Brilliant Commerce

Chord Commerce
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Unfiltered conversations with operators behind iconic commerce brands, hosted by Chord Commerce CEO Bryan Mahoney, about what actually makes their tech, teams, and customer relationships work.

  1. Making customers feel understood without saying you understand them

    3D AGO

    Making customers feel understood without saying you understand them

    Lance Dobson spent 15 years across agency, Adobe Ad Cloud for search, and commerce brands before landing at Shed, a telehealth weight loss company. His path revealed something counterintuitive: healthcare compliance constraints that require data anonymization and eliminate standard tracking enhancements forced him to build better marketing fundamentals. When you can't rely on algorithmic bidding enhancements or third-party retargeting, customer understanding through problem-solution framing becomes the only sustainable acquisition strategy. The conversation unpacks how privacy-first constraints actually improve marketing discipline. Lance explains his framework for addressing specific customer problems rather than building elaborate persona trees that lead to analysis paralysis. He details Adobe Ad Cloud's pre-walled-garden era when third-party bidding tech could outperform native platform algorithms, why that advantage disappeared, and how SEO practitioners should adapt as search shifts toward agent-driven discovery. For operators building in competitive categories or navigating privacy restrictions, Lance's approach to earning trust through UX design rather than explicit privacy messaging offers a tested alternative to conventional personalization. Topics discussed: Career learning models: agency breadth versus brand depth versus ad tech backend knowledge Adobe Ad Cloud search bidding strategy and why third-party algorithmic advantages eroded as platforms built walled gardens SEO-to-AEO adaptation through content authenticity and regular external perspective audits to avoid consultant capture Problem-solution marketing framework versus persona-based segmentation and why the former prevents analysis paralysis Healthcare compliance constraints that require data anonymization and eliminate standard tracking enhancements Privacy-first brand trust built through intuitive UX and value exchange rather than explicit privacy messaging in creative Retention team resourcing typically outweighing acquisition four-to-one across customer service, ops, and email functions AI replacing one to three analytical and coding roles while maintaining human writers for all customer-facing content Four-to-one retention versus acquisition team ratio as the hidden reality across most commerce operations This conversation was recorded while Lance was Senior Director of Marketing and Analytics at Shed.

    37 min
  2. MOO's Corin Mills on AI Adoption: Using Tools To Create More Customer Facetime, Not Less

    JAN 21

    MOO's Corin Mills on AI Adoption: Using Tools To Create More Customer Facetime, Not Less

    Most commerce leaders have either agency experience or operator experience. Corin Mills spent four years at Wolff Olins as the designated client voice inside a global branding agency, then led a rebrand consolidating 11 brands into one at Currys, the UK's Best Buy equivalent. Now he runs e-commerce at MOO, a $100M+ B2B print and merchandise company that built its business on bringing luxury print quality to a mass market. Corin Mills tells Bryan Mahoney why he's skeptical of rebrands as a default solution, even though he's led several. The real blockers to growth are usually product strategy or business architecture problems that brands try to paper over with visual refreshes. He breaks down the structural tension between brand and performance teams: performance marketers cling to last-click attribution because it feels robust, but everyone knows nobody just randomly searches a brand and converts. That false security makes brand investment hard to justify internally, even when awareness spend clearly improves performance results. Topics discussed: Why rebrands often mask harder product strategy or architecture problems The false security of last-click attribution and why performance teams resist admitting it Never running a replatform and redesign simultaneously to preserve measurement clarity Using sampling as frictionless proof-of-quality in a commoditized B2B market Keeping humans in the loop while using AI to reduce internal research logistics Building brand systems flexible enough to extend beyond original product categories Maintaining conviction during rebrand rollouts when early signals are ambiguous

    39 min
  3. Behind the Scenes: Scaling Saatva to $600M Revenue w/ Co-Founder Ricky Joshi

