“We want growth.”

Growth is the most misused word in the e-commerce world.

Here are some examples of “growth”:

1. More customers
2. More revenue
3. More site visitors
4. Longer site session duration
5. More add to carts

Trying to double your revenue by getting more customers is a flawed, but common approach. I believe it’s not because it’s the best way, but it’s because the “new customers” growth lever is the most popular.

I’ve seen e-commerce brands go bankrupt trying to chase “more new customers” as their only growth strategy.

Not every e-commerce business is going to succeed. Sometimes people just don’t want what a brand is selling. But, having a clear, systematic approach to how you attempt to grow an e-commerce business will make sure it wasn’t your bad marketing that put a brand out of business.

Want to save an e-commerce business from going bankrupt? Do this:

Pro-tip: Look at these for the next 90 days.

1. Use Shopify to find what your current numbers are for each growth lever.

1. New Customers
2. Average Order Value
3. Returning Customers

2. Multiply each of the 3 growth levers by 33% to see what numbers we’ll need to hit to double revenue over the next xx days. 90 days is ideal and what I usually use.

3. These are you targets for growth. Resist the temptation to only focus on new customers for growth. It's your job to help the brands you work with stay focused on this strategy vs. letting them chase shiny objects and new customers only.

Once you have your exact numbers clearly written out. Then you can be an e-commerce marketer that comes up with ideas for how you will achieve the targets you’ve set.

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