Mastering E-Commerce: From Concrete to Shopify Success with Matthew Stafford
Aleksandar Nikoloski | Jun 11, 2025
Reading Time: 2 minutesIn this episode of the Firing the Man podcast, host David Schomer talks with Matt Stafford, Managing partner and mastermind behind Build Grow Scale, and one of the industry’s leading Shopify optimization experts. Here, Matt reveals data-driven strategies crucial for third-party sellers navigating away from marketplaces like Amazon to direct-to-consumer (D2C) websites. Drawing on his extensive background from brick-and-mortar businesses to pioneering online ventures; Matt shares actionable insights to dramatically enhance website performance, customer trust, and revenue optimization.
Key Takeaways:
Optimizing Existing Traffic for Maximum Revenue:
Matt challenges the traditional focus on simply driving more traffic, emphasizing instead the critical importance of converting existing visitors through strategic optimizations.
Incorporating Social Proof and Reviews:
Matt explains how incorporating genuine customer reviews, even negative ones, significantly increases trust and boosts conversion rates, emphasizing transparency and responsiveness.
Mobile-First Strategies with Desktop Retargeting:
Matt highlights the necessity of optimizing websites for mobile browsing while recognizing the continued superior conversion rate on desktop, suggesting retargeting mobile browsers on desktop to maximize sales.
Harnessing the Power of Customer-Driven Data:
Using examples from his own clients, Matt demonstrates how analyzing on-site search queries and customer behavior provides critical insights into product demand and opportunities for new revenue streams.
Clear, Purpose-Driven Communication:
Matt illustrates the dramatic impact of simple communication shifts on websites, such as clearly stating reasons for requesting customer information, resulting in increased conversions and reduced abandonment rates.
Notable Quotes:
Your website is your conversation with your client, the better the conversation, the higher your revenue.
People don’t expect perfection, but they absolutely expect you to fix problems effectively when they arise.
Instead of chasing more traffic, optimize your current visitors and watch your profitability soar.
About the author
Aleksandar Nikoloski
Aleks is BGS’s Head of Revenue Optimization, an author, and a speaker. He has helped rapid-scale dozens of 6, 7, and multiple 8-figure stores as part of BGS’s Amplify Partnership program. He has gotten one store from $2.6 million a year to $6.7 million a year in 24 months, while another from doing $300k/month to doing over $2 million/month in less than 6 months, just to mention a few. The BGS team calls him the “Site Whisperer” because of his ability to find site nuances that derail the customers’ journey and cause purchase friction. Extremely meticulous and analytical, he credits all of this success to data and accurate interpretation of that data, as well as his ability to implement and test new ideas almost immediately.