20 People to Follow on YouTube for E-Commerce and Marketing
YouTube becomes useful for e-commerce when I stop treating it as an endless feed and start treating it as a working library. A good tutorial should help me understand a decision, build something, or test an assumption. Watching another hour of advice is not the same thing as improving a store.
These are 20 people to follow on YouTube for e-commerce and marketing, grouped by the work you want to do. The selection includes store operators, Shopify developers, advertising educators, SEO specialists, and people who can help you measure what happens after the click.
This is not a ranking by subscribers. Where someone teaches through a company or shared channel, I have identified that explicitly. The suggested starting topics are directions for exploring each library, not invented video titles or promises of results.
Find the right starting point
- Running an e-commerce business
- Shopify development and store experience
- Paid advertising and creative
- SEO and organic acquisition
- Analytics and measurement
- Messaging, positioning, and content
Starting a store? Begin with Steve Chou and Kurt Elster. Improving a Shopify theme? Look at Ed Codes, Jan, and Christopher Dodd. Trying to improve acquisition? Choose a creative or SEO specialist. Unsure whether your results are trustworthy? Start with MeasureSchool or Analytics Mania before increasing spend.
What I looked for
I prioritized a clear connection between the educator and the subject, a useful public video library, and an identifiable channel linked from an official site or public source. The research checks identities and educational focus; it is not an audit of every video, every claim, or every paid program. Skill levels below are my suggested starting points, not certifications.
Some older videos remain useful for principles but no longer match current interfaces. Check publication dates, platform documentation, and the assumptions behind a tutorial before changing a live store or advertising account. Inclusion is not an endorsement of paid courses or a guarantee of business results. Research reviewed in September 2026.
Running an e-commerce business
1. Steve Chou
Watch MyWifeQuitHerJob on YouTube
Focus: Physical-product stores and business fundamentals
Suggested level: Beginner to intermediate
Steve's channel connects selling products with the practical decisions behind running a store. His own background includes Bumblebee Linens and the MyWifeQuitHerJob educational business. I would start here for the relationship between product selection, selling channels, and a sustainable business, rather than looking only for a store-launch checklist. Background and further reading.
Start with: Product selection, sourcing, and comparisons between selling through your own store and marketplaces.
Put it to work: Compare two potential sales channels using margin, customer ownership, operating costs, and risk.
2. Davie Fogarty
Watch Davie Fogarty on YouTube
Focus: Consumer brands and founder execution
Suggested level: Beginner to intermediate
Davie, the founder behind The Oodie, publishes e-commerce education alongside broader entrepreneurial content. His channel is a useful place to explore how product, brand, and acquisition decisions connect. I would separate the operational lessons from lifestyle storytelling and treat reported results as examples, not a forecast for another business. Background and further reading.
Start with: E-commerce brand building and product marketing explanations, rather than wealth-focused clips.
Put it to work: Write a one-page product brief covering the buyer, problem, demonstration, offer, and margin before building a store.
3. Kurt Elster
Watch The Unofficial Shopify Podcast / Ethercycle on YouTube
Focus: Shopify merchant decisions
Suggested level: Intermediate
Kurt is a Shopify consultant and host of The Unofficial Shopify Podcast. His channel offers a different learning format from a step-by-step course: conversations about the decisions merchants and operators face. The value is often in understanding a trade-off, not finding a universal tactic to apply to every store. Background and further reading.
Start with: Merchant interviews and discussions of store experience, offers, and conversion problems.
Put it to work: Choose one idea from an interview and document what would need to be true for it to work in your store.
Shopify development and store experience
4. Eduard (Ed Codes)
Focus: Practical Shopify theme improvements
Suggested level: Beginner to intermediate
Eduard teaches the technical side of running a Shopify store through practical tutorials. This is a useful channel for merchants who want to understand their theme and make focused improvements. It can also help you describe a requirement more clearly to a developer, even when you do not intend to write the code yourself. Background and further reading.
Start with: Theme customization, sections, blocks, and introductory Liquid explanations.
Put it to work: Duplicate your theme and implement one small improvement there. Test it on mobile before publishing.
5. Jan (Coding with Jan)
Watch Coding with Jan on YouTube
Focus: Shopify development workflows
Suggested level: Intermediate to technical
Jan's educational work focuses on Shopify development, with his current site also addressing AI-assisted development workflows. I would use this channel to move beyond copying snippets and understand how a change is planned and implemented. Technical tutorials need to match your theme architecture and the current platform, not simply the feature you want. Background and further reading.
Start with: Liquid, JavaScript, and structured Shopify development projects.
Put it to work: Write acceptance criteria for one store feature before coding it, including keyboard use, mobile behavior, and failure states.
