How We Built the Hammersley Brothers Ecommerce Model

Where did the Hammersley Brothers Model actually come from? In this episode, Mark and Ian Hammersley go back to the beginning and explain how their ecommerce model was built, the problems they were trying to solve, and the lessons that shaped the way they approach ecommerce today. The story starts in 2008, when Mark and Ian were working with a group of ecommerce businesses during the financial crisis. Some were growing quickly. Some were stuck. Others were failing. The interesting part was that the difference was not always obvious from the outside. Successful businesses do not necessarily have better websites, better advertising or better teams. So Mark and Ian started looking deeper. They wanted to understand what the businesses that successfully scaled had in common and what was missing from the ones that could not grow. That process eventually became the foundation of the Hammersley Brothers Model. In this podcast, they discuss how that model developed over time, how years of working with ecommerce businesses changed and refined it, and why the same core principles continue to shape how they approach growth today. They also explore:   How the Hammersley Brothers Model originally started What they learned from ecommerce businesses during the 2008 financial crisis Why did some businesses scaled while others stayed stuck? How the model developed from real ecommerce experience Why the fundamentals matter more than individual tactics The role of math, psychology and management Why different ecommerce businesses need different strategies How ecommerce has changed since the model was first developed Why cheap traffic and better technology are no longer enough How the model is still used to identify opportunities for profitable growth This episode is a behind-the-scenes look at where the Hammersley Brothers Model came from and how nearly two decades of ecommerce experience helped turn it into the framework they use today. Subscribe for more ecommerce strategy, scaling advice, Google Ads, Meta Ads, and practical business discussions from the Hammersley Brothers. 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 growth - https://go.hammersleybrothers.com/apply-now/   2. Grab a copy of our book - https://gohigh.hammersleybrothers.com/get-the-book 3. Follow the Hammersley Brothers on Instagram and connect with e-commerce owners who are scaling too -  https://www.instagram.com/hammersleybrothers

If your Black Friday emails start the week of Black Friday, you've already lost sales to the brands that started weeks earlier. In this episode, Ian and I share the email sequences we actually use for Black Friday: when to start, how often to send, and why sending more emails makes you more money even if you hate getting them yourself. If you sell online and want this to be your biggest November yet, listen before you plan a single email. #BlackFriday #EmailMarketing #Ecommerce     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 growth - https://go.hammersleybrothers.com/apply-now/   2. Grab a copy of our book - https://gohigh.hammersleybrothers.com/get-the-book 3. Follow the Hammersley Brothers on Instagram and connect with e-commerce owners who are scaling too -  https://www.instagram.com/hammersleybrothers

Not all ecommerce businesses are built the same, and some are dramatically easier to scale than others.   In this episode, Mark and Ian Hammersley break down the five different types of ecommerce businesses and rank them from easiest to hardest to scale.   The five types are: Compounders  Volume Retailers   Need-Driven Suppliers   Seasonal Specialists   High Ticket One-Timers Each model behaves completely differently.   A strategy that works brilliantly for a supplement brand could be disastrous for a furniture company. A business selling spare parts needs a completely different advertising, stock, and customer-acquisition strategy than a fashion retailer.   Mark and Ian explain why understanding your ecommerce type changes the numbers you should look at, the ROAS you can afford, how aggressively you can acquire customers, how much stock you need, and, ultimately, how quickly the business can grow.   They also discuss why some of the least exciting ecommerce businesses can quietly create enormous wealth.   Need-driven businesses selling things like replacement parts, shelving and specialist products can sometimes dominate markets because competition is lower and the customer already knows exactly what problem they need solving.   Meanwhile, Compounders such as supplements, skincare, and consumable products can scale incredibly quickly because repeat purchasing creates a high lifetime customer value. But they can also be brutally competitive and disappear almost as quickly as they grow.   The episode covers: The five ecommerce business models Which ecommerce model is easiest to scale?   Why repeat purchase businesses can grow so quickly   Why boring ecommerce businesses can be incredibly profitable Customer lifetime value and repeat purchasing New customer acquisition   ROAS and advertising strategy   Margins and scalability   Stock forecasting and cash flow   Seasonal ecommerce businesses   High-ticket ecommerce   Why one ecommerce strategy does not work for every business   If you're trying to scale an ecommerce brand, understanding which type of business you actually own could completely change how you approach growth.   Subscribe for more practical ecommerce strategy, Google Ads, Meta Ads, Shopify, and business growth discussions from the Hammersley Brothers.   #Ecommerce #EcommerceBusiness #EcommerceGrowth   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 growth - https://go.hammersleybrothers.com/apply-now/   2. Grab a copy of our book - https://gohigh.hammersleybrothers.com/get-the-book 3. Follow the Hammersley Brothers on Instagram and connect with e-commerce owners who are scaling too -  https://www.instagram.com/hammersleybrothers

