Shows / Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
2020 transformed the world of ecommerce forever. For the modern DTC brand, the rewards have never been greater. But the waters have also never been choppier, and the way forward has never been more uncertain. So how do you navigate this dangerous new reality? No matter how you do it, you’d better not do it alone. That’s where the Ecommerce Playbook Podcast comes in — join Common Thread Collective’s Taylor Holiday & Richard Gaffin as they bring you guiding insights from across CTC’s portfolio of…
Episodes
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Five Black Fridays in One Week at Montana Knife Company
Brandon Horoho, co-founder and CMO of Montana Knife Company (MKC), joins Taylor Holiday live at Commerce Roundtable in San Diego to break down a Black Friday…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
What iOS 27 Means for Meta Ads Before Black Friday
iOS 27 is raising questions about Meta ads tracking ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Tony Chopp and Steve Rekuc examine what changed, what CTC is seeing…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Low LTV Doesn’t Have to Limit Your Ecommerce Growth
Profitable ecommerce growth gets harder when repeat purchases are limited. In his Commerce Roundtable San Diego keynote, Taylor Holiday examines how…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Is Your Black Friday Ad Spend Actually Driving More Sales
Black Friday ad spend can generate a different incremental return than it does during a typical sales period. Luke Austin, President of Common Thread…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Black Friday Strategy for the Power 30 Days of Q4
Luke Austin, President of Common Thread Collective, joins Richard Gaffin to explain how to keep shoppers engaged after your Black Friday sale goes live. They…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
The BFCM Prep Checklist: From Least to Most Impact
Joy Sharma, who leads CTC's seven-figure service offering, joins Richard with one goal: give every 7-figure ecommerce brand a clear BFCM prep playbook before…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Skullcandy Is Building Black Friday Demand With TikTok Shop
By the time Black Friday arrives, Skullcandy wants customers ready to buy. Evin Catlett, Skullcandy’s Global VP of Ecommerce and Growth Marketing, joins Taylor…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Turning Black Friday Shoppers Into Customers Who Stay
Justin Palmer, Founder & CEO of Home Life Brands, joins Taylor Holiday live at Commerce Roundtable in San Diego to discuss Black Friday customer retention and…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Your Black Friday Sale Doesn’t Need to Last All November
Kyle Yeoman, President of Groove Life, joins Taylor Holiday live at Commerce Roundtable in San Diego to explain why the brand is pulling back on discounts…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
The Video Volume Secret Behind Every Winning TikTok Shop Program
Tyler and Alex from TBAR just joined CTC — and in this episode, Shack sits down with them right after their first-ever stage presentation at Commerce…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
The Machine: How We Back-Check Every Q4 Plan Before BFCM
8 year CTC veteran Garrett Hord sits down with Randall to break down what separates the brands that crush Q4 from the ones that scramble. For many ecommerce…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
We Acquired the Fastest-Growing TikTok Shop Agency.
CTC just acquired TBAR Partners — the fastest-growing TikTok Shop agency in the country. In this episode, Luke sits down with co-founders Tyler Brechbiel and…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Why September Is the Most Important Month of Your Q4
Black Friday is not won in November. According to CTC data, brands that grow their active customer file by 10% or more this year have a 77% chance of beating…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
The Supplement Industry Is Broken, Sports Cheating Is Rational, and Influence Is Misunderstood
Taylor and Andrew dig into three topics that have more in common than you think: why the supplement industry struggles to build real moats, whether the Dodgers…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
The Re-Hire Nobody Saw Coming
One of CTC's earliest hires just returned after years away. He left to build his own media agency, acquired a major email and retention agency, then co-founded…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
The Service That Turned a Brand's Worst Summer Into Its Best.
CTC's Marketing Moments service is built to create new revenue spikes for 7-figure brands through structured offer testing, targeted landing pages, and…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
What a Profit Engineer Does Every Day at CTC
Most agencies promise results. Few can show you the system behind them. In this episode, Randall Thompson sits down with Jar, a Profit Engineer at CTC who…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Why Your Email Strategy Is Not a Content Calendar
In this episode Luke breaks down the complete CTC email methodology as part of the Canon series. This is the framework CTC uses to build email programs that…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Diversify Now: The 6-Week Q4 Window Closing Fast
Richard and Luke (newly promoted President at CTC) break down why channel diversification is no longer optional for 8-figure ecommerce brands heading into Q4…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
We Analyzed $1.5 Billion in Meta Spend. Here's What We Found.
