Podcast · Business

Bringing Business to Retail

by Salena Knight | Retail & Ecommerce Growth Strategist · English · Business

Want a business that fills your soul AND your bank account? Retail Strategist Salena Knight, shares information, inspiration and interviews with business leaders, to help you create a more profitable, sustainable and dynamic retail or eCommerce business.

New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 22 min
Latest: 1 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

1 Oct 2026 · 12 min

3 Simple Marketing Tips For When You're Busy

Q4 has a way of filling every available minute. Stock is arriving. Orders need to be packed. Staff need to be rostered. Customers need help. Christmas ranges need organizing. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, you're still supposed to send your weekly email and keep showing up on social media. The problem isn't that retailers don't know marketing matters. The problem is that when the business gets busy, marketing is often the thing that gets pushed to "later." And later rarely comes. In this episode, Salena Knight shares three simple strategies to keep your marketing moving when…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

E544 · 15 Sep 2026 · 11 min
Don't Build a Bigger Black Friday List. Build More Black Friday Customers.
E543 · 11 Sep 2026 · 13 min
Why The Products That You Regret Buying Are More Important Than You Think
In this episode, Salena Knight explains why the products you regret buying can be some of the most valuable data in your retail or ecommerce business. It is easy to focus on best sellers, products that sold out, and suppliers that performed well. But your clearance section, old stock, and products that have been sitting in the warehouse can tell you just as much - and sometimes more - about your buying decisions. Salena walks through how to look beyond "it didn't sell" and identify what actually went wrong. Was the product itself the problem? Did you buy too much? Was the colour selection…
E542 · 27 Aug 2026 · 17 min
How To Buy Products That Make More Money
You found the perfect product. You know your customers will love it. So you buy it. But what if that isn't enough to make it a good buying decision? In this episode, Salena challenges the way retailers think about inventory and explains why buying isn't just about finding products that fit your brand or that you believe will sell. Every dollar you put into stock is a dollar that can't be used somewhere else in your business, which means every product needs to earn its place. Salena walks through how to think about inventory as an investment, why your revenue and profit goals should influence…
E541 · 18 Aug 2026 · 39 min
How to Get More Sales Without Spending More on Marketing
In this episode, we're talking about a problem a lot of retailers are feeling right now: getting customers to your website is costing more, so how do you make more money from the traffic you already have? Krisztian Kiraly, International Partnership Manager at OptiMonk , joins us to unpack the idea of "conversion before acquisition" - improving the customer experience and conversion rate before simply spending more to acquire additional traffic. We talk about why independent retailers and ecommerce businesses can't win by trying to outspend massive marketplaces like Amazon, Temu and SHEIN,…
E540 · 11 Aug 2026 · 33 min
How This Fabric Store Increased Profits by 40%
What does it take to build a retail business that is profitable, deeply connected to its community, and still growing years after opening? In this episode, Salena chats with Jill Schuler, CEO of The Stitchery Studio, a fabric shop and studio that has grown from one person's dream into a thriving creative community. Since opening in 2017, Jill has taken a considered approach to modern textiles, combining retail with education, creativity and connection. The result is a business that gives customers a reason to keep coming back, while continuing to evolve and grow. And the numbers are worth…
E539 · 4 Aug 2026 · 50 min
How to Make More Money From the Stock You Already Have
Somewhere in your product catalogue, there's revenue you're missing, sitting in data you're not tracking. In this episode of Bringing Business to Retail, Salena Knight sits down with Leon Bart-Williams, a former Amazon sales leader and founder of a retail technology platform, to talk about how the world's biggest retailers use product data to make decisions, and how independent retailers can use the same thinking. Leon draws on his time at Amazon and NBCUniversal to explain why looking past top-line sales numbers reveals hidden profit, shows you why customers pick one variant over another,…
E538 · 28 Jul 2026 · 10 min
The Stupidest Thing I Ever Bought For My Store
What if the biggest mistake you ever made in your business wasn't actually a mistake at all? In this episode, Salena shares the story of the most ridiculous purchase she ever made for her retail store - a box of decorative sew-on barrettes that had absolutely no place in an eco baby boutique. Nearly 20 years later, she found them again while packing up her house, and they reminded her of one of the biggest lessons every retailer needs to learn before peak season. As Q4 approaches, retailers everywhere are making critical buying decisions. Should you reduce your order to fit your cash flow?…
