Commerce Beyond Borders

About Commerce Beyond Borders

Hosted by Renee Hartmann and Chris Baker, Commerce Beyond Borders is a future-forward perspective on the rapidly evolving world of commerce and global growth strategies, providing critical insights, innovative tactics and transformative trends shaping the future of global commerce.

Publisher

Renee Hartmann and Chris Baker

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

23 Jan 2025

Latest episode

16 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

27 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   16 Oct 2026

   Predictability Over Speed: What Retail Supply Chains Need Now

   Supply chain used to be treated as a cost center. Hans Elmegaard, who has held leadership roles at Agility, DSV, Maersk/Damco, Panalpina and Scan Global Logistics and is now co-founder and CEO of Moddule, explains why that has changed. Renee Hartmann and Chris Baker talk with him about why knowing when inventory will arrive now matters more than how fast it moves, where AI is delivering value in logistics and where it is still hype, and why retailers need their executives closer to supply chain decisions. n this episode of Commerce Beyond Borders, hosts Renee Hartmann and Chris Baker speak with Hans Elmegaard, co-founder and CEO of Moddule and a global supply chain executive with experience across Asia, Europe and North America. Hans explains how retail supply chains have shifted from a back-office cost to a strategic advantage, why end-to-end visibility matters more than speed in an unpredictable world, and what it takes for AI to be useful in logistics. Key takeaways Supply chain is now a competitive advantage in retail. Retailers that invested in supply chain technology and flexible formats can keep stock available during a short selling window, while competitors selling the same product cannot. Predictability matters more than speed. Retailers that know where their goods are and when they will arrive can plan. Many still track this manually in spreadsheets, which is costly. Supply chain complexity feels harder partly because it is more visible. Hans notes that supply chain has always been about managing disruption. COVID, tariffs and port delays put it in front of consumers and executives. Chief supply chain officers are joining core decisions. Every organizational change affects the supply chain, so it needs to be part of the decision from the start. AI creates value when it works across fragmented systems. Logistics technology is spread across many systems, and AI can orchestrate workflows between them. Much AI in the industry is still fluff until it is tied to a concrete outcome. Data trust decides how much AI can decide. Today most AI output is a recommendation for a person to act on. Letting AI act on incorrect arrival data is costly. Siloed retail teams hurt the whole chain. Purchasing, shipping, sales and online teams often run on different KPIs. Hans recommends managing end to end, from factory floor to consumer door. Topics covered How retail supply chains changed with e-commerce, new sales channels and global access What COVID taught retailers about their dependence on supply chain Speed versus accuracy and resilience in sourcing Spreading sourcing risk across countries Supply chain as a retail competitive advantage AI, data quality and decision-making in logistics Why executives need to be closer to supply chain operations Frequently asked questions Is supply chain getting harder, or does it just feel harder?Hans Elmegaard says it mostly feels harder because it is more visible. Supply chain has always been about managing disruption, but the public now follows container ship updates. Has supply chain moved from a cost center to a competitive advantage in retail?According to Hans, yes. Retailers that invested in technology and flexible supply chain formats can keep products available when demand is highest. What matters more in retail logistics, speed or predictability?Hans argues predictability. Knowing when inventory will arrive lets retailers plan stock for stores and online, and lets them plan sourcing across multiple countries. Where does AI help in retail supply chains?Hans sees the most value in orchestrating workflows across the many separate systems used in logistics, and in analyzing which data sources are most reliable. He cautions that data quality determines whether AI can make decisions or only recommend them. What is Hans Elmegaard’s advice for retailers?Bring executives closer to supply chain operations, and align purchasing, shipping, sales and online teams on shared end-to-end o

2. 