We connected Claude to our Statlas database and analyzed $1.5 billion in Meta spend across 320 accounts and $100 million in Google spend across 134 stores. The…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Ecommerce Growth With a Money-Back Guarantee
Our newest ecommerce growth offer comes with a money-back guarantee and a data advantage built in: visibility into what competitors in the same industry are…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Ecommerce Growth: The 3-Pillar Framework We Use
Our President, Luke Austin, just got back from a 3-day fishing trip in Sitka, Alaska: 90 lbs of salmon, halibut, and black cod, with orcas circling the boat…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Do This to Scale Your CPG Brand — Guaranteed
Joy Sharma, CTC's Director of Accelerator, walks through a brand-new CPG growth offer backed by a 20% uplift guarantee — or your money back. The strategy…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Why 8-Figure Brands Waste Days Finger-Pointing When Results Miss (And the Fix)
When results miss at an 8-figure or 9-figure ecommerce brand, a familiar pattern kicks in. Someone asks "why did we miss?" There is no clear owner. Every team…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Taylor and Andrew Debate Cost Controls (We Ran the Numbers)
Taylor and Andrew Faris sit down to debate something every performance marketer has an opinion about but almost nobody has actually tested: do Meta cost…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
The Agency Model Is Broken. We Fixed It.
Taylor Holiday and Richard Gaffin break down the Prophit Engine, CTC's system that combines a head of growth, Meta media buyer, and creative strategist into a…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
The Math Behind Creative Hits (With Real Spend Data)
Adrianne, VP of Performance Creative at CTC, breaks down the CTC Creative Strategy Canon, the codified methodology behind how 7-figure to 9-figure ecommerce…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
D2C Brands Grew 15% in H1 (But At What Cost)
In this episode Richard and Steve break down H1 2026 performance data from across the CTC client portfolio, covering brand revenue growth, ad spend efficiency…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
We're Opening Our Doors to 7-Figure Founders This September
Richard breaks down what's holding most 7-figure brands back from crossing into 8-figure territory, and announces CTC's first in-person workshop designed to…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Google Ads: CTC's Complete Playbook
Tony Chopp, VP of Paid Media at Common Thread Collective, breaks down CTC's Google Ads Canon, the complete framework we use to turn Google into a true…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Your Unsold Inventory Is Costing You More Than You Think
Most ecommerce brands head into Q4 carrying too much inventory and not enough cash, and those two problems are directly connected. In this episode, Richard…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Cashmas in July: Turn Q3 Inventory Into Q4 Cash
Stale inventory and thin cash flow are the two things that show up in nearly every Q3 conversation we have with ecommerce brands. In this episode, Richard…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
How 7-Figure Brands Can Win in Q3
Joy Sharma runs CTC's PE7 program for mid to high 7-figure brands. His claim: if you're stuck at a growth plateau, he can diagnose what's wrong without looking…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
How Meta Actually Works in 2026
Meta has fundamentally changed how it targets and delivers ads, and most brands are still operating on the old rules. In this episode, CTC's VP of Paid Media…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
The Measurement Gap: iROAS, Geo Holdouts, and Progressive Truth
Your platform ROAS is not the truth. It's a story your attribution tool tells you. Luke Austin, breaks down exactly how CTC approaches marketing measurement —…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
The Modeling System That Powers 30%+ Revenue Growth
Most brands forecast from gut feel and ROAS. CTC runs on four interlocked proprietary models that produce a daily P&L forecast with 3.1% accuracy across more…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Why Rutsu Switched Email Platforms Mid-Growth (And What It Actually Took)
Every dollar spent on SaaS is a dollar that does not go into ads. In this episode, Luke Austin sits down with Gil Dyen, Head of Marketing at Rutsu Barefoot, to…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
How We Forecast $4B in GMV to 3% Accuracy
Every forecast is wrong. The question is whether yours is useful. Luke Austin, walks through the CTC Methodology series opener: a complete operating model for…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
How One Methodology Runs 170+ Brands
What if your agency published every opinion, every framework, and every strategy they use to grow your brand? That's exactly what CTC just did. The Canon is a…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
12 Years of Agency Knowledge in One Document
