Highlights From ECF Stay 2023

Patrick Rauland
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Right this moment at 00:00

I’d by no means skilled something prefer it. I used to be standing inside a actual plane service surrounded by fighter jets whereas Maverick himself, THE Prime Gun, took photographs with smiling eCommerce entrepreneurs. With that good swagger and smirk I might have sworn Tom Cruise will need to have taken a break from filming Mission Not possible 8 to schmooze on the Opening Social gathering for eCommerceFuel Stay.

Final week over 300 eCommerce Gasoline members gathered in San Diego for eCommerceFuel Stay. With an unique visitor restricted to enterprise homeowners who deliver in additional than seven figures, that is the highest occasion of the 12 months for most of the eCommerce entrepreneurs who attend.

In the event you’ve spent any time within the eCommerce house, then you already know there’s a veritable glut of networking and informational occasions for on-line entrepreneurs. However solely eCommerceFuel Stay provides its friends the chance to mingle with the cream of the crop. By making this a non-public occasion for essentially the most profitable enterprise homeowners in our already-vetted group, we assure every individual within the corridor is a peer with high tier information and expertise of their subject.

Bringing an On-line Neighborhood to Life

Not like most enterprise occasions, eCommerceFuel Stay prioritizes deep connections, with the aim of bringing our digital group collectively in actual life. Sure, we provide keynote audio system, breakout periods, and workshops at eCommerceFuel Stay. However these perform extra as a leaping off level for attendees who need to mingle and kind connections with different eCommerce entrepreneurs.

Pleasant for New Connections

In my heyday, I attended so many eCommerce conferences that my frequent flier miles might have taken me to Timbuktu. At most of these occasions, I’d should pressure myself to speak to a couple new individuals, earlier than speeding again to my resort for a Netflix binge. I’m an extrovert, however even I discover it draining to work together with strangers in an effort to kind new skilled relationships.

However our occasions workforce has taken the stress out of socializing by assembling a bunch of actions that make you are feeling comfortable within the eCommerceFuel group.

Previous to the fabulous plane service opening social gathering, they supplied a brand new member dinner. Then, for lunch on the primary day, they created an assigned seating chart that grouped collectively friends with related pursuits.

For dinner on the second night time, we had been grouped with completely different attendees, however nonetheless discovered loads to speak about as we strolled to the restaurant within the nice San Diego night air. The dialogue was various – from baseball guidelines to the landed prices of our merchandise. (Is it higher to make fewer however bigger orders of stock to optimize our cost-of-goods-sold??)

We ate at Kettner Change, and their luxurious tapas fashion meals allowed us to really share our meal collectively, passing plates such as you would at grandma’s desk. After all the ambiance was a lot hipper than Granny’s, with a DJ and harpist providing fairly the avant garde leisure combo. It was a memorable meal to say the least.

Noticed a DJ with a harpist at a restaurant final week. I am stunned how a lot I favored the combo. 🤘

Are there any bands on the market that make music like this? pic.twitter.com/GwXomAqCQn

— Patrick Rauland (@BFTrick) March 14, 2023

Adventures Promote Particular person Relationships

The second day of eCommerceFuel stay supplied an enormous block of time devoted to adventures. Among the many quite a few choices accessible, attendees might take the chance to discover ways to surf, get pleasure from a meals tour of San Diego, sail in a regatta, go on safari, or kayak by means of sea caves.

My state is landlocked, so the lure of the ocean I so hardly ever see known as to me, and I selected to go on the kayaking tour.

The 2-person kayaks gave my paddling companion, Mike, and I the possibility to get to know each other as our information taught us about San Diego’s sea life. We noticed the ocean caves and acquired the magical expertise of watching wild seals swim round us. As we made our means again to the seashore, most of our fellow tour attendees acquired a refreshing dip within the Pacific when their kayaks tipped over. Our vessel was one in every of solely two that didn’t capsize – so now Mike and I’ve one thing to brag about on the subsequent ECF Stay. 💪

Events Promote Assembly Teams of Individuals

Each night time is a celebration at ECF Stay! Actually. The occasions workforce crafted a uniquely festive expertise for every night of the convention. I already gushed concerning the Prime Gun themed opening night time social gathering.

Credit score to our member Seth Haber for this picture

Along with the Tom Cruise impersonator, we acquired a tour of the plane service, and a former (non-impersonator) Navy pilot defined the way it was used throughout battle and peacetime.

Tuesday night time we had a Cantina themed social gathering with mezcal tastings, a margarita shaking lesson, and a superb outdated whack on the piñata.

At that social gathering, I met Lianna Patch and we geeked-out over the communication books we’ve learn and the locations we’ve lived. I’m unsure if our companies will ever overlap, however within the quick time we spent collectively I realized she was an individual whose recommendation I might belief. I’ll be paying further consideration to her phrases of knowledge within the discussion board any longer.

And that’s the aim of the entire social occasions we provide at ECF Stay. It’s arduous to essentially study an individual by means of textual content (even for these of us who carried out our earliest relationships through AOL On the spot Messenger). However actual life conversations provide you with a stable base on which to construct a rapport that strengthens your on-line interactions.