6. Christopher Dodd
Watch Code with Chris the Freelancer on YouTube
Focus: Learning Shopify theme development
Suggested level: Intermediate to technical
Christopher teaches Shopify theme development through his coding channel and training site. The channel linked here is the development resource, not his separate travel-oriented channel. I would use his material when a merchant or developer needs a more systematic understanding of how a theme is assembled and maintained. Background and further reading.
Start with: Shopify Liquid and theme development foundations.
Put it to work: Document where one feature lives in your theme and how an update could affect your customization.
Paid advertising and creative
7. Dara Denney
Focus: Performance creative and ad testing
Suggested level: Intermediate
Dara's work centers on creative strategy and Meta ads. YouTube gives her room to explain the reasoning behind creative, rather than just showing a finished asset. For a store with repetitive advertising, I would start with the customer insight and angle behind each concept before making another round of visual variations. Background and further reading.
Start with: Creative strategy, ad concepts, and explanations of creative testing.
Put it to work: Build three concepts from three different customer objections. Define what each concept is meant to teach you.
8. Ben Heath
Focus: Meta advertising decisions
Suggested level: Beginner to intermediate
Ben's channel is a practical entry point for understanding Meta advertising. His agency also works with Google Ads, but the channel linked here is the main Ben Heath channel. I would use the tutorials to understand the logic behind campaign decisions, then check whether the example fits the budget and conversion volume of the business. Background and further reading.
Start with: Meta campaign setup, optimization, and budget-management explanations.
Put it to work: Before changing a campaign, record the problem, the proposed change, and the evidence you will use to evaluate it.
9. Jon Loomer
Focus: Meta ads details and changes
Suggested level: Intermediate to advanced
Jon combines advertising education with short video explanations and broader discussions. His channel is useful when a feature or setting needs closer attention. Unlike a beginner course that you watch in sequence, I would treat much of this library as a reference and pair a video with the related explanation on his site. Background and further reading.
Start with: Specific Meta advertising features, reporting questions, and campaign settings.
Put it to work: Confirm the publication date and whether the feature is available in your account before acting on a tutorial.
10. Molly Pittman
Watch Smart Marketer (shared channel) on YouTube
Focus: Paid traffic within a customer journey
Suggested level: Intermediate
Molly teaches through Smart Marketer, so this recommendation points to a shared channel that also features Ezra Firestone and other educators. I would look specifically for Molly's sessions on paid traffic and marketing decisions. The useful perspective is how audience, offer, and message work together, rather than assuming campaign settings can repair a weak offer. Background and further reading.
Start with: Molly's paid-traffic discussions and customer-journey training.
Put it to work: Compare your ad promise with the first screen of the landing page. Remove any gap between the two.
SEO and organic acquisition
11. Sam Oh
Watch Ahrefs (team channel) on YouTube
Focus: Structured SEO education
Suggested level: Beginner to intermediate
Sam teaches in Ahrefs' video library, which includes keyword research and SEO tutorials. This is a company channel with multiple contributors, not a personal channel. I would use his explanations to build a repeatable research process, while remembering that demonstrations naturally feature Ahrefs and do not make a paid subscription mandatory for every lesson. Background and further reading.
Start with: Keyword research, search intent, and beginner SEO lessons presented by Sam.
Put it to work: Map five relevant searches to the page types buyers need before writing new content.
12. Brian Dean
Focus: Content structure and search strategy
Suggested level: Beginner to intermediate
Brian's video library includes SEO walkthroughs and content-focused explanations. I would use it to think more deliberately about how an article earns attention and answers a search. Some useful lessons are older, so distinguish durable principles from dated tools, interfaces, or tactical claims. A video's confident title is not a ranking guarantee. Background and further reading.
Start with: SEO foundations and planning content around a clear search intent.
Put it to work: Audit an existing guide for missing buyer questions before deciding that it simply needs more words.
13. Neil Patel
Focus: The broader digital marketing mix
Suggested level: Beginner to intermediate
Neil covers SEO, content, and digital marketing across a broad range of topics. I would use his channel for discovering questions worth investigating, then narrow the advice to the store's actual economics and customer journey. Broad channel recommendations are a starting point for analysis, not a replacement for a technical or commercial diagnosis. Background and further reading.
Start with: SEO and content marketing explanations tied to a specific business problem.
Put it to work: Choose one recommendation and state which customer segment, page, and measurable outcome it should affect.
Analytics and measurement
14. Julian Juenemann
Watch MeasureSchool (team channel) on YouTube
Focus: Understanding marketing measurement
Suggested level: Intermediate to technical
Julian created MeasureSchool, a team-led resource for analytics and tracking education. I would include it because marketing decisions are only as useful as the measurements behind them. The channel covers tools such as Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics, with presenters beyond Julian. Start from the question you need to answer, not a desire to collect every possible event. Background and further reading.
Start with: GA4, Google Tag Manager, and tracking-debugging walkthroughs.
Put it to work: Write a measurement plan linking each important event to a real business question and an owner.