   4 Oct 2026

   Why Most DTC Brands Are Scaling the Wrong Way with Jon Blair

   Most DTC brands pick their channel first and figure out the economics later. Jon Blair, Founder of Free to Grow CFO and founding team member of Guardian Bikes, says that's why so many struggle to scale. Drawing on work with hundreds of e-commerce brands, he joins Renee Hartmann and Chris Baker to break down the three "games" every DTC brand is playing (apparel, durable goods and consumables), why each needs a different playbook for CAC, channels and inventory, and how to tell a durable brand from a temporary arbitrage. Plus: why niche brands with loyal fans win, and how to measure growth across Shopify and Amazon. The easy days of e-commerce are over. Five years after the pandemic-era asset bubble, DTC brands can no longer ride cheap customer acquisition and institutional capital. They have to build real businesses. In this episode, Renee Hartmann and Chris Baker sit down with Jon Blair, Founder of Free to Grow CFO, to talk about what that actually takes. Jon was on the founding team of Guardian Bikes, now a multi-hundred million dollar DTC-only brand, before launching Free to Grow CFO five years ago. His firm has around 30 e-commerce CFOs and accountants and works with about 50 brands at any time, helping them scale from roughly $10 million to $50 million and beyond. Having seen hundreds of brands succeed and fail, Jon has developed a framework for why some scale profitably and others don't. At the heart of it is the idea that every brand is playing one of three "games": the apparel game, the durable goods (first-purchase dominant) game, and the high-LTV consumables game. Each has a different playbook for product expansion, CAC management and channel strategy. For durable goods brands, physical retail is where lifetime value finally shows up, because the retailer becomes the repeat buyer. For consumables, it's subscription and the LTV-to-CAC equation. For apparel, loyalty builds slowly over years, and excess inventory is the silent killer. Jon says 100% of the apparel brands his team audits have too much of it. The conversation also covers why Amazon-first brands often struggle to move into DTC, how marketplace expansion complicates attribution and strains the balance sheet, and why blended cohort models across Shopify, Amazon and TikTok are essential for consumables brands. Jon shares how one client grew from $800K to $5 million a month using this approach. Jon also introduces a key distinction: arbitrage versus durability. Some brands succeed by being early to a nascent product category or ad channel, like AppLovin, but those windows can close within 30 days. His advice: know which game you're playing, and if you're benefiting from an arbitrage, build durability proactively before it disappears. In this episode: Why e-commerce isn't harder, it's just back to business fundamentals How to define a DTC brand today: digitally native vs. brick-and-mortar native The three growth marketing games and their different playbooks The jump from Shopify to Amazon, retailer marketplaces and physical retail Why Amazon-first brands often should skip DTC entirely How successful brands set CAC ceilings and manage acquisition costs The inventory trap in apparel and why clearing it takes 12 to 24 months Spotting arbitrage, and why windows can slam shut in 30 days Why niche brands with raving fans, like a gothic apparel brand for customers in their 40s and 50s, often outperform mass-market plays How founder-led, mission-driven brands achieve exceptional three- and four-year retention What GEO and AI-driven product research mean for brands with long consideration cycles Building blended cohort models across Shopify, Amazon and TikTok Health and wellness consumables, clean beauty and the Grüns story Jon's core advice for founders: you don't choose your product's consumption pattern, so build your business around it About the guest:Jon Blair is the Founder of Free to Grow CFO, a fractional CFO firm specializing in scaling e-commerce b

3. 

   1 Sept 2026

   How Korea Became a Global Culture Engine, with Dominika Kustosz-Lee

   Korea has just 51 million people and a GDP under 2 trillion dollars, yet it was the fifth-largest luxury market in the world in 2023 and continues to export culture, from beauty to fashion to retail experience, at a scale far beyond its size. On this episode of Commerce Beyond Borders, Renee Hartmann and Chris Baker sit down with Dominika Kustosz-Lee, a Rethink Retail Top Expert for 2025 and 2026 with nearly two decades of experience across Korean e-commerce, luxury, and business development. They dig into why Korean consumers move as one, how Olive Young became the infrastructure behind K-beauty's rise, why Seongsu is now known as Korea's pop-up capital, and what global brands consistently get wrong when they try to enter the market.

Who has been a guest on Commerce Beyond Borders

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Kevin Ertell
• João Correia
• Xiaofeng Gu
• Dave Morrissey
• Chen Li

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

4 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 30 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

48

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

32

Contact Commerce Beyond Borders

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

Questions about Commerce Beyond Borders