    JAN 7

    Behind the Scenes: Scaling Saatva to $600M Revenue w/ Co-Founder Ricky Joshi

    Ricky Joshi bootstrapped Saatva to nearly $200M in revenue with a 14-person ecommerce team while venture-funded competitors burned capital on customer acquisition. His approach: retail locations as integrated conversion engines that drive 80% higher online conversion rates in their markets. By embedding customer service operations directly into stores, Saatva eliminated traditional call center overhead while improving agent performance through hands-on product exposure. Bryan Mahoney sits down with Ricky in Saatva's Austin Viewing Room to unpack the execution behind this omnichannel model. Ricky reveals how being bootstrapped until 2018 forced cash flow discipline that became competitive advantage. He explains the retail expansion playbook: opening the first New York City store in 2019, then capitalizing on COVID's retail disruption to lock premium corridor locations at suppressed rents. The conversation covers why Viewing Rooms function as customer service centers and how organic reviews positioned Saatva for AI commerce. Topics discussed: Bootstrapping from 2011 to 2018 to force unit economics discipline before taking private equityOpening first 3,300 square foot New York City store in 2019, four months before COVID hitAchieving 80% higher conversion rates in markets with retail presence versus digital-onlyOperating Viewing Rooms as dual-purpose customer service centers to eliminate call center costsSigning premium retail corridor leases during COVID when rents dropped and landlords negotiated dealsGenerating $10M annual revenue at top-performing store with high dollars per square footScaling to nearly $200M revenue with 14-person ecommerce team through operational leverageBuilding AI search visibility through decade of authentic reviews without intentional SEO tacticsUsing AI for CX response suggestions and code generation while waiting on backend system API maturity

    34 min
  4. Clove's Nick Sanetra On Funnel Diagnostics: Find The Hole In The Bucket Before Optimizing Conversion

    11/19/2025

    Clove's Nick Sanetra On Funnel Diagnostics: Find The Hole In The Bucket Before Optimizing Conversion

    Nick Sanetra has spent nearly 20 years identifying what he calls "holes in the bucket." As Director of Marketing at Clove, a footwear brand purpose-built for healthcare workers on 12-hour shifts, Nick deploys a methodical diagnostic process to pinpoint exactly where prospects fall out of the funnel. His approach relies on unglamorous fundamentals that actually work: post-purchase surveys revealing that over 70% of buyers are switching off major running shoe brands, systematic monthly and year-over-year cohort analysis to separate signal from noise, and a team philosophy of "strong beliefs, loosely held" that values intellectual curiosity over ego. The real value emerges in how Clove operates in today's fractured attribution environment. With anonymous sessions climbing and pixel-perfect tracking dead, Nick shares how they've rebuilt their measurement stack around Triple Whale for MTA, maintained Google Sheets as a surprisingly resilient BI layer, and weaponized post-purchase survey data as a second opinion that cuts through platform attribution bias. His "mountain climber method" for testing (keep three points of contact stable, occasionally release one hand for a bold move) offers a pragmatic framework for teams caught between incremental CRO and swinging for breakthrough creative. Topics discussed: Building a diagnostic process to systematically identify drop-off points through monthly cohort analysis and year-over-year pattern recognition Deploying post-purchase surveys as an attribution counterweight to platform self-reporting (uncovering that 70%+ of Clove customers actively switch from Hoka, Nike, and other running brands) Transitioning from Google Analytics as single source of truth to multi-touch attribution via Triple Whale while maintaining Google Sheets for flexible analysis Marketing execution in a privacy-first era with rising anonymous sessions and degraded user-level tracking GEO implementation tactics: creating dedicated review aggregation pages for LLM crawling, structuring hidden text content for model consumption, and monitoring Reddit as an emerging ranking signal The "mountain climber method" for portfolio management (maintain multiple stable evolutionary tests, budget for occasional revolutionary bets) Hiring for intellectual curiosity and self-examination capability over pure technical credentials Why comfort is subjective and category education remains the hardest marketing challenge (explaining why purpose-built beats general athletic footwear) The strategic choice to optimize for root cause identification agents before full incident automation Navigating the commoditized SaaS agency landscape by demonstrating immediate ROI on customer-defined success metrics

    46 min
  5. Justin Fredlender On The 'Build Vs. Buy' Dilemma Every Commerce Operator Must Face

    11/05/2025

    Justin Fredlender On The 'Build Vs. Buy' Dilemma Every Commerce Operator Must Face