E537 · 21 Jul 2026 · 41 min
She Lost Everything. Then Built a $50 Million Dollar Business.
Jennifer Ann Johnson knows what it's like to lose everything and start again. After rebuilding from the ground up, she created True Fashionistas into a $50 million resale business while discovering that confidence isn't something you're born with. It's something you build. In this conversation with Salena Knight, Jennifer shares the lessons she's learned about resilience, leadership, business growth, personal branding, and creating long-term success without losing yourself in the process. We discuss: Jennifer's journey from model and actress to entrepreneur Losing everything and rebuilding…
E536 · 16 Jul 2026 · 16 min
How This Retailer Quadrupled Orders in Just a Few Weeks
What would you do if your orders suddenly quadrupled in just a few weeks? For one retailer, a simple change to her shipping strategy delivered exactly that. Orders surged, the Shopify notifications kept coming, and it looked like she'd found the perfect way to increase sales. But was it really a win? In this episode, Salena Knight shares the story behind a coaching call that uncovered what was really happening beneath the surface. While the increase in orders looked like a huge success, the numbers told a more nuanced story, highlighting why every retailer needs to look beyond revenue before…
E535 · 9 Jul 2026 · 22 min
The Safe Choice That's Draining Your Cashflow Right Now
Playing it safe feels responsible. It feels sensible. But what if it's the thing keeping your business from growing? In this episode, Salena shares one of the most pivotal moments in her retail journey, and unpacks why the safe decision is often the most expensive one a business owner makes. From setting conservative revenue goals to avoiding difficult conversations, underpricing products, and under-ordering best sellers, you'll learn how loss aversion shapes the decisions you make every day. Those decisions can feel logical in the moment, but they often carry a hidden cost that limits what…
E534 · 30 Jun 2026 · 16 min
The Real Reason You're Still Doing Everything Yourself
Think you're the only one who can do it properly? That belief might be the thing keeping your business from growing. If you've ever caught yourself saying "it's just quicker if I do it myself," this one's for you. This week, Salena Knight exposes one of the biggest hidden traps in scaling a retail or ecommerce business. It has nothing to do with working harder, hiring more people, or finding a better way of doing things. It's about the habits that keep you at the centre of everything, and why you don't always notice you're doing it. Salena gets into why founders end up being the bottleneck…
E533 · 23 Jun 2026 · 26 min
How to Find the Money That You're Leaving On the Table
Are you working harder than ever but still feeling like profits aren't where they should be? With rising wages, increasing software subscriptions, higher freight costs, and customers becoming more selective about how they spend their money, many retail and ecommerce business owners are finding themselves squeezed from every direction. The natural reaction is often to focus on getting more customers through the door or driving more traffic to the website. But what if the biggest opportunity for growth isn't outside your business at all? In this episode of the Bringing Business to Retail…
E532 · 18 Jun 2026 · 15 min
How to Get Customers to Say Yes
Why do customers ignore review requests, newsletter signups, and referral programs even when they love your products? In this episode of the Bringing Business to Retail podcast, Salena Knight shares a simple but powerful communication strategy that can help retail and ecommerce businesses increase customer participation without changing their marketing systems or spending more money on advertising. Using examples from both physical stores and online retail, Salena explains why customers are more likely to say yes when requests are framed around helping others rather than helping the…
E531 · 9 Jun 2026 · 6 min
Do You Feel Guilty When Customers Spend Big?
Do you find yourself feeling guilty when customers spend a significant amount of money in your store? You're not alone. Many retailers feel uncomfortable when customers make large purchases. Instead of celebrating the sale, they worry the customer will change their mind, question the value, or think they've spent too much. In this mini episode, Salena shares the story of her first $1,000 sale and a coaching conversation with retailer Kevin about the tendency to offer discounts customers never asked for. If you've ever second-guessed your prices or felt uncomfortable when customers spend big,…
E530 · 4 Jun 2026 · 6 min
It Didn't Work - Should I Try Again?
