Peter Benes
Retail ecommerce & marketing consultant who works in the trenches with independent shop owners.
25 years of experience in digital marketing in retail and website design for ecommerce.
The short version
A Canadian digital marketing consultant and Shopify Select Partner
Peter helps brick-and-mortar retailers in the USA & Canada grow their online sales. He operates his consulting practice through Benes the Menace, working directly with independent store owners and their teams on one-on-one Zoom calls.
Peter focuses on the intersection of search, advertising, and the opportunities for small business presented by AI, with a particular skill for helping retailers with small budgets use these tools to compete, by eliminating waste and finding opportunities to maximize returns.
His approach is hands-on, data-driven, and built around one principle: if it doesn't show up in your sales numbers, it doesn't count.
How I got here
While I launched a design and ad tech agency, my partner launched a retail dancewear store. For 25 years, she grew that dancewear store into the largest in Canada. A 13,000 square foot retail store and warehouse shipping orders to all the provinces Canada.
We spent our own money on the advertising, and I learned how to stretch each dollar, and get sales online. I focused on the technical side, including SEO, Google Ads, Shopify custom development, Google Analytics, and more.
In2020, during the start of the pandemic, I offered to help retailers without a working website for free, and 24 took me up on it. We met every day at 5pm for 3 months. We got the sites launched, set up ads in Google & Meta, and started getting sales. On the last when I was saying goodbye to them, someone asked me, "How do we hire you?" I hadn't considered this could be a business until that moment. I launched my benesthemenace.com site the next day, and immediate got pre-purchases for 10-hour blocks of time, and have been going strong ever since.
What I actually do
I work with independent retail store owners to maximize their online sales while eliminating waste.
Usually this is over Zoom, often on a weekly call. We work together to identify what we can do to make the biggest difference for your store, and then we take actions to make it happen quickly.
The Zoom calls are a great fit for retailers who want to take back some control over their tools and marketing. Usually our calls are guided by my clients' goals.
How I Work
The hourly consulting is something I provide as needed. Most of my clients prefer to have a weekly call, but it's up to you.
What my clients appreciate is that I am truly coaching with them so that they understand how things work, what's needed quickly, and what we can do to really move the needle without spending a huge amount of money.
If you came here looking for…
Performance-Based Advertising with a 5X Guarantee
…that's a different service I offer and it has moved to its own website.
