Growing Ecommerce – The Retail Growth Podcast
Feed your growth mindset. Ecommerce is growing, and so are the challenges and opportunities for online retailers. In the Growing Ecommerce podcast, Mike Ryan and other smec experts are joined by industry leaders in ecommerce, digital marketing, and data science. By sharing business trends, practical solutions, and best practices, this podcast helps online retailers solve the challenges of tomorrow.
Episodes
92 episodes
Temu Hits 71% Market Share – Should You Worry? Plus: Google's Coming for Your Landing Pages
Is the "clash of the titans" coming for your profit margins, and is Google about to take away your website traffic? In this episode of Growing E-commerce, Mike Ryan and Chris Sharma tackle two massive, existential shifts threat...
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Season 4
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Episode 29
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34:19
Sam Altman SCREWS UP ChatGPT Shopping | Plus: Google Product Feed Deep Dive
Why did OpenAI quietly kill its shopping feature, and what does it mean for the future of Google Ads? 🚨In this episode of Growing E-commerce, Mike Ryan and Chris Sharma tackle the reality of the "AI takeover" in paid search. Fol...
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Season 4
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Episode 28
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32:39
The State of PPC 2026: Live from SMX Munich w/ Wijnard Meijer (TrueClicks) and Frederick Vallaeys (Optmyzr)
If you want to know how your peers are actually handling the grind, the Google Ads updates, and the "AI takeover," this episode is a must-watch. We recorded a special edition of Growing Ecommerce live from SMX Munich! Host Mike...
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Season 4
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Episode 27
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54:29
The end of Dynamic Search Ads is here! Insights from 200+ AI Max campaigns
In this episode of Growing E-commerce, Mike Ryan and Chris from Smarter Ecommerce (smec) tackle the massive news that DSA's time on Earth is limited. With DSA going the way of the dinosaurs, Google is pushing advertisers toward AI Max ...
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Season 4
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Episode 26
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32:43
The Expensive Problem with Google’s Search Partner Network (SPN): Insights from 1,500+ Campaigns
🚨 Breaking Google Ads News: Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) will be going "the way of the dinosaurs." As confirmed by Google's Ginny Marvin, DSA's time is limited, paving the way for AI Max as the future-proof campaign standard.Is the Google Ad...
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Season 4
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Episode 25
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22:22
Is ROAS Overrated? – Why the “Revenue Trap” Might Kill Your Google Ads Profit
Is ROAS a flawed metric for Google Ads? According to acclaimed ecommerce experts Mike Ryan and Christian Scharmüller, using Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) as your primary "North Star" metric creates a dangerous "Revenue Trap." Because ROAS measures ...
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Season 4
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Episode 24
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28:59
PMax vs. Standard Shopping? – 3 Google Ads Myths Busted
In this episode of Growing eCommerce, Mike Ryan and Chris debunk three persistent myths that are still holding retailers back in 2026. While everyone is distracted by the hype of UCP and Agentic Commerce, many accounts are bleeding eff...
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Season 4
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Episode 23
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35:25
Google’s UCP Explained: Will "Agentic Commerce" Replace Search in 2026?
UCP (Universal Context Protocol) is a new infrastructure layer aiming to standardize “agentic commerce.” It breaks ecommerce into modular capabilities (“Lego bricks”) so AI agents can negotiate tasks like product discovery, checkout, and paymen...
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Season 4
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Episode 22
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31:08
Ecommerce Trends 2026: Google AI, Temu & CPC Forecast
In the final episode of 2025, Chris and Mike trade their suits for matching Christmas pajamas to deliver a raw, honest review of the year in digital marketing. 🎄They break down the biggest surprises of the year, from Google’s unexpected ...
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36:30
Are Your Google Ads Lying to You? - Marginal ROAS Explained
In this episode, Mike Ryan and Chris dive into the fundamental issue plaguing advanced performance advertisers: the lack of data integrity between ad platforms and a retailer’s backend systems. Why are sophisticated retailers taking optimizatio...
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Season 4
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Episode 20
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39:35
Black Friday Bloodbath: ROAS Down 12%, Gross Margins Down 9% | Post-Mortem Data
In this post-mortem episode, hosts Mike Ryan and Chris dive deep into the data behind the last peak season to reveal the true cost of Black Friday. They confirm what many performance marketers feared: the event is a "promotional bloodbath where...
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Season 4
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Episode 19
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44:16
Google is bidding on the WRONG products: The ‘Clicked vs. Bought’ dilemma explained
In this episode, Mike Ryan and Christian Scharmueller dismantle a massive technical flaw in Performance Max: the "Clicked vs. Bought" discrepancy.In a keywordless world, product targeting is your main lever. But Mike reveals that Google ...
