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Just as Meta’s rolling out invoicing instead of credit card payments for larger advertisers (goodbye 2% cash back), Amazon has stepped in with a another familiar sucker punch to the gonads, introducing a 3.5% logistics surcharge on all US a

WHOOP CEO shares The Master's Champion's WHOOP scores on route to his second win at Augusta, shortly after closing in on a $575M funding round

My time owning a marketing agency with Alex has taught me a few valuable lessons. Some the easy way, through the lens of others. Some by paying the price.

The Iran war is obviously bad for e-commerce. Why? It’s oil, but not just in the way you’d think. Higher oil prices hit e-commerce through shipping costs, then through production and input costs, and then through weaker demand and a worse r

Rolling back the years

What does it mean to be a winner?

Somewhere between downloading my fourth AI tool of the week and realising I hadn’t done any growth initiatives for Igloo all week, I had a thought: this is not productivity. This is just a different kind of busy.

In recent months, I’ve read multiple articles from FT writers, normally among my more trusted sources, and various data junkies arguing that AI is increasing the amount we work, simple because we’re now able to generate more with less. In m

Two recent acquisitions are easy to wave away as product housekeeping: Figma buying Weavy AI ($200M) and Canva buying Magic Brief (undisclosed). That story is convenient, but incomplete.

If you asked most media buyers whether they’d trade a kidney for better Meta support, they’d probably pause only to confirm which kidney.

My first encounter with ChatGPT came back in the spring of 2023, when Emily and I were planning our trip to the Azores (which, I highly recommend!). Faced with complicated logistics, hopping between islands, booking rental cars, juggling mu

“This business has so much potential.” – said every startup founder since the discovery of fire.

Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s hydro-foiling, UFC-fighting, and occasionally CEO-ing maestro, recently took a jab at Apple CEO Tim Cook, claiming, “Apple hasn’t innovated since the iPhone 20 years ago.” Bold words from a guy whose social media emp

#1 - Things are a little more PG nowadays

The challenge in acquiring founder driven start-ups

How boring would Mad Men be if it was 2024 and D. Draper is running Facebook Ads?

From Emmy Award winners to e-commerce founders, media moguls, family-run boutiques, and everything in between, I’ve spoken to nearly 2,500 founders since my e-commerce journey kicked off six years ago.

Surf’s up

Blaming media buyers used to be one of the more reliable coping mechanisms in commerce (as both a DTC and agency founder, I can testify).

Chanel No. 5 spent $33 million on their iconic 2004 campaign starring Nicole Kidman. Guinness poured an estimated $13 million into their “Tipping Point” commercial in 2007, while Apple shelled out an eye-watering $137 million for the “Think

I’m newly 29, living in London, working in marketing, where my job is to understand the dynamics of paid media. So yes, I am, as you’d expect, a loyal and long-time social media user. In fact, I remember signing up for Snapchat so early tha

“How good is AI at generating creative?” The magic question we get asked all the time. In truth, this is a very open-ended question, because there are things it does well and others it does terribly. Understandably, brands are still a littl

As I wrote in a previous article,The Death of ROAS in E-Commerce, the landscape and the management style, for media buyers has shifted over the past few years.

AI, AI, and more AI, that’s all we hear these days. Double dashes, recycled vocabulary, and a noticeable lack of character. Training ChatGPT to sound organic is tough but not impossible. With a bit of prodding and nudging in the right direc

While I normally like to focus my articles on e-commerce philosophy, I must admit - it’s hard to resist the urge to talk about a very important part of work: not working. Time off is hard to come by when you own and operate a company. Howev

Granted - not my softest headline. But before we go there, let’s quickly cover the basics for those unfamiliar. ROAS, or Return on Ad Spend, is a metric used to show the revenue generated for every dollar spent on advertising, usually withi

Mark Zuckerberg, proudly wearing his Meta Ray-Bans, announced on a panel, that the landscape of advertising with the addition of AI, could create a ecosystem that disrupts the $1.5T industry through one ‘end goal:’ automation. After watchin

While the iOS changes are no longer breaking news, after three years of running our agency, we've heard fewer e-commerce founders blaming Facebook for killing their business. The real lesson is to never rely too much on your trusty landlord

As my Twelve Days of Commerce series concludes, I’ve chosen to highlight a business particularly relevant during December’s festive season in London - or any setting with hefty Christmas celebrations. Cheers to my number one.

Two years and six months. That’s how long we’ve had the privilege of working with Andris Lagsdin, founder of Baking Steel, and a true [pizza]creator in every sense of the word. Andris was among our first few clients at Igloo Media, partneri

As I edge closer to the end of my Christmas roster, today’s spotlight shines on one of the most dramatic retail revivals of the decade: Abercrombie & Fitch. With a 150-year legacy that once dressed White House elites, the brand seemed desti

Me: “Should we pencil in a team call for Friday?”

