The JetRails Podcast

Magento is more than an eCommerce software platform. It's an ecosystem that's driven by a passionate open-source community. That's why some of the most active Magento experts got together to create https://mage-os.org/, a new non-profit focused on a strong future for Magento and those that rely on it. Learn about why this new non-profit was formed, what makes it different from other Magento organizations, and the goals being set out by its board. Guests: > Vinai Kopp - Mage-OS Board...

Kalen Jordan has spent the last decade working on projects like Magetalk, MageMail, Sweet Tooth Rewards, and Commerce Hero. He's a serial entrepreneur and is once again making a bet on the Magento ecosystem with MageChat, a Magento group built around a managed Slack community. So, we chatted with Kalen about what's driving this project forward, what people are getting out of it, and what's on the horizon for MageChat and the wider Magento Community. Guest: Kalen Jordan, MageChat Host: Robert...

There hasn't been an in-person Magento event in the USA since 2019... that's about to change! If you're thinking about attending or planning to attend Meet Magento New York 2022, you're in luck! This episode will fill you in about the pre-party, after-party, and everything in between! To get tickets or learn about sponsoring the event, visit https://meetmagentonyc.com If you've already registered, get a head start on networking at https://next.brella.io/events/MeetMagentoNewYork22 Guest:...

From cryptocurrencies to subscriptions, to buy now pay later solutions, to fraud prevention technology... the eCommerce payments space is constantly evolving. Most online stores want backup payment gateways in case one fails. Large enterprise needs to offer shoppers in different regions of the world local payment methods. All the while, finance teams are stuck waiting on development backlogs and struggling to test and measure new payment options. If you dig in a bit deeper, you learn that...

Conventional wisdom is that your eCommerce brand needs to keep pumping out content. Blog articles, social media posts, viral videos - your team wants it all. In this episode, we take the time to discuss if this is indeed a working strategy and what it takes to generate the desired increases in online sales. Guest: Andrew Maff, BlueTuskr.com Host: Robert Rand, JetRails.com

Managing orders and inventory sounds easy until you're managing multiple sales channels and vendors, supply chain issues, cost fluctuations, and other common challenges. For this episode, we invited an industry veteran with almost 20 years of industry experience to discuss the ins and outs of keeping your sales channels accurate and orders flowing. Guest: Kostis Mamassis of https://Megaventory.com Host: Robert Rand of https://JetRails.com Related Articles:...

The first episodes of our podcast were focused on Magento. That was over 3 years ago. We've gone on to publish over 90 episodes that speak to eCommerce professionals and digital marketers. Many episodes have focused on topics that are specifically important to the Magento ecosystem. However, in this 95th episode, we've gone back to our roots to take a deeper look at the state of Magento and the community that powers it. Guest: Maier Bianchi, Bemeir.com Host: Robert Rand, JetRails.com...

If there's an outage at a modern cloud provider like AWS we have the technology to notice the issue and failover to one of their other data centers. However, it's not so easy when a content delivery network (CDN) is having issues. By their very nature, these networks are distributed across servers in data centers all over the world. This makes tracking and addressing outages and other problems much more challenging. CDNs can also be tied in with a variety of security solutions, from web...

As an eCommerce merchant, you want to focus on your business plan. At the same time, there's a fear of missing out on the successes your competitors are having. The last thing you want is to overlook marketing strategies that are leading consumers to other web stores instead of yours. However, some data may be hard to come by, and there's just so much time you can put into researching your competitors. This led us to ask if there was a better way to learn about the digital advertising...

Sometimes eCommerce orders fail to go through. Whether caused by problems stemming from the shopper's credit or debit card, payment gateways, fraud filters, or even issues with checkout pages themselves, it happens. In a physical store, you'd work with the shopper to help them complete their transaction. When it comes to eCommerce, however, shoppers are likely to abandon their carts. That left us asking, "Can you get them back?" Guest: GQ Fu, LTVplus.com Host: Robert Rand, JetRails.com

According to Cloudflare, Tiktok became The #1 most visited domain in 2021, surpassing even Google.com. Are you advertising to consumers through Tiktok yet? Have you been comparing it to other platforms, like Snapchat, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, Quora, and Reddit? Are you still primarily focused on Google Ads or Facebook/Instagram Ads? Are you relying on influencers or affiliates to help fuel your growth? In this episode, we get an insider look at which platforms and strategies are driving...