    When customer acquisition declines, most CEOs blame marketing. When retention drops, they blame lifecycle. Justin Fredlender spent five years as VP of Growth at Ritual learning why both diagnoses miss the point, and why treating growth as anything other than holistic is how brands plateau. After scaling MVMT to nearly nine figures in his mid-20s, Justin joined Ritual where the brand foundation was already built. His quick win? Reallocating marketing spend based on proper attribution analysis. But his lasting insight came from watching the same pattern across companies: executives demanding marketing fixes when the real friction lived in product experience, operations, and cross-functional misalignment. Growth isn't a channel problem. It's an organizational one. Now advising multiple commerce brands after 18 months as an independent consultant, Justin recently chose Chord over building internal analytics infrastructure. The decision framework: Do we have capability to maintain this, not just build it? Will AI advancement make it obsolete in six months? Who internally owns ensuring ROI? That third question, the stewardship problem, matters more than the technical capability ever will. Topics discussed: Attribution reallocation as a trust-building quick win at Ritual Product experience as the foundation before retention tactics can work Two market forces: 50-year purchasing power decline meeting 100K+ digitally native brands Why growth requires coordination across brand, ops, product R&D, and consumer insights Consumer insights revealing test priorities Shopify dashboards cannot surface Build versus buy decision framework centered on maintenance bandwidth and internal stewardship Tech debt risk when building analytics infrastructure during rapid LLM advancement Creating semi-power users of data platforms through AI conversational interfaces Why LLMs handle analytics better than creative applications currently

    39 min
  6. Belkin's Jyoti Malik on Agentic Commerce: Audit Data Quality Before Chasing AI Agents

    10/29/2025

    Belkin's Jyoti Malik on Agentic Commerce: Audit Data Quality Before Chasing AI Agents

    Belkin's Senior Director of E-commerce tested AI chatbots for customer service beyond basic order tracking, then deliberately pulled back to human agents for relationship-critical moments. Jyoti Malik explains why most omnichannel strategies fail (teams treat digital as a retail add-on instead of rethinking the entire operating model), shares her phased approach to channel expansion, and reveals the three-part assessment she uses before investing in first party data infrastructure. The practical takeaway: before chasing martech solutions or agentic commerce readiness, map your business outcomes two years forward and audit whether you can actually act on the data you collect. Jyoti's team experiments with AI for content creation (a non-creative team member now generates banner assets in ChatGPT), but she's cautious about where automation creates value versus where it damages customer relationships. Topics discussed: Phased omnichannel expansion starting with shared business pain points and pilot programs Why digital commerce as a "retail bolt-on" operating model fails in mature organizations Three-part first party data assessment before infrastructure investment: quality, quantity, and utility in your business context Preventing martech tech debt by defining business needs before evaluating solutions Testing AI chatbots beyond order status and why capabilities fall short for complex customer service Agentic commerce readiness through data quality audits and friction reduction strategies AI content tools for non-creative team members generating campaign assets Decision framework for when to automate versus when to keep humans in customer experience

    40 min
  7. Forbes' Emily Jackson on why last-click attribution fails social commerce (and how to pivot advertisers)

    09/24/2025

    Forbes' Emily Jackson on why last-click attribution fails social commerce (and how to pivot advertisers)

    Forbes consistently ranks in the top five most trusted publications in the US, but that credibility means nothing if you can't monetize it. Emily Jackson reveals how Forbes Vetted has had to completely rebuild their revenue model as 40% of Gen Z shifted to YouTube, TikTok and Instagram for product recommendations—platforms where traditional last-click affiliate attribution simply doesn't work. Topics Discussed Operational separation between editorial and monetization teams - The specific organizational structure Forbes uses to maintain recommendation credibility: content teams operate independently from business development, featuring products regardless of commission potential, with clear processes for when monetization opportunities don't exist Platform-specific content reformation beyond repurposing - Why Forbes creates entirely different content for social platforms versus search-optimized roundups, including how newsletter content strategy differs from SERP-targeted articles and the conversion implications of each format Shifting from last-click to influence-based advertiser conversations - How Forbes repositions with performance marketers: moving beyond bottom-funnel attribution to capture branding budgets by demonstrating influence throughout extended consideration cycles, especially for high-ticket items like $2,000 AR headsets Revenue threshold-based prospect targeting methodology - Forbes targets CMOs at companies under $100 million but shifts focus to VP/Senior Director levels above that threshold, with Emily citing Glossier's CMO remaining hands-on even at $200 million revenue as an exception to the rule Live events commerce integration for offline attribution - Connecting Forbes' events business with commerce content to reach high-net-worth audiences through activations where traditional tracking methods don't apply, requiring hybrid attribution approaches AI implementation with content creation boundaries - Specific AI applications Forbes uses: data analysis acceleration, content strategy recommendations, meeting summaries, and deck reviews—while maintaining strict human-only policies for actual product testing and editorial content Monetization diversification beyond affiliate commissions - The complete revenue mix shift from pure affiliate to branded content, display advertising, video monetization, and newsletter ads as social platform attribution challenges traditional commission models Product recommendation value thesis in an AI search world - Emily's framework for why trusted human product testing becomes more valuable as AI agents emerge: agents may pre-filter options, but consumers still want authentic human validation for purchase decisions

