Podcast Summary
In this holiday edition of Digital Shelf Insider, Hai Mag, co-founder, Chair and CEO of Eva, joins host Shreshta Joy to explain why a connected commerce strategy matters for brands selling across Amazon, Shopify, and TikTok Shop.
Eva looks after more than 300 brands. Mag uses that experience to cover the hidden profit killers in multichannel commerce, how to tie Amazon advertising to profit, how to keep holiday customers with loyalty and subscriptions, why TikTok Shop pays off beyond its own revenue, and what a holiday strategy needs when the path to purchase is nonlinear.
Episode Highlights
02:30 Connected Commerce and the Profit Lost to Channel Silos
06:32 Why AI Tools Are Creating Even More Silos
07:35 Protecting Net Profit vs. Chasing ACoS and TACoS
11:14 Repeat Purchase and Customer Lifetime Value
12:47 Retention Through Loyalty Points and Subscriptions
16:39 TikTok’s Demand Lift and the Case for Influencer Scale
23:21 A Holiday Strategy Across TikTok, Amazon, and Shopify
What We Covered
Here is a recap of the insights Hai Mag shared in the episode:
What is the biggest hidden profit killer in multichannel commerce?
Mag says there is more than one, but the biggest profit loss happens when channels work as silos. Eva started with Amazon. Even so, he believes that focusing only on Amazon, Shopify, or social commerce is no longer enough, and every brand needs to think of commerce as connected commerce.
He points out that in about 95% of his first meetings with brand owners or e-commerce managers, the silo shows up quickly. One manager says Shopify is not their responsibility and asks to focus only on Amazon. In another brand’s P&L, Amazon advertising spend is $1,000, and Meta spend is $45,000, because D2C is a different department. Mag says Meta ads are fine, but some of that budget could go into Amazon advertising.
When inventory management, advertising, branding, and creative design are not viewed together across marketplaces and the brand’s own website, he says, it becomes a big issue, because the profit sits in that connection. His example is UGC. An affiliate’s TikTok video can become a sponsored video ad on Amazon or a Meta ad, but only if the departments talk to each other.
Are AI tools creating new silos inside e-commerce teams?
Mag says AI tools like Claude can fix some problems. But when three people on the Amazon team and five people in D2C each use their own Claude, ChatGPT, Codex or Cursor sessions in different ways, the work gets duplicated. He compares the AI era to a tsunami that everyone is using, and says it is creating even more silos, a pattern he has seen over the last couple of months.
How should brands balance Amazon advertising to protect net profit?
Mag says Eva is also a tech company. As a computer engineer with more than 20 years of experience, he contributed significantly to building Eva’s native, profit-driven AI system. Growth on Amazon matters, he says, but profit has to be there because e-commerce margins are very tight. He warns that brands that put too much into ads without understanding profit can end up selling $100 bank notes for $90. Revenue grows, but each sale loses $10.
For new product launches, he advises setting the budget up front, for example $10,000 over the next three months, and spending it to reach break-even without looking at ACoS or TACoS. He points out that one of the biggest problems he sees is brands chasing ACoS or TACoS in a new product’s first six months. Most products need at least $5K, $10K, or $15K in sales to break even, he says, and brands should track profit at the unit economics level throughout. After break-even, the approach should combine profit and growth.
Is TACoS the right metric, or does customer lifetime value matter more?
Mag notes that many agencies say ACoS is bad and TACoS is good. He agrees to some extent. But for products that people buy again and again, he says the most important thing is getting customers to buy from you again, and without that brands cannot make money.
He points out that people talk about lifetime value without a plan to improve repeat buying. Brands need to ask how many times a customer will buy, why they should keep buying, how to prevent cancellations, and how to move them to subscriptions. The more subscriptions a brand has, he says, the better its margins.
How can brands keep new customers after the holiday season?
