⚓️ What to do when you're seeing momentum with ecommerce
Published 15 days ago • 4 min read
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Hi Reader,
In my twenty years in ecommerce, I've often seen business owners do the right thing but at the wrong time for their business. Or they've gotten some momentum, but they're wasting it by not taking action.
Because of that, I recently put together a talk about how to decide what to do at each stage of your business based on the amount of traffic you get. Did you join me live or get a chance to see it? If not, we uploaded it to YouTube: What Is Your Traffic Telling You?
Here's a short version of what I share in that talk.
The flywheel you'll go through over and over as you grow your ecommerce channel.
Getting a simple Shopify website up is absolutely the right thing to do before ecommerce takes off. Once you start getting more traffic, it makes sense to go back to the site to optimize it and set up features and functionality that are specific to your products and meant to increase your sales numbers.
For online shops that are seeing some momentum (traffic!), we work to increase your conversion rate, average order value, and customer engagement. With these improvements, any traffic you get will pay off more than it is now. Here is some example math for an online shop that is growing:
This shop gets 20,000 visitors per month. Its overall conversion rate is 2.5%, and its average order value is $80.
20,000 x 2.5% x $80 = $40,000 per month
If our work on the site raises the conversion rate to 3.3% and the average order value by $10, those changes add up to almost $20,000 extra per month (over $230,000 extra per year).
20,000 x 3.3% x $90 = $59,400 per month
Once the site performs well, turning the traffic up with organic marketing and paid advertising makes sense. When you get your traffic up, that makes those new numbers even better:
80,000 x 3.3% x $90 = $237,600 per month ($2.85m annually)
You'll know paid marketing is working when you have a good Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) and a good Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). When your numbers are strong, you can increase your ad spend month by month to drive more traffic and watch your sales multiply.
At this point in the flywheel, Aeolidia can help again. We build landing pages to convert more of your ad traffic and fine-tune your email marketing to keep new people engaged. As your traffic grows, it's important to get more visitors to subscribe to your mailing list. This increases sales from new people, encourages repeat purchases, and increases LTV.
When you're seeing momentum, it's a great time to capitalize on it!
If looking at your numbers suggests a redesign, I'd love to help. You can grab our rate sheet here, or you can email me back to ask a question or start a conversation. I can't wait to see what we can do for your shop in 2025!
Q&A
This is normally our area to answer reader questions, but today, please join me for some: Unsolicited Advice
I used to have a real Amazon habit. I was on Prime, I did Subscribe and Save, I got my groceries from them during busy weeks, I'd think of something I wanted in the morning, and I'd have it in the afternoon. In 2020, when everyone was rethinking everything about how we lived, I quit Amazon cold turkey. Apart from accidentally buying an Eero wi-fi booster (not knowing Amazon owned the company), all I have left to do is move from Goodreads (now Amazon-owned) to Storygraph (co-founded by a Black woman) to track my reading.
I buy all of my books from the bookstore up the hill from me, or I order online from Powells, my favorite bookstore. Some of my team use Libby to check out ebooks and audiobooks from the library instead of relying on a Kindle. Of course, Amazon is no longer a bookstore but the "everything store," and it can be hard to find ways to shop smaller.
Here are some recent articles that may be a good starting point if you feel uneasy about supporting Amazon and want to cut back or stop shopping there entirely:
Thanks to Cup of Jo for sparking a great discussion about this in the comments here.
Unsolicited Advice: Given
Tune in next time when we answer a reader question—maybe yours? Our team includes experts in branding, design, development, email & SMS/text marketing, search engine optimization, copywriting, conversion optimization, ecommerce strategy, business growth, and more. Have a question for us? Email back, and I'll consult one of our experts and share one weekly response over email.
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Shopify website, email marketing, and SEO for Moona Fabrics.
Founded in 2010, Moona Fabrics is a family-owned fabric store dedicated to bringing handpicked, vibrant fabrics to makers and creators everywhere. One of Brooke's goals was to branch out from Etsy and direct customers to her own site, and we were glad to build her a home on Shopify that she could feel proud of.
