E-Commerce Growth Marketing

Sales follow steps; each step loses people. You will map a funnel using real counts and find the single step where most shoppers leave, so effort goes where it pays back.

• Visit, view product, add to cart, check out, pay, return.
• Conversion rate at each step.
• Find the biggest leak first.
• Repeat customers cost less to win.
• Map your funnel with real counts: 1,000 visitors, 40 add to basket, 20 start checkout, 12 buy; the biggest drop shows where to work first, here the step from visit to basket.
• Calculate your conversion rate by dividing orders by visitors; 12 orders from 1,000 visitors is 1.2 percent, and a small lift to 1.5 percent is a 25 percent rise in orders.
• Draw the buyer's journey in five steps.
• Collect five real buyer questions and answer them on the page.

Activity. Draw your funnel with numbers.

Standard to meet. Compute the rates for each step.

Common mistake. Looking at total visits only.

Check yourself. Where is your biggest leak?

A message works when it fits a real person. You will build a buyer profile from five short conversations and borrow customers' own phrases, making your messages sound like them.

• Describe one buyer: need, worry, budget, where they look.
• Talk to five buyers or read their reviews.
• Write the main benefit in a sentence.
• Choose one channel to start.
• Write a buyer profile with age range, need, where they spend time online, what worries them about buying, and three words they use to describe the product.
• Talk to five past buyers for ten minutes each and note the exact phrases they use; reuse those phrases in your titles and descriptions.
• Check page speed on a phone.
• Compare your price with three similar sellers.

Activity. Interview five buyers and write the profile.

Standard to meet. Write a profile that uses their words.

Common mistake. Writing for yourself, not the buyer.

Check yourself. Which words came from buyers?

The page must answer questions fast. You will arrange a product page so price, photos, delivery and buy button answer doubts quickly, and write benefit-first descriptions.

• Clear title, photos, price, delivery, returns.
• Honest reviews.
• One main button.
• Offer: bundle, free delivery over a threshold, small discount.
• Place the main photo, price, delivery time and a clear buy button at the top of the page without scrolling, and add at least four photos including one showing size beside a common object.
• Write the first line of the description as the benefit in under 15 words, then list three facts, then add delivery and returns details to reduce doubt.
• Put returns and delivery details near the button.
• Use one clear photo that shows size.

Activity. Improve one page and list changes.

Standard to meet. Tie changes to buyer worries.

Common mistake. Too many choices on the page.

Check yourself. What is your one button?

Small budgets need focus. You will split a small budget across two channels and calculate your maximum cost per order, so advertising never loses money silently.

• Search, social, email, partners, marketplaces.
• Start with one or two channels.
• Set daily budget and stop rule.
• Track with simple links.
• Start with a monthly budget you can afford to lose, such as 100 (in your currency), split between two channels, and compare cost per order after two weeks before adding more.
• Work out your maximum cost per order: if profit before ads is 8 (in your currency), you cannot pay more than 8 to win an order, and should aim well below that.
• Test one email subject line against another.
• Keep a record of every test and result.

Activity. Write the channel plan with budget.

Standard to meet. Write a budget and stop rule.

Common mistake. Spreading a small budget thin.

Check yourself. Which channels did you choose?

A test needs two versions and a number. You will state a test as an if-then sentence, change one thing, and log the result, learning from evidence instead of opinion.

• Pick one change: headline, image, price, offer.
• Run both at the same time to similar people.
• Wait for enough results.
• Record winner and lesson.
• Write each test as a sentence: 'If we change X, then Y will rise by Z within two weeks'; pick one change, such as the headline, and leave everything else unchanged.
• Wait for at least 100 visitors or 2 weeks per version before judging, and record the result in a log with date, change, numbers and what you will do next.
• Ask buyers why they chose you.
• Include a way to opt out in every message.

Activity. Run three tests.

Standard to meet. Give each test data and a decision.

Common mistake. Changing two things at once.

Check yourself. What single change did you test?

Existing customers are the cheapest sales. You will set up a welcome email and a short follow-up sequence, turning first-time buyers into repeat customers at low cost.