Welcome to my number five on the roster, one which needs no introduction: OnlyFans. In my opinion, OnlyFans may be the best business, from a pure economics perspective, to have emerged from the U.K. in the last decade.

In the spirit of Christmas, few things compare to stepping into a 500-year-old pub. Melted candles drip onto stained wooden stalls, Sinatra’s voice echoes softly in the background, and fairy lights edge the corners of the bar-top. In the co

If you’ve followed Dollar Commerce for even a day, you’ll know I’m not quick to celebrate venture-backed brands, especially those burning through capital like it’s a rite of passage. Venture money, for all its perks, has had a nasty habit o

Picture the Swiss mountains, snow falling from the rooftops of glorious wooden chalets, and the smell of hot chocolate in the air. Switzerland, the landlocked, Narnia-like nation nestled in the belly of Europe, is stereotypically known for

In 2022, shortly after launching Igloo Media, a team reached out to us through a mutual recommendation, called Hugz. This was a true “starting from scratch” project with a long direct-to-consumer roadmap planned ahead. The wonderful ethos o

It was the end of November, when I started to think about how I was going to lug a Christmas tree from one end of Battersea Park, to my apartment.Emily, my other half and master of persuasion explains - “There’s nothing more ‘manly’ than wa

I’ve talked a lot in my previous articles about a few important elements: the power and psychology of great design, the art of building brand equity, and the value in founder-driven businesses. While simple to write about, the execution is

As my first calendar year comes to a close with the wonderful Substack community, I thought a little bit about what would be the idyllic end to year for all the wonderful writers and followers of my little (for now) DC Universe. So, I thoug

In my article on India (Post:India doesn't just show you life, it forces you to feel it) I talked about how technology has enabled western entities of all sizes to source labor from emerging countries at lower cost, while maintaining the sa

Similarly to how Steve Jobs used to describe the ethos at Apple, Jeff Bezos said in an interview earlier this year: “We innovate by starting with the customer and working backwards. That becomes the touchstone for how we invent." Once again

It took me a little while to find a quote that I thought fitting to a place that is so historical, paradoxical, and yet so immersive in the most necessary ways you can experience as a person. Without surprise, the great Gandhi said it best.

A mighty Dutch Pancake

Picture an old Volvo nestled in the corner of a car lot in Memphis, with two flat tires, ripped leather seats, scratches down the side, and 150,000 miles on the clock. Now picture your stereotypical eccentric car salesman with a thick south

It goes without saying, despite the rise of TikTok, Google and Facebook (Meta) remain the undisputed titans of e-commerce advertising. With that in mind, every day, we meet incredible business owners eager to take the plunge and invest in o

The theory of conspicuous consumption was introduced by economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen in his work The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899). Veblen argued that people often purchase goods and services not only for their utility bu

While watching Chef on my Tuesday evening redeye (which I highly recommend, by the way), I found myself drooling over Jon Favreau’s Cuban sandwiches and was reminded of a idea I’d tested a couple of years ago. While it wasn’t a “failure” in

As the world watches two of the most prominent political figures vie for leadership, concerns grow over what will happen if either Harris or Trump takes office. While I’m no political expert, there are a few key issues we need to be prepare

“Buy high, sell low.” Is that right?

My opinion then…

The novelty of entrepreneurship is changing

Definition: Dropshipping is a e-commerce model where a store sells products without keeping inventory, instead sourcing items from third-party suppliers who ship directly to customers. This allows the store to focus on sales and marketing w

Having spent the last three years frequenting my local Exmouth Market and immersing myself like a curious hyena in central London’s overwhelming food scene (admittedly, pubs included), I decided last weekend to explore my new neighborhood.

Firstly, I was honored and proud of the University of Memphis when I switched on the Open to see fellow Memphians receiving an award on Arthur Ashe for Tennis Facility of the Year. Tied to the same week, happened to be our first Memphis Ten

One of the most common questions we get in our audits and founder introductions, still, three years later is: “It’s never been the same for us since Apple’s iOS14 changes. Facebook and Instagram used to be a great revenue driver for us, and

Stereotyping: An often unfair and untrue belief that many people have about all people or things with a particular characteristic.

Who is Dean Phillips?

It’s not always what you know

For those unaware, Alex (my partner) and I owned a D2C reseller business called EBC in the electric mobility space (e-bikes, e-scooters etc). We sold the company to Agora Brands (NYC based aggregator), in 2021. They were and still are an aw

That’s me, at my final collegiate event at the NCAA’s, picking up a Final Four trophy with my partner in crime. We had gone from alternates to All-Americans to cap off our senior year at Memphis. After four years and 120+ matches, I graduat

It’s not uncommon for Investors and founders to butt heads over the way a business is managed, let alone the survival of the business in the long term. Unfortunately the politics of operating a venture backed company comes with a lot of pre

This is Dollar Commerce.