Ecommerce: The Hammersley Brothers Ecommerce Podcast

Buying an ecommerce business can look straightforward on the surface. The revenue looks good. The brand looks decent. The seller talks about “huge potential”.

But this is where people get caught out.

What matters is not what the business looks like from the outside. It’s what is really going on underneath. The numbers. The margins. The customer behaviour. The cash flow. The operatio...

In our latest podcast episode, we unpack five distinct areas that ecommerce brands should focus on right now.

Why now? Because market conditions are shifting quickly, demand is less predictable, and AI is changing both the cost and complexity of execution.

1. Pre-developing weather-related campaigns Brands can no longer afford to wait and react. The businesses winning right now are planning weather-led campaigns in advance so t...

Most ecommerce businesses are not worth investing in.

Not because they are bad businesses.

But because they are structurally broken.

In this episode, Mark and Ian break down what actually makes an ecommerce business investable and why only a small percentage truly stands out.

They cover:

• Why do only 1 in 10 ecommerce businesses have real scale potential?
• The difference between a lifestyle business and a scalable asset
• ...

If your best products are out of stock, your ads are going to struggle.

It does not matter how much product you have sitting in the warehouse.

If the products that actually drive new customer sales are missing, performance gets hit hard.

In this episode, Mark and Ian continue their 80:20 conversation and dive into one of the most overlooked parts of ecommerce growth:

Stock.

They break down:

• Why do some products matter far...

Most ecommerce brands think that more products mean more sales.

Usually, it means more complexity, more stock problems, more cash tied up, and worse performance.

In this episode, Mark and Ian unpack one of the biggest truths in ecommerce growth:

A small number of products usually drive the vast majority of the reven...

This is Episode 5 in our series on why your ads are not scaling, and this one is about something most ecommerce owners do without even realising.

They panic.

One bad day. One bad week. ROAS dips. Sales wobble. And suddenly, they are changing budgets, fiddling with campaigns, second-guessing the platforms, and essentially resetting the machine before it has had a chance to work.

In this episode, Mark and Ian break down:

• Why ...

Episode 4 of our 5-part series on why your ads aren’t scaling.

Most ecommerce brands obsess over ads, creatives, targeting, and campaign structure. But the leak usually happens after the click. If your follow-up is weak, your ad account will always feel capped because you are paying to create interest and then doing nothing to convert most of the buyers

In this episode, we cover:

 • What we actually mean by follow-up is the t...

Episode 3 of our 5-part series on why your ads aren’t scaling.

Most people think scaling means new creatives, new targeting, new hacks. But the real issue is usually this: your ads don’t support the platform’s model, so the platform restricts your reach and quietly pushes you into the same tired audience over and over again.

In this episode, we break down:

• Why Google and Meta are the two g...

Part 2 of our 5-part series on the question everyone asks: why your ads aren’t working.

Most people blame Meta, Google, or their agency. But if your landing page doesn’t do the job, your ads never had a chance.

In this episode, we break down:

• Why do we always start with landing pages, not a full site rebuild?
• The fastest way to find what’s actually broken is to use the top landing pages.
• Why product pages on mobile are usually...

This is part 1 of our 5-part series on the real reasons most ad accounts hit a ceiling. And no — it’s almost never because Meta or Google “doesn’t work anymore”.

In this episode, Mark and Ian break down:

• Why around 80% of “ad problems” have nothing to do with ads
• How your margin, AOV, and LTV quietly set the ceiling for Meta and Google
• What actually happened when we spent $190k and turned it into $1m
• Why scaling ads starts w...

This podcast is the second half of our fastest, most repeatable path to $10 million in revenue.

Not theory. Not trends. The actual mechanics that separate brands that compound from brands that stall.

Mark and Ian break down what really moves the needle once traffic is flowing:

• Why email isn’t “retention”, it’s the engine that lets you outbid co...

In today's podcast Ian and I set ourselves the task of using the Hammersley Brothers model to get to 10 million a year as fast as possible.  What we would do and why.  How to scale using the model, how we think about growth and how this applies to 2026.

P.S. Whenever you’re ready... here are 3 ways Ian and I can help you grow your ecommerce business:

1. Talk to us. Book a call with us and let's talk about accelerating your gro...

AI this. GEO that. “New hacks.” “New secrets.”

Most of it is noise.

In this episode, Ian and I break down what actually matters heading into 2026 — based on what really happened in 2025 across real brands, real numbers, and real P&Ls.

No hype. No crystal balls. Just patterns we’re already seeing.

We cover:     •    Why AI won’t save you if you don’t already understand your numbers     •    How AI is quietly being baked into Sho...

This episode kicks off 2026 with a bang — we’re looking back at the bold predictions we made for 2025… and checking which ones held up.

Was it the comeback year we thought it would be?

Mark and Ian break down:

• Why 2025 was the first “normal” ecommerce year since Covid
• How disruptive, lean brands outpaced the big boys
• Why AI in ad creative went from novelty to essential tool
• The rise of skeleton teams doing 8-figure numbers
• Wha...

This episode is Offer #5 in our 5 Offers Series: Reactivation — the last offer in the stack, and the most misunderstood.

Reactivation should never be your growth strategy. It should be the icing, not the cake.

But done properly? It’s free revenue sitting on your doorstep.

In this episode, Mark and Ian reveal:

• The real purpose of a reactivation offer (and why it isn’t what you think)
• How to calculate the exact moment a customer...

This episode is Offer #4 in our 5 Offers Series: The Peak Season Offer, and it’s the one that can take your ecommerce business from “doing okay” to absolutely flying.

Every brand gets a sales spike in peak season. But most leave thousands on the table by running the wrong offer or just doing what they did last year.

In this episode, Mark and Ian reveal:

• The difference between a good seasonal offer and one that explodes LTV
...

This is Offer #3 in our 5 Offers series — and it’s the offer that quietly decides whether your business becomes a scalable brand… or stays stuck buying customers forever.

You’ve nailed the first sale. Maybe you’ve got the second. But unless you’re intentionally architecting repeat purchase behavior, you’re losing margin, losing momentum, and relying way too heavily on Meta and Google to stay alive.

In this episode, Mark and Ian unp...

This is Offer #2 in our 5 Offers series – and it's the one that quietly kills most ecommerce growth.

You’ve got the first sale. Great. But if you're not locking in the second sale quickly, you're bleeding profit and your ad model won’t scale.

In this episode, Mark and Ian break down:

• Why the second sale is the linchpin of your LTV
• How long you’ve really got before your customer forgets you exist (hint: it’s weeks, not months)
• ...

This episode is the start of a new series: the 5 Offers every ecommerce brand needs to scale properly.

We're kicking off with the most important one — and the one most brands get wrong:

👉 The Recruitment Offer — the thing that gets someone to buy from you for the very first time.

If your offer is just “10% off your first order,” and you’re wondering why your ROAS is falling off a cliff… this is for you.

Inside, we break do...