CEO at CartStars | Cultivating an Empathetic & Resilient Community for eCommerce Leaders

Your team got smaller this year. Your decisions didn’t.

You need to know what actually worked at a company like yours before you commit. You don’t need another vendor pitch or another analyst report. You need the real answer from someone who already made the call.

That room is called CartStars. I started it with six people at a dinner table because I was tired of expensive decisions made on bad information.

Estèe Lauder, Steve Madden, Bombas, and MERIT Beauty are in it. So is the person who just solved the exact problem sitting on your desk right now.

It’s not a network. It’s the room you check before you commit.

If you’re making a high-stakes decision right now, your peers already made it.

Start at cartstars.com

Debbie Kemunto Pearce

Three versions of the truth.


Shopify says one thing, Amazon says another, and your ad platform says something else.

But Krishna P. asks one question first:
Who's accountable for what's actually true?

At Oracle, he watched companies pay millions for the answer.
Then, bootstrapped Saras Analytics with his cousins to bring it to brands who couldn't.

Today, it's 180 people. Working with brands like HexClad, Ridge, Athletic Greens, and KFC.

His take on being the calmest person in a messy data room?
Know that your tool isn't the problem.
It's that no one owns the question.

That's what Visionaries is.

Krishna Poda, Co-Founder & CEO, Saras Analytics.
February 24th in Palm Springs. He's in the room.

Who owns the question at your company?

Debbie Pearce

It’s a living room, not a ballroom.


No badge lanyard. No sad buffet chicken. No one on a stage pretending they figured it all out.

While you’re on the conference floor right now, there’s a Michelin-trained chef in a kitchen cooking for a group of executives who are just talking. Actually talking.

Breaking down how they think, not the version they’d give on a panel.

There’s also a photographer in that room whose work made me save his number for ten years. I waited for a moment worthy of him. Today was it.

This room doesn’t exist tomorrow.

Visionaries Day is happening right now, and there’s still a way in.

You can find it here: https://lnkd.in/gzRuHHqK

Steve has receipts.


He doubled revenue at NYDJ.
He 3X’d Kut from the Kloth in half the time with a quarter of the staff.
You ask him how things are going and the answer sounds like an earnings call.
He doesn’t do vague. He does results.

We had a conversation in the room once about identity resolution and whether it crosses a line. Steve didn’t miss a beat. “I’m head of growth, not ethics.”
I laughed. But that level of clarity is why he keeps winning.

This is someone who was building fan communities 23 years ago on Myspace. He was doing it before anyone had a word for it. He just understood something most brands still haven’t figured out: your customer has to believe they’re the only one in the room.

He’s funny. He’s real.

Everybody knows Steve. But do you know his best dad joke? Drop it in the comments. 🤣

"I don't expect to learn anything."


Esteban Restrepo said that from a hot tub. With three people present at the end of Day 1 in Palm Springs. Just one of those conversations that happens when nobody's trying to have one.

He wasn't being cynical. He was being honest. 
He's been at this long enough.... where you stop expecting someone to hand you a trick that changes your business overnight. 

But then he kept going.

"What I loved about today is that it was real. I watched someone actually share something that works for them. And it was a contrast to the big stages where it becomes performative."

And honestly? That hit me.
Because most people in this industry already know the difference. The stage version and the real one. They've been in both rooms. They know which one they walked out of and actually used something from.

They just don't have a place where the second version exists.....till now.

When's the last time you were in a room where you got what you really needed?

Most people listen to the women they admire.


Not enough people watch them.

Listening gets you inspired for a day. Watching changes how you move.

These 10 lessons didn't come from a stage. 
They came from paying close attention to what the women around me actually do when nobody's clapping, when the easier choice is right there, when stopping would be completely reasonable.

At the end of the day, it's the people in your life that make the life you live. 

If you're a woman in my life, I'm grateful for you. 

I'm learning from you, I'm inspired by you.

You flew home, and nobody said thank you.


You sat in someone's session, visited a partner at their booth, gave someone 10 minutes of real conversation, and flew home. Back to the inbox.

I think about that more than I should.