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Season 4
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Episode 18
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32:11
Google AI Max is A TRAP?! New Data on ROAS, Demand Gen & DSA Sunset
Is Google's new AI Max for Search the future, or is it a hidden trap?In this episode of Growing E-commerce, Mike Ryan and Chris dive into brand-new, independent test data on AI Max for Search and discuss the strategic role of Demand Gen ...
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Season 4
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Episode 17
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37:06
Google's $155 Billion Backlog: The Real Cost of Advertising
Q3 earnings are in, and the consolidation is real. Hosts Mike Ryan and Chris dive into the gravity-defying numbers, confirming that Google's core ad revenue is up a strong 12.6% year-over-year (YoY), and their massive Cloud backlog sits at $155...
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Season 4
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Episode 16
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27:40
CPC Crisis: 30% Inflation is Here! What now?
This episode tackles the most urgent issues retail clients are facing right now: exploding costs and profound market uncertainty.Hosts Mike Ryan and Chris dive into the alarming trend of increasing CPCs (Cost Per Click), which are soarin...
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Season 4
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Episode 15
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33:38
Google & OpenAI are FORCING You to Pay: The AI Ad Overhaul
It's here! Ads are officially landing inside your AI search results, and Google’s not asking for permission. In this episode, Mike Ryan and Chris break down the massive global rollout of AI Overviews (AIO) and AI Mode (AIM). They re...
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Season 4
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Episode 14
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26:39
Zalando is Banning Shoppers: Are Returns Killing YOUR Profits?
This controversial episode is tackling the messy side of shopping! Hosts Mike Ryan and Christian Scharmueller dive straight into the news that Zalando is tightening its return policy, issuing warnings and even year-long bans for shoppers with "...
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Season 4
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Episode 13
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25:16
Google Email Leak Explained: What’s coming next to Google Ads?
In this solo episode, host Mike Ryan tackles the opaqueness of the digital advertising industry. He then reveals a previously confidential email from two senior Google executives. This internal communication confirms that Google’s “PMAXificatio...
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Season 4
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Episode 12
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37:27
Google AI’s Secret Plan: The BIGGEST THREAT to Your Retail Business Yet?
Will Google's new AI strategy kill ecommerce as you know it? In this episode of Growing Ecommerce, Mike Ryan and Chris Scharmueller dissect the biggest news from DMEXCO 2025 in Cologne, Germany, and reveal their bold take on the future of paid ...
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Season 4
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Episode 11
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30:38
Google's A/I Max & The Temu Takeover: Navigating the E-commerce Future
Welcome to Episode 10 of Growing ecommerce! Get ready to cut through the noise with your hosts Mike and Chris, as they tackle the real-world implications of three massive forces in the market.First, they take on Google's newest AI-powere...
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Season 4
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Episode 10
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28:30
AI's Reality Check: Financial Bubble or Foundation for the Future?
Welcome to Episode 9 of Growing Ecommerce! In a world buzzing with AI hype, we're cutting through the noise to ask the big question: Is this the next dot-com bubble, or a long-term, foundational shift for the future of business?Join host...
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Season 4
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Episode 9
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28:49
Google vs. Amazon vs. TikTok vs. Meta: Welcome to the AI Ad Wars
In this week’s show, Mike Ryan and Chris Scharmueller dive headfirst into the "PMAXification" of the advertising landscape, a term Mike coined to describe how platforms from Google to TikTok are rushing to automate your ad spend. Bu...
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Season 4
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Episode 8
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37:05
Is AI Shattering Google’s Fortress? Plus: Inside Amazon’s Risky Ads Test
Is AI a wolf in sheep’s clothing for Google's empire? Mike Ryan and Christian Scharmueller are back to spill the tea on the biggest players in ecommerce! This week they're dissecting Google's "fortress" of a business and Meta's unca...
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Season 4
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Episode 7
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40:01
Google Marketing Live Recap: AI Overviews, PMax reporting, AI Max, and more
Google is positioning AI at the center of its advertising ecosystem with substantial changes to search, shopping, and campaign management. The new "PowerPack" approach combines Performance Max, Demand Gen, and AI Max for search campaigns, thoug...
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Season 4
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Episode 6
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45:36
Big exits & bold bets: Temu stops ads in US while OpenAI enters ecommerce. Plus, debating the marketwide pivot to profit.
We broke the news: Temu hit the brakes – hard. In this episode, Mike and Chris dig intoWhy Temu suddenly killed all ads in the US, and what happened nextSigns that Temu's ad spend shifted to EuropeOpenAI’s move int...
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Season 4
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Episode 5
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35:17