    33 min
  8. Kosterina's Samuel Davel on Use Case Repositioning: How One Campaign Defied All Expectations

    08/27/2025

    Kosterina's Samuel Davel on Use Case Repositioning: How One Campaign Defied All Expectations

    When a premium olive oil brand discovers ChatGPT is driving thousands of dollars in monthly revenue with zero paid spend, it signals a fundamental shift in how consumer education creates both immediate sales and long-term category growth. Samuel Davel reveals how Kosterina's military-disciplined approach to growth measurement exposed agency manipulation while building a repeatable framework for omnichannel brand expansion. Key Topics Discussed: Strategic pivot from lifestyle to educational UGC content - Sam details Kosterina's complete content strategy overhaul from recipe and lifestyle imagery to educational UGC focused on olive oil quality differentiation (single-sourced, early harvested, polyphenol content). The counterintuitive approach: educating consumers to make better category decisions regardless of brand choice, creating informed buyers who drive overall premium segment growth. MER implementation as singular North Star metric - Moving beyond platform-reported ROAS to Media Efficiency Ratio (total revenue ÷ total spend) as the primary decision-making metric. Samuel explains how this holistic view caught their previous agency's manipulation: 85% view-through attribution on Meta and branded search terms stuffed into Performance Max campaigns inflating a 12X reported ROAS while revenue remained flat. Use case repositioning that transforms consumption patterns - Sam Davel's tactical repositioning of olive oil from cooking ingredient to daily wellness ritual. The campaign he expected to fail became their highest-performing January initiative, demonstrating how use case repositioning can unlock entirely new consumption patterns and purchase frequency without product changes. Advanced agency vetting framework beyond basic credentials - Samuel due diligence checklist: Shopify backend access verification (not just dashboard screenshots), unified Meta/Google strategic alignment (red flag: separate agencies for each platform), new customer acquisition focus verification, and branded search percentage analysis. Ultimate red flag: agencies promising 13X ROAS—a mathematically unsustainable promise that signals fundamental misunderstanding of sustainable growth economics. Geo-targeted influencer testing for retail velocity measurement - Kosterina's partnership with micro-influencer agency Hummingbirds involves pushing specific geographic markets, then analyzing Target's store-level velocity data to measure pre/post campaign lift. This creates quantifiable attribution between social content and physical shelf performance, solving the traditional retail marketing measurement challenge. AI-driven organic search monetization strategy - Samuel's discovery of thousands of dollars in monthly revenue from ChatGPT searches (detected through Triple Whale attribution) sparked their systematic approach to AI-crawlable content creation. Focus areas: writing content specifically for AI discovery and preparing for inevitable AI platform advertising rollout in 2026. Triple Whale attribution methodology for omnichannel optimization - Technical breakdown of their multi-model approach: AI attribution model for business-level decisions, linear attribution for holistic planning, and triple attribution with view-through data for channel-specific optimization. Critical for brands with heavy social spend driving both online and retail conversions. Strategic retail expansion: shelf depth over door breadth - Sam's framework for retail readiness assessment before expansion: packaging optimization, messaging alignment, and measurable brand awareness thresholds. The critical insight: velocity failures make retailer re-entry exponentially more difficult, making readiness assessment more valuable than opportunity pursuit.

    40 min
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About

Unfiltered conversations with operators behind iconic commerce brands, hosted by Chord Commerce CEO Bryan Mahoney, about what actually makes their tech, teams, and customer relationships work.

Information

  • Creator
    Chord Commerce
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    17
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Chord Commerce
  • Show Website
    Brilliant Commerce