Colleen Waters did all of that at a conference. She won an all-inclusive vacation.
And for the first time in I don't know how long, she stopped. 
She came back and posted about how the pause gave her something the grind had been taking. 

I read it and thought, OK, so this is the room. The one where someone shows up, and it doesn't go unnoticed. This is where CartStars did something right.

I've been building this thing for three years, and Colleen explained it better in one post than I have in 300.

Showing up looks different every time. 
This time at Visionaries, it's about who you bring with you. Because every room like this started with someone saying, "you need to be here" to someone else.

Visionaries is next week. See you in Palm Springs, February 24-25


When's the last time you showed up for someone and nobody said a thing?

Never go back.


New company, new industry, new title. Because that's what gets the "excited to announce."
Nobody writes the post about going back.

Niva Singer, MBA keeps going back.

First hire at Native. Built the ops, the website, the emails with a team under ten. Then P&G bought it for $100 million.

She left. Then she walked back in.
Not for the title. Because there was always space for optimizations.
Worth a $580K annual revenue lift.
She tested the placement of one feature on the homepage. Build-Your-Pack, one test.
That's what going back looks like when you're paying attention.

Then she went back to the same category. MUD\WTR, now Auri Nutrition. Second mushroom wellness brand. Same lane but deeper.

Some people chase what's next. She goes back to what matters.

She brought that energy to fondue night at The Matterhorn in San Francisco.
Grateful to Klaviyo and Loop Subscriptions for making the night possible!

You make 100 decisions a week. You can't explain how you make one?


That's not a criticism. That's most of us.
We asked a small group of senior leaders to do something most people never take the time to do.

Write down the things they see before anyone else does. Their frameworks.

And I've been reading these Visionary questionnaires over the last few weeks.
We haven't even hit record yet, and it's already changing how I think.

Tomorrow:
Two chairs, a living room in Palm Springs, sixteen peers, a full camera crew.
No spectators. Real questions, real pressure.

I'm equal parts excited and terrified!

Visionaries, Feb 24-25.

Link in comments if this is the kind of room you want to be in.

Rachel J.

#1 Trusted Advisor for Ecommerce Agencies | Simplifying the Process of Scaling Ecommerce Agencies | Founder of Ecommerce Partnerships & Ecommerce Agency Growth | Grade A Shenanigator ☘️

Leading trusted advisor for ecommerce agencies. Dedicated to enabling agency owners to get out of the day-to-day of running their agency so they can focus on taking it to the next level. As former COO of a leading ecommerce agency, I've support 100+ ecommerce agencies across the globe as fractional-COO, non-executive director, and board advisor.  

Number 1 authority in implementing best practice operations, systems, and processes to scale ecommerce agencies profitably and efficiently. From building scalable retainer models to coaching high-performing leadership teams, I work with ecommerce agencies to simplify the next steps in scaling their ecommerce agency.

Feel free to contact me directly: rachel@ecommercepartnerships.com

Fractional Chief Operations Officer

At Smart Solutions, our goal is to build great websites that increase overall revenue for your business and provide an easy way for customers to connect with you online. 

We are dependable, certified eCommerce experts who will help you strategize, execute, and grow. We are a privately held, boutique agency founded in 2004 and exclusively focused on eCommerce. We have an excellent team of employees and a great group of partners who take your business success personally. We do what is right for our customers, not what is easy.

This might be the 9-month pregnancy hormones talking, but seeing my private Ecommerce Agency Growth community grow to 500+ active members makes me so proud 🥹 🥹 🥹 

Huge shoutout to the girls on my team who work hard every day to wrangle not just them, but mostly me: Mireille, Cristina, Claudia, and Salohy. 

#kudos #proud #community

Rachel Jacobs

#1 Authority in Scaling Ecommerce Agencies

Much like Valentines Day or days meant to 'celebrate' people for a day, I'm not a fan of Women's Day as it feels like a half baked attempt at supporting women in public for 1 day at the expense of supporting in private throughout the year...

