Most e-commerce brands think they have a retention problem.

But according to Eli Weiss, they often have something deeper: a customer experience problem.

In the first episode of CX After Hours, Eli joins hosts Guillaume Luccisano and Anya Kelly to unpack where retention really breaks — long before a customer churns, leaves a bad review, or opens a support ticket.

They discuss why your best customers often leave quietly, why “deflection” is the wrong goal if customers still aren’t getting resolution, and why the boring parts of e-commerce CX — returns, refunds, exchanges, replacements, and policies — are often the moments that decide whether customers come back.

Eli Weiss is VP of Advocacy at Yotpo and previously led CX and retention at brands including OLIPOP and Jones Road Beauty. He also writes the excellent All Things CX and Retention newsletter.

Subscribe to Eli’s newsletter: https://www.eliweisss.com/

Chapters:

03:21 — From CX cost center to retention driver

08:00 — The Vent: what CX gets wrong about automation

09:00 — Why the remaining 10% of tickets matter most

13:31 — Faster slop: when AI makes bad CX worse

14:21 — The ripped socks story: policy vs. customer loyalty

16:01 — When AI should hand off to a human

17:12 — Deflection vs. resolution

18:43 — Why retention is mostly product

19:36 — What Reddit and social reveal about CX

24:11 — When CX becomes a safety net for broken systems

29:23 — Why refunds and returns are business tools

36:07 — The future of CX: bots plus exceptional humans

📺 Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/bJmKomr28zI

Subscribe via email and get new episodes delivered to your inbox: https://yuma.ai/cx-after-hours

Follow the hosts:

Guillaume Lucissano: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guillaumeluccisano/

Anya Kelly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anya-kelly/

Follow this episode’s guest:

Eli Weiss: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eliweisss/

CX After Hours is the podcast for CX leaders and operators in retail and ecommerce who are in the trenches scaling customer experience to drive real growth.

Powered by Yuma AI, the show goes beyond polished talking points to explore the trade-offs, pressure, and decisions that shape whether customers come back, spend more, and stay loyal.

Learn more about Yuma AI: https://yuma.ai/