Your Google and Meta ROAS looks great. Ad spend is increasing. The platforms are telling you everything is working.   So why isn’t the business actually growing?   In this episode, Mark and Ian Hammersley unpack one of the most common problems they see in ecommerce businesses: brands dramatically increasing their advertising spend while recruiting the same number, or even fewer, new customers.   They explain why a high ROAS inside Google or Meta can give you a completely misleading picture of performance, particularly when existing customers, brand searches and attribution are inflating the numbers.   The conversation covers how to step back from the advertising dashboards and answer the question that actually matters:   When we put more money into advertising, did we get more money and more new customers out?   Mark and Ian also break down the ecommerce advertising S curve, where increasing spend initially drives growth before eventually reaching a point where putting more money into the account stops producing meaningful additional revenue.   And when you hit that limit, the answer is not always better ads.   Sometimes you need to improve the business itself.   They discuss: • Why a high ROAS does not automatically mean your ads are working   • How Meta can attribute existing customer sales to advertising   • Why one day view attribution can distort performance   • How Google brand traffic can inflate ROAS   • Why new customer revenue matters more than platform ROAS   • How to identify when an ad account has reached its scaling limit   • The ecommerce advertising S curve   • Why simply increasing your budget eventually stops working   • How conversion rate, AOV and lifetime customer value affect how far you can scale   • Why agencies can sometimes show you the numbers you want to see instead of the numbers you need to see   If you run an ecommerce business and keep increasing your advertising budget without seeing the growth you expected, this episode could help explain exactly what is going wrong.   Subscribe for more ecommerce strategy, Google Ads, Meta Ads, Shopify and business growth discussions from the Hammersley Brothers.   #Ecommerce #ROAS #GoogleAds       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 growth - https://go.hammersleybrothers.com/apply-now/   2. Grab a copy of our book - https://gohigh.hammersleybrothers.com/get-the-book 3. Follow the Hammersley Brothers on Instagram and connect with e-commerce owners who are scaling too -  https://www.instagram.com/hammersleybrothers

Most ecommerce businesses think about Black Friday as a day or a weekend. We think about it as an entire trading period from Halloween through to January. In this episode, Ian Hammersley breaks down how we actually approach the biggest ecommerce trading period of the year, including when to start, how long to run your offers, how aggressively to email, what to do with Google and Meta, and how to make the most of increased demand without destroying your margins or running out of stock. We cover the full Q4 rhythm, starting with Halloween and moving through Better Than Black Friday, Black Friday Week, Cyber Week, Christmas, Boxing Day and the January sales. Ian also explains why ecommerce brands often start too late, why your email database becomes one of your most valuable assets during peak, how to decide how hard you can push based on stock and ROAS, and why merchandising can have a huge impact on what actually sells. Topics include: Black Friday timing and strategy How early you should start Offer architecture Email and SMS frequency Growing your email list before peak New customer ROAS and CAC Stock planning and forecasting Shopify merchandising Black Friday Week and Cyber Week Christmas, Boxing Day and January sales How to trade against daily revenue targets When to push harder and when to hold back If you run an ecommerce business, this episode gives you a practical framework for approaching the most important trading period of the year. Subscribe for more ecommerce strategy, Google Ads, Meta Ads, Shopify, email marketing and business growth discussions from the Hammersley Brothers. #Ecommerce #BlackFriday #Shopify     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 growth - https://go.hammersleybrothers.com/apply-now/   2. Grab a copy of our book - https://gohigh.hammersleybrothers.com/get-the-book 3. Follow the Hammersley Brothers on Instagram and connect with e-commerce owners who are scaling too -  https://www.instagram.com/hammersleybrothers

Your bestsellers can look available while the sizes your customers want are sold out. We made that mistake in our own Shopify bedding business, with replacement products available further down the collection pages. Want help identifying what is holding back growth in your ecommerce business? Apply to work with the Hammersley Brothers: https://go.hammersleybrothers.com/apply-now/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=shopify_stock_mistake&utm_content=description In this episode, Mark and Ian explain what happened and discuss the stock, merchandising and advertising decisions to review before Black Friday and Christmas trading. We cover why selling out is not always a success, when spending more on advertising makes little sense, and how to investigate products you could have sold more of last year. We also discuss avoiding panic hires, helping your ecommerce team understand what matters, and using AI to analyse business data without handing over the decisions. Subscribe for practical ecommerce conversations about sales, margins and profitable growth.   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 growth - https://go.hammersleybrothers.com/apply-now/   2. Grab a copy of our book - https://gohigh.hammersleybrothers.com/get-the-book 3. Follow the Hammersley Brothers on Instagram and connect with e-commerce owners who are scaling too -  https://www.instagram.com/hammersleybrothers