Every retailer has done it. You launch a bundle, run a gift-with-purchase promotion, or test a new offer. The results aren't what you hoped for, so you file it away under "that doesn't work for my store." But what if the offer wasn't the problem? In this short episode, Salena Knight shares a coaching conversation with Jill from Stitchery Fabric Store about a challenge many retailers face: knowing when to move on from an offer and when to give it another chance. The truth is that most business owners make decisions based on feelings rather than facts. A campaign feels like it failed, so it…
E529 · 26 May 2026 · 16 min
How Your Generosity Can Attract The Wrong Customers
In this episode, Salena coaches Cathy, the owner of an online gifting business, through one of the most common struggles in retail and ecommerce - spending too much time and money on customers who may never become profitable. Cathy shares how she has been sending free gifts with purchase to customers in an effort to get people to try her products, along with the challenges she faces when corporate customers continually negotiate on price. Salena unpacks why customer experience strategies need to be backed by real data and ROI, and why retailers need to stop making decisions based on emotion…
E528 · 19 May 2026 · 23 min
Could Your Business Survive a Cancer Diagnosis?
What would happen to your business if you couldn't show up tomorrow? It's a question most entrepreneurs avoid asking, until life asks it for them. In this deeply personal episode, Salena Knight opens up about the terrifying moment she was told she was likely facing cancer and how that experience forced her to confront a reality many business owners quietly fear: has the business been built to survive without you? This episode is not just about health. It's about leadership, dependency, burnout, systems, priorities, and the emotional weight so many founders carry behind the scenes. You'll…
E527 · 13 May 2026 · 17 min
Your Competitors Are Keeping You Stuck
If you've ever left a networking event wondering whether your business is behind everyone else's, this episode is for you. Salena Knight breaks down the dangerous comparison cycle that many retail and ecommerce store owners fall into without even realising it. From hearing someone talk about record-breaking sales to another retailer struggling with foot traffic, it's easy to start mentally measuring your business against everyone around you. But those comparisons rarely tell the full story. In this episode, Salena shares why benchmarking against other businesses can keep you stuck,…
E526 · 5 May 2026 · 22 min
This Simple Marketing Mistake Cost Me $200,000
Most retailers assume that when customers are already buying, there's no need to market harder. In this episode, Salena shares the costly lesson she learned after treating busy seasons like "business as usual" instead of strategically maximizing every customer interaction. From missed upsell opportunities to poor inventory planning and passive selling, she reveals how retailers unknowingly leave money on the table during their busiest periods. You'll learn how to increase average order value, create strategic gift bundles, improve customer experience, and turn seasonal shoppers into…
E525 · 28 Apr 2026 · 12 min
The Key to Consistent Sales
Show Notes Every week in retail and e-commerce Facebook groups, the same question appears. Sales have dropped off. Is anyone else experiencing this? And every single time, the comments fill up with store owners saying the same things back to each other - it's the economy, the algorithm killed my reach, I've tried everything and nothing works. But here's what almost nobody says: what they've actually been doing for marketing. In this episode Salena Knight gets into why the revenue rollercoaster - that exhausting cycle of a good month followed by a slow month followed by a so-so month - is…
E524 · 21 Apr 2026 · 26 min
Why Your Marketing Isn't Turning Into Sales - And What to Do About It
Show Notes You're not being ignored, you're being overlooked. And that's a very different problem. In this episode, Salena Knight shares a simple but powerful story - walking past a beautifully curated store for 18 months without ever going in, despite being the ideal customer. It highlights a problem many retailers and ecommerce brands face: being visible, but not truly seen. If your store isn't getting the attention or sales you expected, this episode breaks down why - and what to do about it. You'll learn how to think about the real cost of inconsistent marketing, why customers overlook…
E523 · 14 Apr 2026 · 25 min
Why Not Raising Your Prices is the Riskiest Thing You Can Do Right Now
I recently stopped at a fuel station to fill up my car - something I don't do very often - and watched the bowser tick past $90, $100, $110, $120. I was genuinely waiting for fuel to come gushing out because surely it had to be broken. It wasn't broken. And that moment is exactly what this episode is about. Rising costs are hitting every part of retail and e-commerce - freight, fuel, wages, rent, suppliers. But what I'm seeing over and over again is store owners absorbing those costs out of their own pocket instead of adjusting their prices. In this episode, I'm getting into why that has to…
E522 · 8 Apr 2026 · 40 min
