyers after 15-40 days instead of nurturing long-term

→ Benchmark KPIs: 60% open rate, 1% click rate, 0.10% CVR for evergreen emails

→ Frequency testing methodology to find your optimal send count per segment

If you're a DTC founder or email operator sending daily campaigns and wondering if you're over-mailing your list, this episode will give you the frameworks to test, the benchmarks to hit, and the exact three-step plan Eric gives every brand that's starting from scratch on segmentation.

00:00 How to unlock 20-40% more retention revenue without sending more emails

01:01 The fastest way early stage brands can increase retention revenue

02:03 Five core metrics to track for list health and segmentation strategy

03:27 Benchmark KPIs: open rates, click rates, and CVR for evergreen vs promo vs BFCM

05:13 Why revenue matters more than vanity metrics like open and click rates

05:39 How segmentation strategy differs by industry, AOV, and subscription model

07:04 The incrementality concept: making 85K from 150K emails instead of 300K

10:19 What "full list send" actually means and when to reserve it

14:14 How to reduce unsub rates by strategically limiting full list frequency

17:27 Engagement windows explained: who receives evergreen campaigns vs who gets suppressed

20:06 Frequency testing methodology: BAU vs 70% vs 50% send cadence groups

23:25 The three-step segmentation framework to implement in the next two weeks

25:32 Wrap-up and final thoughts

25:39 Key takeaways and how to provide feedback or suggest future guests

Everyone's saying "SEO is dead" because of ChatGPT and AI search... but that's only true if you're stuck using 2020 strategies. The reality? These AI models still rely on Google's foundation, and Ccommerce brands have a massive opportunity right now if they know where to focus.

Seth Trammell, Director of SEO at KlientBoost, breaks down exactly what's working for DTC SEO in 2025 into 2026, and why most brands are wasting time on the WRONG tactics.

→ Why LLMs like ChatGPT still depend on Google for product recommendations

→ The 3 specific SEO areas eCommerce brands should prioritize (collection pages, product optimization, organic feeds)

→ Why blog posts are no longer the (starting) answer for most ecommerce brands

→ How to use Google Search Console to identify your biggest opportunities → The hidden Merchant Center organic feed that almost nobody optimizes

If you're a 7-8 figure eCommerce founder or operator still investing heavily in blog content without seeing returns, or just getting started with SEO, this episode will show you exactly where to redirect that effort for measurable traffic growth.