The closing social gathering occurred on the Youngsters’s Museum. Don’t fear, the youngsters had been all gone. However when the youngsters are away, the adults get to play! We acquired to discover the museum unfettered by the guilt of taking over an exercise that was supposed for tiny people. We went again to our childhoods, using down the slide and taking one another out in a pleasant sport of laser tag.

Enterprise Takeaways

After all the occasion wasn’t all adventures, events, and video games. We additionally need to give our group members high quality info, and our keynote periods aimed to supply simply that.

We had 4 keynotes all through the occasion, however the discuss from Casey Brown about Pricing Technique caught with me essentially the most.

“Each single share level of worth is 5-10x magnified on the underside line. You must shield every single % or pricing like a mountain of gold.”

– Casey Brown at @ecommercefuel Stay. pic.twitter.com/EqCQumNjGD

— Andrew Youderian (@youderian) March 6, 2023

For me, the important thing takeaway was that pricing ought to be a thought of resolution – strategic and calculated. Most retailer homeowners are too scared to lift costs. They assume if their costs go up, then they’ll lose a considerable amount of quantity, say 16%. However Casey confirmed us that in actuality, most homeowners over-estimate the dangers and quantity will solely lower by 4% .

And if you do the mathematics on net-profit, you possibly can see that companies usually earn more money by rising costs by 5%. They could lose as much as 8% in quantity, however their web revenue nonetheless will increase by 7%.

Takeaway: Don’t set your costs based mostly on worry. Meet along with your workforce on a weekly, month-to-month, or quarterly foundation to reevaluate your costs.

One other keynote that left an impression was Nik Sharma who understands the way to use the shopper voice in advertising. If a buyer unboxes your product and says, “That is the Tesla of mattresses” that’s precisely what you need to use in your advertising.

Welcoming the unimaginable @mrsharma for his keynote at @ecommercefuel Stay! pic.twitter.com/BqB2F21eA5

— Andrew Youderian (@youderian) March 8, 2023

Breakout Classes For Particular Areas of Curiosity

In addition to the 4 keynotes periods everybody on the convention attended, there have been 12 breakout periods starting from optimizing your Google PMax adverts to a narrative about how shedding 85% of workers really saved somebody’s enterprise. The preferred session was a workshop about getting began with Generative AI expertise utilizing ChatGPT and Midjourney.

Credit score to our member Alison Smith

For my very own pursuits, I loved Dave Stickland’s speak about his entrepreneurial journey and the way specializing in fewer initiatives led him to be extra worthwhile in every.

The legend himself @dave_stickland crushing the main focus lesson at @ecommercefuel Stay pic.twitter.com/SnFqtmXLz6

— Chad Carlton (@ChadCarleton) March 7, 2023

I additionally realized so much from Sean McGinnis’ speak about each Conversion Fee Optimization (CRO) approach he used to save lots of KURU Footwear. A few of his methods had been apparent, like rising the font measurement on cellular so individuals can learn the copy. However he additionally revealed his extra superior strategies, like an e mail advertising workforce that sends emails 5 days every week(!) to particular segments for various functions.

Most, if not all, of the audio system in these periods jam packed their dialogue with actual world particulars. You’ll be able to study extra about conversion price optimization (or some other subject) from somebody who really carried out modifications and shared their outcomes, reasonably than studying a listicle of concepts that may work from somebody who hasn’t put any of that info into apply.

Downtime Lets You Marinate on Good Enterprise Concepts

Typically you simply want one other entrepreneur to reiterate a degree. You realize you need to comply with a selected technique however you haven’t succeeded to this point.

Whereas my kayaking group was using again to the convention in our bus, a couple of attendees satisfied one other visitor to provide e mail advertising one other go.

He had had poor luck with e mail advertising previously, however about quarter-hour into his dialog together with his fellow entrepreneurs, he stated:

“This bus trip again paid for the entire occasion”

Our keynotes and breakout periods are an awesome primer, however the true worth of our occasion is within the  enterprise conversations they facilitate along with your ECF friends.

ECF Stay 2024

In the event you’ve gotten this far, you’re most likely itching to seek out out how one can be a part of eCommerceFuel Stay subsequent 12 months. By no means worry, our occasions workforce is right here! The 2024 dates are already set, and the placement determined – The Massive Straightforward itself, New Orleans!

There’ll be events, adventures, keynotes, and breakout periods similar to we had in 2023. ECF Stay is the best strategy to combine enterprise enchancment, and social journey for eCommerce entrepreneurs. Be part of us!

However bear in mind, ECF Stay is a non-public occasion, open solely to eCommerceFuel members. If you wish to attend subsequent 12 months, take part in our non-public group of 7-figure and bigger retailer homeowners, browse our evaluate listing with over 20,000 evaluations on each form of software program or SaaS you could be contemplating for what you are promoting, and attend a regional ECF meetup apply to grow to be a member of eCommerceFuel at the moment.

Publish by Patrick Rauland

Patrick loves entrepreneurship and teaches eCommerce, advertising, and WordPress programs at LinkedIn Studying. He is additionally developed each eCommerce and membership software program. When he isn’t in entrance of a display he loves to color tiny toy miniatures.