The 2026 eCom Trends Report
Top Report Findings: This is our sixth Trends Report with 300 owners representing $3.5...
What does it take to build a manufacturing brand from scratch with your own machines, your own team, and your own two hands? In this episode, Liz Hilton, inventor, founder, and owner of Swaddelini, shares how she turned a sleepless night as a new mom into a US-made baby swaddle brand powered by 3D knit technology.
Listen in as Liz shares the wild ride of going viral on TikTok, doubling capacity at the wrong time, and watching sales drop by nearly 50% before bouncing back stronger than ever. She unpacks eight months of traditional PR, firing her marketing agency over a disconnected Google Tag, and partnering with a programmer who now runs her paid ads with a custom attribution model she actually trusts. Plus, you’ll get the story behind Holding Mother, her long-form documentary reframing the postpartum experience, and why she believes the best marketing is simply showing up for moms.
You’ll learn:
- How Liz invented the Swaddelini out of desperation as a sleep-deprived new mom. (2:38)
- How a single TikTok video hit 1M views and triggered 800 garage orders. (5:52)
- The WooCommerce glitch that lost 200 shipments and the mindset shift that followed. (7:03)
- Why doubling manufacturing capacity in 2024 led to a near 50% sales drop. (14:38)
- How a $500 audit revealed her agency never connected her Google Tag. (17:48)
- What eight months on a PR retainer taught her about doing it in-house. (22:38)
- Why Liz doesn’t offer refunds and the ROAS floor she refuses to go below. (27:12)
- The vision behind the Holding Mother documentary. (33:58)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music
(With your host Andrew Youderian of eCommerceFuel.com and Liz Hilton of Swaddelini.com)
What Was Mentioned
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- Liz Hilton: LinkedIn | Swaddelini
- Official Trailer: Holding Mother
- The First Forty Days: The Essential Art of Nourishing the New Mother by Amely Greevan, Heng Ou, and Marisa Belger
- Awin
- Qwoted
- Muck Rack
- 2026 eCom Trends Report
- The Financial Mastery Series
- eCommerceFuel Forum
Ideas Worth Sharing:
“I try to sell to moms who are pregnant because once you're in that postpartum haze, you can't be sold to… I don't want to sell to you when you're in the most vulnerable and stressed part of your life.” - @swaddelini Tweet this “I was part of YouTube Shorts when it was in beta, so I think there is something to be said for following those little marketing gurus.” - @swaddelini Tweet this “I think there's room to do more work like this… capturing women in this vulnerable spot and learning how they're handling it.” - @swaddelini Tweet this
Post by Andrew Youderian
Founder and Chief Instigator, eComFuel
Andrew quit an early finance job to sell CB radios online — an admittedly unorthodox career path. It set him on a course to found and sell multiple businesses, host a decade-running podcast, lecture at Harvard Business School and create eComFuel, the leading community for 7- and 8-figure online business owners. Andrew is fascinated with branding, AI, building community, investing and growing meaningful businesses that don't require sacrificing what truly matters.