15. Julius Fedorovicius
Watch Analytics Mania on YouTube
Focus: GA4 and Google Tag Manager implementation
Suggested level: Intermediate to advanced
Julius founded Analytics Mania and teaches Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager. His technical material is useful when you need to understand an implementation, not just read a dashboard. For e-commerce, I would pay particular attention to validation: a purchase event firing is not enough if its value, currency, or transaction identifier is wrong. Background and further reading.
Start with: GA4 event tracking, e-commerce measurement, and GTM troubleshooting.
Put it to work: Run a test order and check event duplication and purchase parameters. Respect consent requirements and do not send personal information in analytics events.
Messaging, positioning, and content
16. Alex Cattoni
Watch Alex Cattoni / Copy Posse on YouTube
Focus: Copywriting and persuasive communication
Suggested level: Beginner to intermediate
Alex's Copy Posse work covers copywriting, brand voice, and marketing. Video explanations can help a store team see why a message works instead of copying its wording. I would apply the lessons to product pages and emails, focusing on relevance, believable proof, and a clear next step rather than exaggerated promises. Background and further reading.
Start with: Headline writing, email copy, and explanations of persuasive messaging.
Put it to work: Rewrite a product-page headline and opening paragraph for one specific buyer and support the main claim with evidence.
17. Chris Do
Watch The Futur (team channel) on YouTube
Focus: Branding and communicating value
Suggested level: Intermediate
Chris founded The Futur, whose channel includes conversations and teaching on branding, pricing, sales, and creative business. Many examples concern services rather than physical products. I would transfer the underlying questions about value and differentiation to e-commerce, without assuming that a consulting sales process should become a store's checkout experience. Background and further reading.
Start with: Chris's discussions of positioning, brand strategy, and value-based communication.
Put it to work: Explain your product's difference in terms a buyer can verify, without relying on the words premium or best.
18. Adam Erhart
Focus: Marketing strategy and customer clarity
Suggested level: Beginner
Adam publishes marketing and business education through his video channel. I would use it when a team needs a clearer framework before choosing another platform or tool. Some examples are oriented toward services and client acquisition, so a product merchant should translate the principles rather than copy the entire funnel. Background and further reading.
Start with: Marketing strategy, audience definition, and offer communication.
Put it to work: Write down who the offer is for, what problem it solves, and why the customer should believe the promise.
19. Miles Beckler
Watch Miles Beckler on YouTube
Focus: Content, email, and owned audiences
Suggested level: Beginner to intermediate
Miles teaches audience building, content, email, and online business. His examples often involve digital products or affiliate marketing rather than inventory-based stores. I would use the channel for the connection between useful content and an owned audience, while checking that the economics and sales process translate to physical products. Background and further reading.
Start with: Email-list building and connecting content to relevant offers.
Put it to work: Create a genuinely useful buying or care guide and define the next email that would help that same customer.
20. Wes McDowell
Focus: YouTube as a customer-acquisition channel
Suggested level: Beginner to intermediate
Wes's current positioning focuses on attracting clients through YouTube. His material is particularly relevant to service businesses, so I would not describe it as a Shopify operations channel. For e-commerce, the useful adaptation is creating videos around buying decisions, demonstrations, and comparisons instead of chasing views that have little connection to the product. Background and further reading.
Start with: Planning videos that answer prospective customers' questions.
Put it to work: Outline one comparison video with a clear audience, honest trade-offs, and a relevant product-page destination.
A practical way to learn without getting lost
- Choose one problem. A vague goal like learning marketing produces a very long watchlist. A specific goal like improving product demonstrations produces a usable plan.
- Watch with the relevant page or account open. Take notes on decisions and assumptions, not every sentence. Use a development theme for code changes.
- Make one controlled change. Define what success means before you make it. Do not rebuild a funnel after every new video.
- Check the outcome. Look at the quality of traffic, purchases, margin, and customer experience as appropriate. Views and watch time alone do not tell a merchant whether a change helped.
What I would not copy from a YouTube tutorial
I would not copy a budget without understanding the business behind it, install tracking twice because two tutorials recommend different tools, or paste theme code into a live store without testing. I would also separate revenue from profit and an attributed conversion from proof that an ad caused the sale.
Good education should make you better at asking questions. If the only conclusion after a video is that you need to buy the creator’s software or course immediately, step back and identify what you can independently verify first.
More ways to build your marketing library
- 20 People to Follow on Instagram for E-Commerce and Marketing: a complementary shortlist for a different format.
- What Is Marketing?: put individual tactics in context.
- Improving Product Pages with AI: turn ideas into clearer product information.
- Shopify in New York: my perspective on connecting the storefront with the rest of the business.
For a different set of voices, explore my 20 people to follow on X for ecommerce and marketing, covering DTC operations, retention, search, and positioning.