Most store owners ask me how to get more sales. I usually want to know what happened to the sales they already had. A business can grow revenue while losing efficiency in advertising, fulfillment, refunds, software, and payroll. If you pour more traffic into that system, you amplify the waste.
My first pass is not complicated. I want a clean view of where money enters, where it leaves, and which activities are responsible for the difference.
Start with contribution profit, not platform revenue
Export the orders and assign the real variable costs: product, freight, payment processing, advertising, refunds, chargebacks, commissions, and any labor that only exists because the order exists. This will not replace proper accounting, but it gives you an operating view of the business.
Group the results by supplier, brand, product type, traffic source, and campaign. Stop looking at blended averages that allow a strong area to hide a weak one.
Find the four common leaks
- Advertising that drives revenue but misses your required contribution margin.
- Products with freight, damage, or return patterns that erase the advertised margin.
- Apps and services that solved a past problem but still bill every month.
- Manual work that should be removed, templated, delegated, or automated.
Rank opportunities by speed and certainty
First are fixes we can make immediately with a measurable outcome: pausing waste, correcting a feed issue, tightening negative keywords, or removing unused software. Second are improvements that need a controlled test. Third are speculative projects.
Most teams do this in reverse. They start the exciting redesign while known waste continues for another quarter. Fix what is provably broken before funding what might work.
Build a weekly operating scorecard
- Revenue and contribution profit
- Advertising spend and profit by campaign
- Conversion rate and average order value
- Refunds, cancellations, and chargebacks
- Open customer issues and supplier delays
- Cash required for upcoming obligations