Tom Cochrane is founder of Eleviam, a brand accelerator running more than forty CPG brands across Amazon, Walmart, and TikTok Shop. Before building the agency, he put nearly five million dollars of his own capital into Amazon inventory to prove the model himself.
This episode tackles a problem every CPG brand now faces: platforms are getting more expensive, more competitive, and harder to attribute, even as consumer attention keeps fragmenting.
Tom and Eitan dig into the halo effect between TikTok Shop and Amazon, why a third of TikTok-driven purchases convert somewhere else entirely, and how Amazon’s new AI shopping layer is changing what actually belongs in a listing.
Listeners walk away with a clearer view of how to sequence platform investment as a brand matures, and why profitability discipline matters more than chasing growth at any cost.
Website: https://expanio.com/
Podcast website: https://expanio.com/commerce-untold-podcast/
Eitan Koter’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eitankoter/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CommerceUntold
Guest: Tom Cochrane, Founder, Eleviam
Tom Cochrane’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasgcochrane/
Eleviam: https://eleviam.io/
Key Takeaways:
• Ninety percent of US consumers still validate a purchase on Amazon even when they discovered the product somewhere else.
• Thirty-seven percent of TikTok Shop transactions convert off of TikTok, most often on Amazon.
• Creator partnerships should be judged on proven GMV track record, not follower count.
• Amazon’s AI shopping layer now reads full PDP and A+ content, so listings need to answer real buyer objections instead of just stuffing keywords.
• Brands should launch omnichannel from day one, but stay narrow with a hero SKU before expanding the catalog.
• Agencies scale by building repeatable systems and pod structures before they scale revenue.
Chapters:
[00:19] Introduction to Tom Cochrane and background
[02:35] Running Amazon and TikTok Shop together: the halo effect
[05:36] Rising platform costs and the shift toward creator partnerships
[08:08] Competition, agentic shopping, and Amazon’s AI-driven listings (Cosmos, Rufus)
[11:53] Matching platform strategy to a brand’s lifecycle stage
[19:41] CPG challenges today: LTV, margins, and building a moat
[26:11] Inside Eleviam: ICP, delivery, and where e-commerce is headed