• Ask for consent; offer an easy opt-out.
• Welcome mail, order mail, reminder mail.
• Useful content over constant offers.
• Measure opens, clicks, sales.
• Send a welcome email thanking the subscriber, with your best-selling product linked, within an hour of signing up, and a follow-up three days after a purchase asking how the product is working.
• Plan a simple sequence of three emails over 14 days, with one clear action each, and measure the open rate and orders per email to see which one deserves more effort.
• Check ad claims are true and provable.
• Set a weekly spending limit and stick to it.

Activity. Write a three-mail sequence.

Standard to meet. Show consent and include an unsubscribe.

Common mistake. Emailing without consent.

Check yourself. Where is consent recorded?

Know what each sale costs. You will track five weekly numbers and calculate break-even orders, knowing exactly how many sales are needed to cover your costs.

• Cost per sale = spend / sales.
• Margin per sale = price - product cost - delivery - fees.
• Return on spend = revenue / spend.
• Keep margin above cost per sale.
• Review five numbers every week: visitors, conversion rate, average order value, cost per order and repeat purchase rate, written on one page with last week beside this week.
• Know your break-even: if monthly costs are 600 and profit per order is 10 (both in your currency), you need 60 orders to cover them, and everything above that is gain.
• Record the margin before any discount.
• Use the winners again in new ads.

Activity. Build a numbers table for the month.

Standard to meet. Check that formulas are correct and the currency is shown.

Common mistake. Counting revenue instead of margin.

Check yourself. What is your profit per sale?

Do more of what works. You will decide when a channel earns more budget and write a monthly plan with owners and measures, scaling only what is proven.

• Keep winners, stop losers.
• Raise budgets slowly.
• Share lessons in the peer circle.
• Plan 90 days.
• Scale only what works: if a channel returns twice its cost over a month, raise its budget by about 20 percent and watch for a fall in return before raising again.
• Write a monthly plan with three tests, one owner, one date and one measure each, then review at month end and keep a list of what you learned.
• Stop ideas that fail twice.
• Write next month's plan with three tests.

Activity. Write the review and next plan.

Standard to meet. Base decisions on numbers.

Common mistake. Scaling too fast.

Check yourself. What is your scale rule?

Cost per sale 9.50, margin 8.00. Amounts are in your currency.

Question: What do you do?

Model answer: Stop or fix the ad and page; do not scale.

60 carts, 20 orders.

Question: What do you check?

Model answer: Shipping cost shock, payment options, forced sign-up; test one change.

On the slide: L1 Basic · Basics of selling online

Notes: Describe a sale step by step, from seeing a product to receiving it. Notes: buy something small online and write down each step you took. Standard: a list of at least six steps in order.

On the slide: L2 Awareness · Awareness

Notes: Describe the funnel (see, click, add, pay) and name the channels shops use. Notes: trace one advert you see to the shop page and count the steps. Standard: each step has a number or a guess marked as a guess.

On the slide: L3 Foundation · Foundation

Notes: Calculate margin and a break-even cost per sale for one product, and write a test idea for one advert. Notes: practice figures from a worksheet, with currency. Standard: the break-even cost per sale is correct and the test has a stop rule.

On the slide: L4 Practitioner · Practitioner

Notes: Run two small adverts or emails, record clicks and sales, and decide which to keep. Notes: practice budget only. Standard: decision backed by counts, with the date and cost recorded.

On the slide: L5 Specialist · Specialist

Notes: Run a 30-day growth plan for one real or practice online shop, reaching a target cost per sale below the margin. Notes: weekly review with a stop rule. Standard: cost per sale under margin by week four, with records.

On the slide: L6 Advanced · Advanced

Notes: Manage several shops' growth with a testing calendar, shared reports and a channel budget. Notes: add a view that groups repeat buyers by the month they first bought. Standard: budget moves toward channels with lower cost per sale, with the reason written.

On the slide: L7 Super expert · Super expert

Notes: Set the experiment method for e-commerce growth (hypothesis, test, stop rule) and teach the marketers who use it. Notes: review test records yearly and retire any result that no longer holds.