Omnichannel Strategy for Ecommerce Brands | Flowspace

About this episode

Omnichannel strategy takes more than adding new sales channels. In this episode of Well Delivered, Flowspace CEO Ben Eachus speaks with Alex Lans, Amazon marketplace consultant and longtime ecommerce operator, about how brands can scale from DTC into Amazon, Walmart, TikTok Shop, retail, and AI-driven shopping.

Alex shares why each channel needs its own strategy, how marketplace growth adds inventory and supply chain pressure, and why team alignment and cross-channel visibility are critical to building an omnichannel strategy that supports growth.

Key takeaways

About the guest

Alexander Lans is an Amazon marketplace consultant and ecommerce operator with more than 15 years of experience scaling ecommerce, CPG, Amazon, and marketplace businesses. He founded OneStop Equine Shop, later expanded into Amazon, and has held senior ecommerce and marketplace roles at League of Ecom, Woof’s, and Freebird.

Today, Alex helps brands navigate Amazon, marketplaces, omnichannel strategy, inventory planning, and AI-driven product discovery.

Ben Eachus (00:03.974)
Good afternoon and welcome to another episode of Well Delivered. My name is Ben Eachis. I'm the co-founder and CEO of FlowSpace, a fulfillment company that helps fast-growing e-commerce brands scale their operations. Joining us on today's conversation is Alex Lance. Alex has spent the last 15 years scaling e-commerce, CPG, and Amazon businesses. He got his start as the founder of OneStop Ecoin Shop, later as the CEO of League of Ecom.

Alex Lans (01:20.04)
Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate you having me.

Ben Eachus (01:23.608)
Of course. Well, Alex to start, why don't you tell us a little about your first experience as a founder and what that experience was like? What was one shop one one stop equine?

Alex Lans (01:36.393)
So the story actually dates back more than 15 years to 2007. I founded the company in my dorm room. I really wanted to learn about e-commerce at the time. It was still nascent, but I played around with all the major platforms, Big Commerce, Shop Magento, and eventually grew into Shopify and in 2011 started selling on Amazon. I established One Stop Equine Shop in that category on Amazon as the place to go for equestrian products. What did I learn as a founder? Scaling is hard. You have to have good infrastructure to do it and a clear plan.

Ben Eachus (02:45.611)
That makes a lot of sense. A lot of that was probably a function of the time starting in 2011. I remember being at the Honest Company back in 2014, everything was done internally. Massive engineering team to build the e-commerce site. A lot of that infrastructure kind of lagged behind the growth of the front end e-commerce.

Alex Lans (03:12.914)
Yeah, I don't think it's nearly as easy as it is today where you can put up a Shopify store. It’s a lot different today, maybe in a good way, maybe in a bad way.

Ben Eachus (03:32.311)
For sure. One of the things you mentioned is that just scaling is hard. Are there any common patterns you see across these brands as they try to scale their operations?

Alex Lans (03:51.785)
Brands typically struggle at the intersection of bringing in a VP of Amazon or senior leadership within omnichannel. It takes a while to shift and understand how to go from being a D to C company to an omnichannel company.

Ben Eachus (04:54.864)
Do you typically see a brand start off as direct-to-consumer and then scale into Amazon or Walmart? Or is it the reverse?

Alex Lans (06:05.367)
It works both ways. D to C is kind of that proof of concept. Amazon is proof of concept that it has mass appeal.

Ben Eachus (06:36.828)
Is there a fight for available inventory or skews? What are some examples of that friction?

Alex Lans (06:51.41)
It depends on how important Amazon is to that business. There's often a tug of war between supply chain and the Amazon team. The Amazon operators demand a lot from the supply chain team, which creates a different relationship.

Ben Eachus (08:59.41)
It's about striking that balance and understanding how those pieces fit together. Meta drives Amazon in terms of branded traffic.

Alex Lans (11:39.512)
TikTok, particularly, is very important because it's marrying social proof with product. You need a comprehensive hands-on strategy that is a numbers game.

Ben Eachus (12:17.778)
What are some operational hurdles to have a really good grip on before scaling into these different channels?

Alex Lans (14:05.117)
Have a plan for every channel. Understand the playbook across channels and put management in place.

Ben Eachus (16:04.69)
What's one tool or product you wish existed to help you do your job better?

Alex Lans (16:05.117)
A way to understand how the channels interact with each other. We need a better way to piece data sets together.