However, it's important to give a shoutout to the many amazing women around me who genuinely go out of their way to lift one another up behind the scenes:

Here's to my team of girls who support the Ecommerce Agency Growth, Ecommerce Partnerships and Ecommerce Agency Summit rocketship and the chaos tornado that is Rachel Jacobs: Mireille, Cristina, Salohy and Claudia 💃🏻

To someone I could write endlessly about, a true friend and soul sister in every sense of the word who's crushing it both professionally and spiritually - Tiara 😘

Founder of 2 businesses, while juggling a very boisterous wee boy who loves throwing rocks in the sea (specifically Gran Canarian rocks with me) - Rebecca 😍

Someone who somehow always finds time to bring joy to my life in the simplest ways, the sweetest soul despite being half British - Mya 🥹

Between bouncing across the world, working a full time job and running one of the largest industry community, at least a couple times a month I hear from people she's mentioned me to in rooms I'm not in - Sara 👑

And to my Ukrainian powerhouse who is one of the strongest, but equally one of the kindest and most thoughtful people - Tanya 💖

To the ladies supporting Ecommerce Agency Growth as Community Champions - Catherine, Amira, and Alexandra 🚀

Here's to some of the amazing women in partnerships that I get to work with on a regular basis who champion me with their agencies and their team:
Gina, Priya, Céline, Kari, Fiona, Mairaid, Ashley, Lynn, Michelle, Elaine, Kate, Shannon, Sarah, Rehab, Amandine... ✨️

And it wouldn't be fair to not give a shoutout to some of the amazing men who continue to champion women around them all year round: 
Darin, Adrian, Jason, Nihar, Will, Brenden, Nathan, Dylan, Scott, Joan...

I'm at my limit of people I can mention so definitely missing many more men who truly care about women being represented and supported 🫶


#iwd2026 #internationalwomensday

This year's Ecommerce Agency Summit (powered by Klaviyo) theme is all about AI & Automation for Ecommerce Agencies. If you're running or working in an agency and investing in AI practices, we have a few open speaker slots available.

Join us on April 1–2, where agency founders, operators, and partners are coming together in Austin for two days of practical insight, connections, and strategic partnership opportunities with one focus: AI & Automation.

We’re talking AI in marketing, AI in operations, agency masterclasses, roundtables, and speed networking. All designed to help you build a stronger, more efficient, and more profitable agency. And of course, networking that actually leads to opportunities.

Thanks to  Klaviyo, Tapcart, Hiro Analytics, Channable, Shopware, Athos Commerce, Gorgias, Kimonix, Shopify, Dataships, clearer.io, PostPilot, Swap, Rokt, Patchworks, Polar Analytics 🐻‍❄️, Orita, Alia, Brij, Grantbot, Tragas Consulting LLC, and waye.

If you run an ecommerce agency and you’re serious about how AI and automation shape your next phase of growth, this is the room: https://lnkd.in/ec5kfCii

#EcommerceAgencySummit #ecommerceagency #agencygrowth #AIforAgencies #automation

I firmly believe 2026 will be a turning point for ecommerce agencies. It will determine who survives, who thrives, and who quietly disappears. And I believe how agencies adopt and adapt to AI is at the centre of that. 

That is why all four Ecommerce Agency Summits in 2026 are focused on one theme: AI & Automation. Across the US, AU, UK, and EU editions, we are focused on practical implementation, not hype: 

1) How to productise AI into client facing services: if you are not packaging AI driven audits, automation builds, creative workflows, or data analysis into clear offers, someone else will. 

2) Rebuilding internal delivery around automation: map your delivery process. Identify repeatable tasks. Systemise them. Protect margin before clients force pricing pressure. 

3) Redefine positioning: generalist agencies will struggle. Agencies known for a specific AI led capability will win. 

4) Agency wide AI adoption: AI adoption dies when it sits at leadership level only. It needs to live inside account management, media buying, creative, and operations. 

Not only is this a core theme across all summits, it's also been a major focus in the Ecommerce Agency Growth community, where agencies are sharing scripts, prompts, templates, workflows, and real world experiments. Not theory. Execution. 

The next 18 to 24 months will move quickly.The question is simple: Are you experimenting deliberately, or will you reacte defensively? 

