Is Shopify the right platform for US e-commerce?
Shopify is the dominant e-commerce platform in the US for a reason. It's fast to launch, reliable, has a mature app ecosystem, and handles US payment gateways (Shop Pay, Affirm, PayPal) cleanly. WooCommerce is worth considering if you're already on WordPress with significant content infrastructure. BigCommerce suits stores with complex B2B or multi-channel requirements. For most US direct-to-consumer brands building a growth engine, Shopify is the cleaner foundation.
What's wrong with how most US stores run Performance Max?
Most US stores run PMax with an incomplete product feed, no audience signals, and a generic creative asset set. Google's automation then makes decisions based on thin data — and the result is often that PMax cannibalises branded search or bids on existing organic traffic, producing attributed revenue that isn't truly incremental. The fix is: rebuild the feed to 100% attribute coverage, load audience signals from real purchase data, build a proper creative asset suite, then run PMax. In that order.
Do I need SEO and paid ads, or just one?
Both, eventually — but not simultaneously from the start. Paid produces revenue faster. SEO compounds over time and eventually produces cheaper traffic than paid. The typical sequence: fix conversion rate and email retention first (improves return on every channel), then scale paid acquisition, then layer SEO for long-term organic growth. A store spending \$10k/month on paid with a 1.2% CVR should fix conversion before adding budget.
How do you measure e-commerce growth?
Revenue by channel, conversion rate by device and page type, CAC by campaign, email and SMS revenue share, repeat purchase rate, and Shopping impression share. All tracked in GA4 with a custom e-commerce reporting view. Monthly reports cover what changed, what drove the change, and what the next 30 days prioritise.
What's the difference between Google Shopping and Performance Max?
Standard Shopping shows product ads on Google Shopping results and search. Performance Max distributes ads across Shopping, Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, and Maps from a single campaign using Google's automation. PMax has more reach potential but less control — it works well when fed strong signals (complete feed, real audience data, quality creative). Standard Shopping gives more direct control over which products appear for which searches. For most stores, we run a hybrid: standard Shopping for high-value SKUs, PMax for broader reach.
What's a realistic Klaviyo revenue target?
A fully built Klaviyo setup — all 6 flows active, good list segmentation, relevant content — typically drives 25–35% of total store revenue. The abandoned cart flow alone, when properly configured with a multi-step sequence and strong social proof, typically recovers 15–22% of abandoned carts. The welcome series usually drives the most new-buyer revenue. Most stores we audit have one or two flows active and are capturing less than 5% of what a full retention system would produce.
How long until results?
Quick wins — feed fixes, checkout improvements, Klaviyo flows — show within 3–6 weeks. PMax restructuring shows improvement within 4–8 weeks. SEO compounds over 3–6 months. We're explicit about which workstream produces revenue on which timeline, and we prioritise the highest-impact work in the first month.
Do you work with brands outside of Shopify?
Yes — WooCommerce and BigCommerce. Shopify is where we do the majority of our work because it's the dominant US platform, but we give WooCommerce equal depth on CRO, SEO, and Klaviyo integration. For BigCommerce, we focus on SEO, Shopping feed management, and paid acquisition.