Peak season isn't just a marketing campaign—it’s a full-company operating system.

In this episode, experts across retail tech, operations, and retention marketing share their battle-tested advice for surviving and thriving during Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and beyond.

Episode Breakdown:

• Introduction & panel intros: Ops, retail, and marketing perspectives

• Core foundations: Spotting cracks in your post-purchase experience

• "Walk your floor": Daily site checks for ecommerce brands

• The mid-October lockdown & load-testing your integrations

• Why the post-purchase team delivers long-term profitability

• LTV vs. Contribution Margin: Which metrics actually matter during peak

• Tactical Black Friday tips: From exception boards to clear messaging

Guests:

• De Ana Palladino – Solutions Consultant at Brightpearl by Sage

• Kathleen Sullivan-Garman – Founder & Ops Strategist at Sully, Garman and Associates

• Lisa Wendland – Head of Media at Bluewheel

Episode sponsored by Brightpearl by Sage - https://www.brightpearl.com/

Visit https://ecommercetech.io

Host Chloe Thomas brings together three experts to share simple, proven ways to boost revenue without killing margins.

Who’s on the mic

• Chloe Thomas (eCommerce Tech) — host
• Dan Bond (RevLifter) — intelligent offers and discounts
• Sandeep Shah (Web Trends Optimize) — CRO, testing, and personalization
• Jamie Lee (JME Labs; ex Everlane, Vital Proteins, Walmart, Nike, Sony) — growth on DTC and Amazon

What you’ll learn

• Intelligent offers: Use discounts with intent-based targeting, not sitewide cuts
• Offer sensitivity testing: Find the lowest effective incentive (e.g., 10% vs 15%) to protect margin
• CRO that matters: Fix real blockers, improve AOV, and focus on incrementality
• Demand capture vs demand creation: Balance Google (capture) with Meta (create)
• Metrics that count: Profit, TACOS (ad spend ÷ total revenue), and LTV:CAC by cohort
• Retention first: Plug the “leaky bucket” from first to second purchase
• Channel roles: Let DTC drive profit and loyalty; use Amazon for volume and brand defense
• Experimentation mindset: Test, measure, iterate; segment by source, intent, and product
• Product x growth: Feed customer insights back into product so you’re not selling a 1‑star item

Key takeaways for founders

• Set a clear discount stance; don’t “go cold turkey,” taper with data
• Segment by intent and source; not everyone needs an offer
• Judge success on incrementality, not vanity metrics
• Fewer, better campaigns beats more, rushed campaigns
• Align teams: marketing, CRO, and product should share the same goals

Perfect for

• Founders and leaders at DTC, marketplace, and Amazon-first brands
• Teams aiming for profitable growth in 2026

Find out more https://ecommercetech.io

We are now officially in the era of first party data, whether that's through collecting email, address, phone number, taking a quiz and getting skin type and body shape from your customer, or perhaps in the case of this episode, there's search and search intent. What are your customers looking for and what are they finding on your site? In this episode, you'll learn about the power of onsite search, how you can use that search to inform the next blog article or support article that you're going to write ways to avoid the zero results page and how detrimental this page can be to your store. Please never have a zero results page again, after listening to this podcast and a lot of best practices in optimizing your onsite search results in order to increase average order value and conversion rate five massive numbers.