Explore the 2026 schedule here:
https://lnkd.in/ePQFH9JT

#ecommerceagency #agencyleadership #agencygrowth #automation

[JOIN US: AI & AUTOMATION FOR ECOMMERCE AGENCIES SUMMIT] 
One of the most important sessions inside the Ecommerce Agency Summit, powered by Klaviyo, are the agency masterclasses where we move beyond theory and into implementation.

Inside these sessions, industry experts break down how they’re applying AI across three critical areas:

• AI & CRM: hear from our headline sponsor on how enterprise brands are leveraging AI powered K:Services with Gina Potenza
• AI & Marketing: enhancing strategy, creative output, and campaign performance with Will Lynch
• AI & Operations: improving internal workflows and delivery systems with Tiara Tragas
• AI & Automations: embedding smarter processes that increase efficiency without increasing headcount with Grant Hushek

If you’re exploring how AI fits into your existing agency service model, what AI focused services agencies are including as part their offering or how to improve internal efficiency without adding complexity, this is the place to be!

It puts you in the room with agency leaders and partners who are actively building and refining systems in real time. Not abstract predictions. Just real-world examples of what’s actually working inside agencies today.

Thanks to our partners supporting the Summit, these conversations are grounded in actual experience, not surface-level demos.  Klaviyo, Tapcart, Hiro Analytics, Channable, Shopware, Athos Commerce, Gorgias, Kimonix, Shopify, Dataships, clearer.io, PostPilot, Swap, Rokt, Patchworks, Polar Analytics 🐻‍❄️, Orita, Alia, Brij, Grantbot, Tragas Consulting LLC, and waye.

Seats are filling quickly. Secure your spot here: https://lnkd.in/ec5kfCii

#ecommerceagencysummit #AI #EASUS2026 #agencygrowth #automation

I can't believe I'm still having this conversation with agencies in 2026, but if you're still NOT charging for paid discovery, you're leaving money on the table. 

Top agencies don’t treat paid discovery as a dressed-up proposal or a lightweight kickoff. They treat it as a standalone commercial phase with a clear structure and outcome. 

There’s a difference between charging for discovery and running it properly. When structure is missing, discovery becomes vague. Assumptions creep in. 

And the same problems agencies were trying to avoid show up later in delivery. A strong paid discovery process follows a repeatable flow:

• A clear discovery close: No proposal. No scope. Discovery is sold as its own engagement.

• Stakeholder workshops: Strategy, marketing, design, development. Whoever influences the outcome needs to be in the room.

• Constraint mapping: Budget limits, timelines, internal capability, risk tolerance. Reality first.

• Option modelling: More than one way forward, with clear trade-offs.

• Budget and timeline ranges: Based on real inputs, not guesswork.

• Recommendation walk through: Guiding the client toward the best option based on priorities, not preferences.

If any of these steps are skipped, discovery stops being discovery; it becomes a proposal in disguise.

Review your current discovery process and ask one question honestly: Which of these steps are we skipping or rushing today?

That gap is usually where margin leaks later. If you want my best practice paid discovery templates, get in touch: rachel@ecommercepartnerships.com

#agencygrowth #ecommerceagency #salesprocess

Last month we invited Ecommerce Agency Growth members to our Annual Planning Workshop in Colombia 🇨🇴

These off-sites are intentionally designed for EAG founders and operators who want space to improve how they operate and grow. 

As per the 2026 EAG there, we focused on three core areas: AI and automation, tightening financial operations, and intentional marketing for the year ahead. 

Laptops open. Models built in real time. Decisions made with clarity. Deep sessions during the day. Honest conversations about wins and mistakes. 

Shared meals, rooftop dinners, exploring the walled city, and yes…a few late-night moments that bonded the room in a way Zoom never could.

Founders left with a clearer strategy, stronger relationships, and alignment that will shape the next 12 months of their agencies.


#agencygrowth #ecommerceagency #leadership #strategicplanning

Paid discovery is one of the most powerful levers in agency sales. Most agencies don’t struggle with paid discovery because the idea is wrong. It's not knowing when and how they introduce it.

Paid discovery usually shows up too late: after free proposals, after assumptions are already baked in, and after the client has anchored expectations around scope, budget, and timelines. 