Most eCommerce merchants start off advertising through platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads, but those are pretty saturated networks. In this episode, we talk about opportunities to make direct media buys with audio and video streaming services, podcasts, and other highly-targeted platforms. If you've wondered where else you could or should be advertising your online store, this episode will help you understand how you can pay less to market to your audience while catching the right...

As the holiday shopping season continues, hopefully, you're enjoying a nice code freeze along with some great weather. What better time to cozy up with a mug of hot cocoa and a podcast episode all about the next frontier of site speed optimization! Caching static site elements with a CDN is already commonplace - it's crucial to your site's overall performance. However, you can now take edge caching a step further. Instead of calling "home" to your main hosting servers for dynamic content...

On just about every episode of our podcast, our guests describe different ways for merchants to improve an eCommerce store's bottom line. Few tell us that they can come anywhere close to generating a 5x increase in eCommerce sales, which makes this episode especially intriguing. While we may be biased about businesses that have "Jet" in their name, we still asked this guest tough questions about live chat. This episode delves into best practices for staffing, dealing with upset shoppers,...

eCommerce stores are in the data business. Data helps with everything from forecasting sales and stocking products, to understanding profit margins on items and optimizing the online shopping experience. In this episode, Nick shares his wisdom from his years at Etsy and Jet, and from his role as CEO of DAS42. Learn about common data analysis challenges that your business should watch out for and best practices that you should be benefiting from. Guest: Nick Amabile, DAS42.com Host: Robert...

RabbitMQ has been integrated with the core of Magento 2 for a long time now. Why are many merchants opting to use this open-source message queueing software? What are you missing out on if you aren't? Beyond its basic integration within Magento's core, how are savvy developers and merchants leveraging RabbitMQ? Getting down to brass tacks, what is a message broker/queue manager, and why is it important to your eCommerce business? We thought we'd go down this rabbit hole with you. Yes, we...

Marketing to eCommerce shoppers is similar to attracting consumers to brick and mortar stores, but it's not the same thing. When someone visits a physical store, they're exhibiting a stronger intent to make a purchase. Online shoppers are often earlier in the researching process. That means that treating every ad click like it's going to convert into a sale can be a costly mistake. In this episode, Robert and Brendan discuss how to properly balance your marketing to (1) attract new shoppers,...

Some businesses have complex order fulfillment systems. Others rely on succinct solutions to problems like splitting orders. Why split orders? Maybe you'll be fulfilling an order from multiple stores or warehouses. Maybe you want to split an order between in-stock items, and back-ordered items. Perhaps items need to be shipped separately or uniquely, such as oversized items. This may all sound obvious, but just because it's logical, doesn't make it simple. Not all eCommerce businesses have...

Every year, more eCommerce businesses are bought and sold. At the same time, many owners find themselves unable to find the right buyer in order to achieve their goals. In this episode, we discussed what you can do in order to set your eCommerce business up for an eventual successful acquisition. We also discussed common mistakes, pitfalls, and oversights that even seasoned entrepreneurs can miss fall prey to. Guest: Joe Valley, Quiet Light Brokerage Author of The Exitpreneur's Playbook: How...

Apple's iOS15 is going to severely limit the amount of data marketers receive regarding if emails are opened by their recipients. Digital marketers need to be prepared for this shift in data availability. More importantly, they'll need to consider which metrics to look at in order to best optimize campaigns, including campaigns for eCommerce merchants that rely on e-mail to keep shoppers engaged with their brands. Guest: Jon Pruitt, Omnisend.com Host: Robert Rand, JetRails.com Resources...