Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth
Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth

Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth

Common Thread Collective

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Episodes

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2020 transformed the world of ecommerce forever. For the modern DTC brand, the rewards have never been greater. But the waters have also never been choppier, and the way forward has never been more uncertain. So how do you navigate this dangerous new reality? No matter how you do it, you’d better not do it alone. That’s where the Ecommerce Playbook Podcast comes in — join Common Thread Collective’s Taylor Holiday & Richard Gaffin as they bring you guiding insights from across CTC’s portfolio of growing DTC businesses. Whether you need a clear view on the macro issues affecting the world of ecommerce, or want to reorient your business around groundbreaking new big-picture strategies, Taylor & Richard are here to help answer the tough questions about what it takes to scale — and sustain — an ecommerce business.

Recent Episodes

Data + Methodology + Operator: How We Build Capacity
MAR 19, 2026
Data + Methodology + Operator: How We Build Capacity
Every brand wants more capacity from their growth team. Most try to solve it by adding people or plugging data into ChatGPT. Neither works.In this episode, Luke breaks down the 3-layer infrastructure behind the Prophit Engine that actually creates capacity:Layer 1: The DatabaseOrder-level, finance, marketing, and cost data aggregated in one place. Living in the context of your targets and forecast, not just historical performance. Informed by a data set across hundreds of brands and billions in GMV.Layer 2: Methodology & ContextThe layer most people skip. Drop a Statlas dashboard screenshot into an LLM with no context and you get useless output. Layer in CTC's hierarchy of metrics, outlier methodology, and 12 years of pattern recognition across the DTC landscape and the output transforms completely.Layer 3: The Tech-Enabled OperatorThe Prophit Engineer sits on top of both layers. Not just a person with a dashboard. A person with aggregated data, informed methodology, and AI tooling that multiplies their capacity to make decisions and execute in real time.This is why one Prophit Engineer outperforms a traditional 4-person growth team. The infrastructure does the heavy lifting. The operator makes the decisions.Show Notes:Axon is offering $5K ad credit when you spend $5K. Go to https://axon.ai/en/ctc to set up your first campaign.Explore the Prophit Engine: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/prophit-engineTheEcommerce Playbook mailbag is open — email us at [email protected] to ask us any questions you might have
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20 MIN
How the Prophit Engine Creates Total Clarity
MAR 12, 2026
How the Prophit Engine Creates Total Clarity
Most ecommerce brands are making slower, worse decisions than they realize, and it's not because of bad people. It's because of a broken structure.In this episode, Richard sits down with Luke and Tony to break down one of the most important benefits of the Prophit Engine: total clarity. From fragmented data and siloed teams to a single operator with a full end-to-end view of the business, they unpack exactly why consolidation leads to better decisions, faster action, and stronger results.They also walk through a real-world sale that crushed projections, and explain why having three people with three partial views of the same problem is often worse than having one person with the complete picture.In this episode:Why siloed teams lead to degraded decision makingThe 3 layers of clarity the Prophit Engine providesHow a single operator outperformed a multi-person workflow over a live sale weekendWhy your Meta media buyer needs to understand your inventory positionWhat the biggest ecommerce opportunity looks like in 2026The litmus test: How much of your weekly marketing meeting is spent figuring out what's going on — versus actually making decisions to change it?If most of your time is in the first bucket, this episode is for you.Show Notes:Visit Postscript.io to turn your replies into revenue.Explore the Prophit Engine: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/prophit-engineThe Ecommerce Playbook mailbag is open — email us at [email protected] to ask us any questions you might have
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25 MIN