At that point, it feels optional, and anything that feels optional gets pushed back on.

Paid discovery only works when it replaces the proposal entirely. Its role isn’t to upsell or lock a client in. It has one job: remove assumptions before delivery begins.

When agencies skip that step, they pay for it later, under-scoped projects, inevitable scope creep, and misaligned expectations that surface mid-delivery when it’s already too late to reset them.

Strong agencies treat this differently. They introduce a structured, paid planning phase immediately after qualification, not as an add-on, but as the next step. 

The language matters. It’s not framed as “extra work”, but as the only responsible way to scope timelines, budgets, and delivery properly.

A useful gut-check for your current process:
• Does discovery come before any proposal is shared?
• Is it positioned as non-negotiable, or does it feel like an exception?
• Is it delivered by senior people who can actually shape the work?

If the answer to any of those is no, paid discovery will always feel hard to sell.

This isn’t about saying no to clients, it’s about saying yes with clarity. Paid discovery protects margin before it’s under pressure. 

It protects teams from unrealistic commitments. And it sets expectations while there’s still room to walk away.

This is the focus of this week’s work inside 90 Days to Fix Agency Sales, and it’s one of the most effective shifts agencies make once qualification is in place.

If you want more thinking like this as we work through the next 90 days, let me know, and I’ll add you to the newsletter.

#agencygrowth #ecommerceagency #salesstrategy #paiddiscovery

Heading to Shoptalk US and want expert advice on actual level to manage agency profitability? Join our Agency Profitability workshop hosted by the one and only Tiara Tragas of Tragas Consulting LLC.

If margins feel tighter than they should and numbers getting harder to translate into decisions, this session is designed to help bring clarity to the parts of the business that usually get ignored.

No boring panels, generic talks, or pitch slaps. Just a working session for agency owners and operators who want to better understand how to master agency profitability and what numbers actually matter.

If you’re in Vegas and want something more useful than the typical surface-level conversations, join us: https://luma.com/0dur800o

Thanks to the amazing partner teams that are supporting this workshop: Shopify, Klaviyo, Tapcart, Rokt, Polar Analytics 🐻‍❄️ & Alia.

#shoptalk #shoptalk2025 #ecommerceagency #agencygrowth #agencyoperations

Online communities or mastermind groups are often misunderstood, probably because there is so much trash out there providing little to no value, bringing down the reputation for those of us who genuinely care about building something that matters. 

From the outside, it can look like pointless calls, workshops, and Slack threads that don’t translate into obvious wins. But in reality, any community is a sum of the people who are part of it - those who show up and bring value.

That's why in Ecommerce Agency Growth the focus isn’t on adding more to an already busy founder’s plate. It’s about creating tangible value for agency owners and operators empowering them to step out of the day-to-day in exchange of tangible insights.

That shows up in different ways: workshops, implementation sessions, curate mastermind groups, category specific quarterly sessions, and industry expert sessions according to what agencies need help with right now.  

And best of all, none of this is done in isolation, but with peers who are navigating similar stages and constraints. Some agencies choose to go deeper, finally focusing on the things that really matter vs reacting to all of the daily chaos that comes with agency life.

What tends to stand out isn’t the format. It’s the shift in mindset that changes how agencies operate for the better. When the right people are empowered internally, growth feels less fragile. 

Decisions get clearer. Trade-offs become easier. And founders regain the headspace to focus on where the business is going, not just keeping it running.

This kind of progress rarely shows up in a single moment. It compounds quietly through consistency, shared context, and accountability.

That’s the part of community building that doesn’t always get talked about, but ends up shaping the year far more than most people realise.

And that's why we don't just accept anyone. We're only looking for the best. You don't have to be the biggest, but without ambition, you won't add value. 

Here's to the 100's of members that make this community so special 🫶

#agencygrowth #ecommerceagency #community #leadership #agencyoperations

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Debbie Kemunto Pearce

Rachel J.

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The Battle

Debbie Kemunto Pearce

Rachel J.

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Debbie Kemunto Pearce's LinkedIn Performance

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Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreDebbie Kemunto Pearce's LinkedIn Performance