Mag says retention tools apply more on Shopify, because Amazon is mostly transactional. He explains that for many shoppers, Amazon Subscribe & Save is just another way to get a discount: they subscribe, receive the order, and cancel. He admits he does this himself from time to time. It still works, he says, but it is a limited version of what is possible.
On Shopify, he advises combining subscriptions with loyalty. He notes that traditional subscription software can be ridiculously expensive and only charges customers every four or six weeks, while loyalty tools hand out points.
His advice for the season is to spend the money to acquire customers during Christmas, then use loyalty and subscriptions together to keep them.
How should marketplace sellers approach TikTok Shop?
Mag says selling on TikTok Shop is a great idea, but TikTok has a second, very important value: the demand lift it creates on Amazon and Shopify. He says that lift can easily reach 5%, 10%, or 15%. For a million-dollar brand, a 5% lift on Amazon is about $50K, which he says justifies the whole TikTok Shop investment even with no TikTok Shop revenue. He also recommends that brands on WooCommerce move to Shopify, which he says takes a couple of weeks.
He expects being an influencer to become a mainstream job in the next couple of years, which makes nano influencers super important. He advises a scaled approach: send at least 100 to 150 samples a month and aim for 200 to 250 videos a month for at least the first six months.
Paying an influencer with a million followers $10K to $20K for a video also makes sense, he says, but it may not be the best way to start. Scaled outreach can be partly automated, but it still needs people to answer inquiries and push influencers to post their videos.
The approach fits products priced from about $10 up to $100 or $150, where samples are not very expensive and can ship through Amazon or D2C distribution.
Whatever works can be boosted with TikTok GMV Max ads and reused on the D2C website or as sponsored video on Amazon. Because millions of people make buying decisions while watching TikTok videos and then buy on Amazon or Shopify, Mag says investing in TikTok always pays off for brands whose products qualify.
What does a strong holiday strategy look like across TikTok, Amazon and Shopify?
Mag says it starts with a seamless experience across channels. Shoppers notice when colors, promoted products, and product availability differ across Shopify, Amazon, and TikTok Shop. He describes one brand whose Shopify site looks like it is from the 90s, because the brand sells mainly through distributors and Amazon.
Shoppers who see a product on Amazon often check the brand’s Shopify site, partly because they expect a 10% discount there. He says that if the site does not match thousands of Amazon reviews, shoppers may suspect a private label. For US shoppers, he adds, a proper Shopify site signals that a brand has a real US presence.
He also advises a proper pricing and promotion strategy for October, November and December. Some brands skip Black Friday promotions because margins are tight. Mag points out that many holiday shoppers visit expecting some level of discount, often without knowing what they want to buy. Whether the offer is 10% off, buy one get one free, or a free extra product is up to the brand, but he says that if a Black Friday visitor sees no discount, they will not buy.
Finally, he recommends matching seasonal themes to search. If shoppers might buy the product as a Christmas gift, the website should mention Christmas. The same goes for New Year or Valentine’s Day; on the website, the Amazon brand store, and TikTok branding. Shoppers create a psychological mapping between the reason for their search and the product description, he says.
How should retail brands build a connected commerce strategy?
Pulling together Mag’s advice from the episode:
- One connected commerce department that manages Amazon, Shopify and TikTok Shop together
- Advertising tied to unit economics, with a set launch budget up to break-even
- Loyalty and subscriptions combined to bring holiday customers back
- Scaled TikTok content reused across Amazon and D2C, with consistent branding and seasonal promotions on every channel
If you are building your connected commerce plan for the holiday season, this 30-minute episode is a must-listen. Watch now only on the Digital Shelf Insider podcast by MetricsCart!
Disclaimer: The content shared in the Digital Shelf Insider Podcast by MetricsCart is for general informational and discussion purposes only. The insights, opinions, and perspectives expressed by hosts and guests are their own and do not constitute professional advice, recommendations, or endorsements by MetricsCart or any affiliated entity.