Why do successful ecommerce brands suddenly stop growing? After reviewing 100 ecommerce businesses and working with thousands of brands over the years, we identified the seven most common bottlenecks that prevent ecommerce companies from reaching the next level. Watch the full episode to discover where your ecommerce business may be getting stuck and what you should focus on next. Subscribe for practical ecommerce growth strategies based on real businesses, real numbers and decades of experience.   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 growth - https://go.hammersleybrothers.com/apply-now/ 2. Grab a copy of our book - https://gohigh.hammersleybrothers.com/get-the-book 3. Follow the Hammersley Brothers on Instagram and connect with e-commerce owners who are scaling too -  https://www.instagram.com/hammersleybrothers

In previous episodes, we explored the strategies that help an ecommerce business navigate each stage of growth. Now, we use our premium bedding brand as a real-world case study, following its journey from an unproven store with underperforming ads to a multimillion-revenue business entering the scaling phase. Inside the episode:   • How to validate whether strangers will buy from an unknown brand • Why some sales can be more encouraging than a low ROAS • How to identify winning products and eliminate distractions • Why mastering one advertising channel can beat trying everything • How reviews, trust and positioning increased conversion • Why average order value became the key to doubling ad spend • How better supplier margins and payment terms accelerated growth • How to make safer stock decisions during rapid growth • Why every ecommerce type requires a different strategy • What changes when a business moves from 5 million towards 20 million   You do not need more random tactics. You need to understand your ecommerce type, your current revenue stage and the specific constraint preventing you from reaching the next level. Watch the full episode to learn how to stop operating emotionally, build a reliable growth model and make better decisions with advertising, stock, margins and cash flow.   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 growth - https://go.hammersleybrothers.com/apply-now/   2. Grab a copy of our book - https://gohigh.hammersleybrothers.com/get-the-book   3. Follow the Hammersley Brothers on Instagram and connect with e-commerce owners who are scaling too -  https://www.instagram.com/hammersleybrothers

What should an ecommerce founder actually focus on once the business reaches 5 million in annual revenue? In the fifth episode of our ecommerce growth series, we explain how the founder’s role, financial priorities and growth strategy must change as the company moves from 5 million to 20 million. At this stage, tiny improvements can produce huge results. Better supplier terms, stronger margins, improved conversion rates and smarter cash flow decisions can add millions in revenue and profit. But this is also where businesses become bloated, founders hire the wrong senior people and teams start chasing numbers that do not benefit the overall company.   In this episode:  • How to use your customer list, reviews and brand trust as a competitive moat  • Why a 2 percent margin improvement can dramatically increase profit  • The supplier, shipping and transaction fees you should renegotiate  • Why ecommerce advice for huge brands rarely works for smaller businesses  • When checkout optimisation and small conversion wins finally matter  • How to remove the founder from routine work without losing the company culture  • The difference between delegating and abdicating responsibility  • How to structure expansion into new markets  • Why revenue attribution numbers often do not add up  • How to build a business that an investor would actually want to buy   This stage is not about chasing every new tactic. It is about doing the right things exceptionally well, protecting the company’s profit, and using your scale to pull further ahead of competitors. 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 growth - https://go.hammersleybrothers.com/apply-now/   2. Grab a copy of our book - https://gohigh.hammersleybrothers.com/get-the-book 3. Follow the Hammersley Brothers on Instagram and connect with e-commerce owners who are scaling too -  https://www.instagram.com/hammersleybrothers

This week on the Hammersley Brothers Ecommerce Podcast, we continue our five-part series on the stages of ecommerce growth. In part four, we explain what really changes when an ecommerce business grows from 1 million to 5 million per year. This can be one of the most exciting stages of growth, but it is also one of the most dangerous. Hiring larger teams, working with more agencies, expanding into new countries, adding products, and increasing fixed costs may cause revenue to rise quickly while profit quietly disappears. In this episode: Why businesses get stuck between 1 million and 5 million How hiring expensive experts can reduce profit instead of increasing it Why every employee, agency, and supplier should follow the same number The danger of expanding into new countries too early Why adding more products can damage cash flow and stock management How to calculate the true cost of a new warehouse or team member Why growing revenue does not always increase the value of your business How better supplier relationships can improve margins and payment terms Why repeatable systems are more valuable than new ideas How to architect the numbers required to reach 5 million At this stage, growth cannot be left to chance. You need to understand exactly how your marketing spend, margins, stock, fixed costs, and profit work together. Otherwise, you may build a much larger business that makes less money. Subscribe for the final episode in the series, where we cover the journey from 5 million to 20 million.   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 growth - https://go.hammersleybrothers.com/apply-now/   2. Grab a copy of our book - https://gohigh.hammersleybrothers.com/get-the-book 3. Follow the Hammersley Brothers on Instagram and connect with e-commerce owners who are scaling too -  https://www.instagram.com/hammersleybrothers