Growth experiments for e-commerce

E-commerce growth is about two things: getting people to buy once, and getting them to buy again. Most stores obsess over traffic but ignore conversion rate and repeat purchase rate. A 1% conversion rate improvement often beats doubling your ad spend. The best e-commerce brands build habits, not just transactions.

Key metrics for e-commerce

conversion rate

average order value

customer lifetime value

repeat purchase rate

Common growth problems for e-commerce

Your landing page gets traffic but nobody signs up

People visit your landing page and leave. You're getting clicks from ads or social but the signup rate is embarrassingly low. The average SaaS landing page converts at 3-5%, but top performers hit 10%+. If you're below 2%, something fundamental is broken. Most indie founders make the same mistake: they write the page about their product instead of their visitor's problem. Basecamp's landing page works because it leads with 'running a business is hard' - not a feature list. Your page needs to pass the 5-second test: can someone tell what you do and why they should care within 5 seconds?

acquisition

Users start checkout but don't finish paying

They clicked upgrade. They chose a plan. Then they dropped off at checkout. These are your warmest leads - people who already decided to pay - and you're losing them at the final step. Industry data from Stripe shows that every additional form field at checkout reduces conversion by 5-10%. Paddle found that localized pricing (showing the user's currency) alone increased checkout completion by 15%. The most common culprits are surprise pricing changes at checkout, too many form fields, redirects that break trust, and missing reassurances. If your checkout abandonment is above 30%, the problem is almost certainly UX, not willingness to pay.

monetization

Users drift away and forget you exist

Users were active, then gradually stopped. They didn't churn dramatically - they just faded away. You're invisible to them now.

retention

Google Ads is burning money with no signups

You set up Google Ads expecting quick results, but your budget evaporates with barely any conversions. Cost per click keeps rising and ROI is deeply negative. The average Google Ads conversion rate for SaaS is around 3-5%, and cost per click for software keywords can easily hit $5-15. If your landing page converts at 2%, you're paying $250-750 per signup before any optimization. Most startup teams skip the fundamentals: tight keyword targeting, negative keyword lists, and landing page matching. Even well-funded startups like Basecamp have said they pulled back from Google Ads because the economics didn't work until they nailed the landing page first.

acquisition

Your email list doesn't open your emails

You built an email list but open rates are tanking. Subscribers joined and stopped caring. Your newsletter feels like it's going to a graveyard. Industry average open rates for SaaS are 21-25%, but top indie newsletters like Lenny's Newsletter or The Hustle consistently hit 40-50%. The gap is almost always about deliverability and content quality. ConvertKit's own data shows that sending to unengaged subscribers actively hurts your sender reputation, which drags down open rates for everyone on your list - including people who want to hear from you. A list of 500 engaged subscribers will outperform a list of 5,000 where most people ignore you.

acquisition

Growth tips for e-commerce

Add urgency and scarcity to product pages - low stock indicators, limited-time offers, and countdown timers increase conversion by 10-30%.

Set up abandoned cart emails within 1 hour of cart abandonment. Three-email sequences recover 5-15% of lost carts.

Build a post-purchase email flow that suggests complementary products 3-5 days after delivery.

Test one-click upsells on the thank-you page. Customers who just bought are most likely to buy again.

Collect and display reviews aggressively. Products with 5+ reviews convert 270% better than those without.

Companies to learn from

ShopifyAllbirdsGlossierWarby Parker

These companies have published growth experiments and strategies that e-commerce can learn from. Our playbook library includes experiments inspired by their approaches.

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