Taylor Holiday reveals the system CTC built to deploy 12 years of ecommerce knowledge across every brand they manage. From AI-powered scouting reports for his…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Offer-Market Fit: Why 7-Figure Brands Hit a Wall
Joy Sharma runs CTC's PE7 program for mid to high 7-figure brands pushing toward 8 figures. His claim: if you're stuck at a growth plateau and you've tried…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
The Branded Ads System Behind 170+ Ecommerce Brands
How do you build branded ads fast enough to find winners at scale? Nisha Fermawi, Senior Branded Ads Manager at CTC, breaks down the exact system that delivers…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
What a Profit Engineer Actually Does All Day
What does a CTC Profit Engineer actually do all day? Brian Sakansky, Profit Engineer Manager at CTC, breaks down the exact daily, weekly, and monthly cadence…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Why Most Founders Set the Wrong Growth Goals
Randall Thompson built an ecommerce brand from scratch, scaled it to eight figures, and sold it. Along the way, he learned that the goals he set had almost…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Join Our Growth Mastermind (Here's What's Inside)
Growth Mastermind What if you could get weekly strategy sessions with a senior CTC profit engineer, full Statlas access, and a private cohort of brands at your…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
We Tested AppLovin Discovery for 4 Months. Here's What Happened.
CTC's AppLovin specialist Connaugh is back four months after our first episode on the platform to break down what's actually working. Discovery campaigns are…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Consumer Confidence vs Rising Oil Prices
In this episode, Steve Rekuc breaks down the latest DTC Index findings showing 14.5% revenue growth year-over-year, even as brands face margin pressure. We…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
What We Learned at the 2026 Meta Summit
We just got back from the 2026 Meta Performance Marketing Summit, and the biggest takeaway wasn't a single feature or tool. It was the realization that the…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Stop Gambling on Creative - Use This 6-Pillar Assessment Framework
In this episode, Richard sits down with Ian Jordan, VP of Private Equity Partnerships at CTC, to unveil our brand new Creative Assessment Quiz. This 6-pillar…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
TikTok Shop, Incrementality, and the New Growth Playbook
Every satisfied customer creates demand you never see. It spills across Meta, Amazon, TikTok Shop, and your DTC site, and most brands have no system for…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Why Your Ads Aren't Working
You're spending $20 per ad and it's not working. You think you need more creative volume. But the real problem? You don't have your customer journey figured…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Why Meta's AI Has No Point of View
In today's episode Taylor walks through a live Statlas demo showing why AI tools hallucinate when they lack business context. He shows how the same data…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Enterprise Attribution for 7-Figure Brands
Taylor sits down with Austin Harrison, founder and CEO of Northbeam, to announce an official partnership between CTC and Northbeam. After years of public…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
From Flipping Houses to 20,000+ SKUs: How Lighthouse Co Built a Multi-Brand Empire
What happens when a home flipper and an aspiring doctor decide to start selling lights during a pandemic? You get Lighthouse Co a curated lighting and home…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Q1 2026 vs 2025: What Changed in Ecommerce (The Data)
Steve Rekuc, Director of Data at Common Thread Collective, joins Richard to break down the Q1 2026 vs Q1 2025 year-over-year data from the DTC Index. The…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
You Don't Want Strategy. You Want an Outcome.
The number one pain point brands bring to us: "My current agency gives me execution, not strategy." Luke and Richard, break down why that complaint, while…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
How the Prophit Engine Actually Works (Full Walkthrough)
Taylor and Luke, walk through exactly how the Prophit Engine system enables one person to deliver the work and outcome of three. This isn't about replacing…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
How We Diagnose Every Ecommerce Problem (The Hierarchy of Metrics)
Tony Chopp, walks through the Hierarchy of Metrics — the framework our Prophit Engineers use to diagnose problems and take action for 170+ ecommerce brands. In…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
The Right Way to Use AI in Your Ad Creative
AI is changing how ecommerce brands produce creative. But most brands are using it wrong. They're generating entire ads with AI and wondering why performance…
- Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Why CTC Bought Into Commerce Roundtable
Common Thread Collective is now an owner in Commerce Roundtable. In this episode, Taylor with Jimmy Kim, founder of Commerce Roundtable, to tell the full story…