Playbook · Ecommerce
Growth plan for an ecommerce store's first 100 orders
What actually moves a new store from launch day to a hundred orders, in the order to do it.
- 9 ranked moves
- 4-week sequence
- Under £400 a month
New stores lose money on ads because the account has no purchase data to learn from and the site converts badly. Both problems are fixable in a fortnight, and fixing them first makes every pound of ad spend afterwards go further.
This plan assumes a live store, at least six products or one strong hero product, and a budget under £400 a month. The first three moves are about the site and the offer. Traffic comes after.
- — A live store with working checkout and real photography
- — Under 100 orders so far
- — Budget under £400 a month
- — Someone who can answer customer messages within a day
Stores already past a few thousand orders a month need feed management, incrementality testing and retention cohorts — different plan entirely.
The moves
Ranked, highest return first.
Work down the list. Each one names the first step so there's nothing to plan.
- 01
Fix the product page before buying traffic
Doubling conversion rate is cheaper than doubling ad spend, and it makes every later channel viable.
First step: Add the three things missing from most new product pages: shipping cost and date above the fold, five real photos including one in use, and the returns policy in one sentence.
- Tools
- Your store platform
- Effort
- 1 day
- Cost
- £0
- 02
Abandoned cart and browse abandonment emails
Recovers 5–12% of lost checkouts within weeks of switching on. It's the highest return per hour of any ecommerce work.
First step: Set up three cart emails at one hour, 24 hours and 72 hours. No discount in the first one.
- Tools
- Klaviyo, Omnisend or Shopify Email
- Effort
- Half a day
- Cost
- £0–£45 a month
- 03
Post-purchase review requests with photos
Reviews with photos lift conversion more than any copy change, and they feed the ads you'll run later.
First step: Ask 14 days after delivery. Offer a small credit for a photo. Reply to every review.
- Tools
- Judge.me or Loox
- Effort
- 2 hours
- Cost
- £0–£25 a month
- 04
Google Shopping with a clean product feed
Shopping catches people already searching for the product. It's the cheapest first paid channel for most stores.
First step: Fix the feed first: GTINs, real product types, titles in the format brand + product + key attribute. Then start at £15 a day.
- Tools
- Google Merchant Center
- Effort
- 1 day setup
- Cost
- £300–£450 a month in spend
- 05
Twenty gifted products to small creators
Creators with 5–30k followers in a specific niche cost a product and produce content you can reuse in ads for a year.
First step: Find twenty accounts whose audience matches yours. Offer the product with no posting requirement. Ask for permission to reuse whatever they make.
- Tools
- Instagram and TikTok search
- Effort
- 4 hours plus product cost
- Cost
- Cost of goods only
- 06
One founder-voice welcome flow
First-purchase rate from email is highest in the first 72 hours after signup, and a personal note outperforms a branded template.
First step: Three emails: why the product exists, how to pick the right one, and a soft offer on day four.
- Tools
- Klaviyo or Omnisend
- Effort
- 1 day
- Cost
- Included above
- 07
Show up in the marketplaces your buyers already browse
Etsy, eBay or a niche marketplace can carry a new store while your own traffic builds, and validates pricing quickly.
First step: List your five best products on the one marketplace your category is strong on. Match pricing to your own site.
- Tools
- Marketplace of choice
- Effort
- 1 day
- Cost
- Listing and commission fees
- 08
A bundle that raises average order value
Getting a customer is the expensive part. A bundle at checkout is the cheapest revenue you will ever add.
First step: Pair your best seller with the accessory people already buy alongside it. Price the pair 10% under buying both.
- Tools
- Your store platform
- Effort
- 2 hours
- Cost
- £0
- 09
Answer buying questions in niche communities
'Which one should I get?' threads in Facebook groups and subreddits are open buying intent that ads can't reach.
First step: Join five groups. Spend two weeks being useful without linking. Then answer product questions honestly, disclosure included.
- Tools
- Facebook, Reddit
- Effort
- 2 hours a week
- Cost
- £0
Sequence
What to do first, week by week.
The site
Product page fixes, bundle, shipping clarity. Measure conversion rate before and after — you want a baseline before any spend.
Cart recovery, welcome flow, review requests. These keep earning after you stop working on them.
First paid traffic
Feed cleanup, Shopping campaign at a small daily budget, one marketplace listing.
Proof and reach
Gifted creators, community answers, and reuse the first reviews and creator photos on the product pages.
Avoid
Where this usually goes wrong.
Starting with broad Meta prospecting
Without purchase data the algorithm optimises on guesses, and a new store rarely has the margin to fund the learning period. Shopping and email first, Meta once you have 50 purchases to learn from.
Discounting on day one
A launch discount teaches your first customers to wait for the next one and hides whether the price is right. Use a bundle instead.
Ignoring shipping cost surprise
Unexpected shipping is the top reason checkouts get abandoned. Put the number where people see it before they add to cart.
Chasing followers instead of orders
A social account with 10,000 followers and no email list is a rented audience. Move people to email as early as you can.
Questions
Common questions.
How much should I spend on ads before deciding they don't work?
Around 3x your product price per campaign, run for at least two weeks. Below that you're reading noise. Fix conversion rate first or you'll conclude the channel failed when the page did.
Do I need a big Instagram following to sell?
No. Most new stores get their first hundred orders from search, email and gifted creators. Your own following matters far later.
Is TikTok Shop worth it for a new store?
It can be if your product demonstrates well on video and sits under about £40. If it needs explaining or costs more, put the effort into Shopping and email.
What conversion rate should I aim for?
One to two percent is normal for a new store, two to three once the product page is fixed and reviews are showing. Under one percent means the page, not the traffic.
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