How to Stay Profitable in a Retail Store (When Costs Are Rising)
My guest today is Teresa Olson, founder of Olson House in Milwaukee, a beautifully curated store known for Scandinavian-inspired homewares, design-led products, and now a growing vintage collection. But her story does not begin in retail showrooms and brand catalogues. It starts in a Kmart, moves through a record store, a speech communications degree, DJing, interior design, corporate office life, and eventually a leap into opening her own store in 2015. In this conversation, Teresa shares how she built Olson House with intention, how she sourced directly from Scandinavia, what she learned…
E521 · 31 Mar 2026 · 46 min
Why Discounting Isn't the Answer to More Sales
Discounting is not the only way to increase sales. In a recent conversation on the She Sells Differently podcast with Andee Hart , I sat down to talk about what actually drives profitable sales for independent retailers, makers, and eCommerce brands. If you are relying on discounts to generate revenue, this episode will challenge that thinking. We unpack why so many promotions fall flat, how to build urgency without cutting your prices, and what you really need to understand about inventory, cash flow, and customer behavior if you want consistent, sustainable growth. 👉 You can listen to the…
E520 · 24 Mar 2026 · 53 min
How to Charge Double for Paper Plates (And Have Customers Thank You)
What makes someone pay more for the same product? That question sits at the heart of this episode. In this wide-ranging conversation, Salena and Matt dive into what separates a premium brand from a commodity business, why experience matters just as much as the product, and how smart retailers use positioning to make price feel justified. They also explore something most people avoid talking about: the emotional baggage around money. Especially for founders who grew up believing rich people were greedy, charging more can feel uncomfortable, even when the business and the customer experience…
E519 · 19 Mar 2026 · 25 min
Why So Many Retail Businesses Grow Broke
Most business owners do not fail because they are bad at business. They fail because no one taught them how money actually works inside a growing retail or ecommerce brand. In this episode, Salena unpacks the real financial blind spots that hold founders back, including inventory sitting on shelves as trapped cash, contribution margin mistakes, hidden fulfillment costs, and the dangers of building your business around your own money bias instead of your customer's values. This is an honest conversation about cash flow, financial clarity, and the difference between looking profitable and…
E518 · 10 Mar 2026 · 31 min
Why Your Team Isn't Doing What You Want
When something goes wrong in your business, it's easy to assume the problem sits with your team. But most of the time, it doesn't. In this episode, Salena Knight explains why team members often miss the mark and why the root cause usually comes down to one thing - unclear leadership. Retail and ecommerce founders frequently hand over responsibilities without defining what success actually looks like. Without clear targets, benchmarks, or reporting structures, team members are forced to guess. And those guesses rarely match what the founder had in mind. Through real examples from retail…
E517 · 3 Mar 2026 · 15 min
How to Build Profitable Promotions
You plan a promotion. You send the emails. You post on social media. And the sales do not come in the way you expected. So you assume the offer was not strong enough. You increase the discount. You add free shipping. You stack more value. But what if the offer was never the problem? In this episode, I break down why most promotions underperform and what to fix before you touch your pricing again. The mistake I see retailers make over and over is starting in the middle. They start with the offer instead of the outcome. When you begin with the discount, you are guessing. When you begin with…
E516 · 24 Feb 2026 · 22 min
Your "Gut Feel" Might Be Costing You More Than You Think
Four different retail businesses. Four completely different niches. One identical complaint. "I feel like it's not working." In this episode, we unpack why so many retail and ecommerce founders misdiagnose marketing problems and how that mistake quietly erodes profit. When sales dip, most retailers assume: Customers are not spending The offer was wrong The discount was not strong enough The marketing agency dropped the ball But feelings are not facts. This episode walks you through why emotional decision-making is one of the most expensive habits in retail and how to shift to data-first…

About Bringing Business to Retail

Bringing Business to Retail is a English business podcast from Salena Knight | Retail & Ecommerce Growth Strategist. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: Salena Knight | Retail & Ecommerce Growth Strategist
Language: English
Category: Business
New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 22 min
Latest episode: 1 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1095567676

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