How to Scale an Ecommerce Store in 2025

Summary

This video offers a comprehensive guide to scaling an e-commerce brand in 2025, emphasizing the importance of a solid email marketing strategy over trend-based advertising. The presenter, with experience scaling over 75 brands, advises focusing on email marketing for customer acquisition and retention. The tutorial covers setting up an email sending provider, growing your email list, crafting effective automations, and developing a campaign strategy to drive sales and build customer loyalty.

Takeaways

• 📈 Focus on foundational strategies for scaling an e-commerce brand rather than relying on trendy, short-term tactics.
• 🚀 Email marketing is a cost-effective method to acquire and retain customers, with a lower cost per acquisition compared to ads.
• 🔍 Build trust with potential customers by consistently providing valuable content through email, which can lead to higher lifetime value.
• 🛒 Address the challenge of customers not purchasing immediately by using email to nurture relationships and guide them through the buying process.
• 💌 Utilize email marketing to overcome consumer skepticism and establish trust, which is crucial in a competitive e-commerce landscape.
• 📱 Choose an effective email service provider (ESP) like Klaviyo for advanced features and integration with e-commerce platforms like Shopify.
• 📑 Grow your email list through post-purchase opt-ins and effective pop-up forms that offer value in exchange for email addresses.
• 🔗 Create automated email flows for various customer actions, such as welcome, website abandonment, browse abandonment, cart abandonment, and post-purchase.
• 📆 Implement a consistent campaign strategy with scheduled one-time emails to keep customers engaged and informed.
• 🎯 Customize and personalize email content to educate customers, address FAQs, highlight testimonials, and promote products effectively.
• 💰 Run promotions and discounts through email campaigns to drive sales, but maintain a balance to avoid over-reliance on discounts.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the video?

The video focuses on how to effectively and profitably scale an e-commerce brand in 2025 by focusing on the basics of email marketing.

How much e-commerce sales has the speaker helped generate?

The speaker has helped generate over $40 million in e-commerce sales.

What does the speaker warn against investing heavily in?

The speaker warns against investing heavily in trendy platforms like TikTok ads and AI platforms because they are reliant on algorithms that can change, leading to disappointment in the long term.

Why is email marketing highlighted as a key strategy in 2025?

Email marketing is highlighted as it is a cost-effective way to build trust and brand loyalty, with the ability to retarget customers and increase customer lifetime value.

What is the recommended email sending provider according to the video?

The recommended email sending provider is Klaviyo, as it is considered the most advanced and user-friendly for scaling email lists.

How can e-commerce brands grow their email list according to the video?

Brands can grow their email list through post-purchase opt-ins and effective popup forms that offer value in exchange for the email subscription.

What are the core email automations that the video suggests setting up?

The core email automations suggested are welcome flow, website abandoned flow, browse abandoned flow, cart abandoned flow, checkout abandoned flow, and post-purchase flow.

How often should e-commerce brands send email campaigns according to the video?

Brands should aim to send at least one to two email campaigns per week, with the video suggesting three to four for optimal results.

What types of content should be included in email campaigns?

Campaigns should include educational content, FAQs, blog posts, testimonials, industry myths versus facts, product highlights, and occasional promotions or sales.

What is the role of email marketing in relation to ad platforms according to the video?

Email marketing plays a crucial role in making the most out of ads and traffic by nurturing leads and converting them into customers through consistent and valuable communication.

What additional resources does the speaker offer for further learning?

The speaker offers a free guide on email marketing and suggests subscribing to their newsletter for more in-depth guides and tutorials.

Outlines

00:00

💼 Scaling E-commerce in 2025: Basics Over Trends

The speaker shares their experience in scaling over 75 e-commerce brands and generating $40 million in sales. They emphasize the importance of focusing on fundamental strategies rather than trendy, short-term solutions like TikTok ads or AI platforms, which can become ineffective with algorithm changes. The speaker highlights the increased competition in e-commerce and the challenges of gaining customer trust due to numerous options and scams. They suggest email marketing as a cost-effective way to build trust and increase customer lifetime value, proposing a 10% conversion rate from website visitors to email subscribers through effective pop-ups.

05:01

📈 Email Marketing Strategies for E-commerce Growth

The speaker delves into strategies for growing an email list through post-purchase opt-ins and pop-up forms, recommending a 4 to 10-second delay for pop-up triggers and offering incentives to encourage sign-ups. They discuss the importance of keeping pop-up forms simple and focusing on obtaining the email address only. The speaker then outlines the necessity of setting up automated email flows, or 'automations', to nurture leads and convert them into customers. They detail various types of automated email sequences, such as welcome, website abandoned, browse abandoned, cart abandoned, and checkout abandoned flows, emphasizing the use of dynamic content and social proof to encourage purchases.

10:02

📊 Advanced Email Marketing: Campaigns and Optimization

The speaker explains the concept of email campaigns, which are one-time emails sent to a list at a set time, as opposed to automated flows. They suggest a minimum of one to two email campaigns per week, with optimal results seen at three to four per week. The speaker provides examples of campaign topics, such as FAQs, blog content, testimonials, industry myths, and product features. They also discuss promotional campaigns, including sales, discounts, and giveaways, and the importance of sending reminders to the email list about ongoing promotions. The speaker concludes by emphasizing the importance of email marketing in scaling an e-commerce brand and offers additional resources for further learning.

Keywords

💡E-commerce

E-commerce refers to the buying and selling of goods or services using the internet, and it is central to the video's theme. The script discusses strategies for scaling an e-commerce brand, emphasizing the importance of digital sales channels. For example, the speaker mentions setting up a store using Shopify and sourcing products from Alibaba, which are common practices in the e-commerce industry.

💡Scaling

Scaling in the context of the video means growing a business to reach more customers and increase sales volume. The script focuses on effective methods to scale an e-commerce brand profitably, such as by leveraging email marketing and focusing on customer acquisition strategies, which are highlighted as more reliable than short-term marketing trends.

💡Ad platforms

Ad platforms are digital spaces where businesses can place advertisements to reach potential customers. The video script warns against an over-reliance on ad platforms like Facebook due to their algorithmic nature, which can lead to unsustainable marketing strategies. Instead, the speaker advocates for a more strategic approach to customer engagement.

💡Email Marketing

Email marketing is a method of promoting products or services through email. The video emphasizes email marketing as a cost-effective way to engage with customers and build trust, which is crucial for e-commerce brands. The speaker provides detailed advice on setting up email campaigns and automations to nurture leads and encourage repeat purchases.

💡Customer Acquisition

Customer acquisition is the process of attracting new customers to a brand. The script discusses strategies for acquiring customers through email marketing, such as using pop-up forms to convert website visitors into email subscribers, which is a more sustainable approach than relying solely on ad platforms.

💡Customer Lifetime Value

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is a prediction of the net profit attributed to the entire future relationship with a customer. The video explains how email marketing can increase CLV by keeping customers engaged and encouraging repeat business, as opposed to one-time purchases.

💡Branding

Branding is the process of creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumer's mind. The video script mentions that by consistently sending valuable emails, e-commerce brands can build their brand and increase customer loyalty, which is essential for long-term success.

💡Clavio

Clavio, mentioned in the script, is an email service provider (ESP) that specializes in email marketing for e-commerce businesses. The speaker recommends Clavio over other ESPs for its advanced features and ease of use, illustrating its importance in executing email marketing strategies effectively.

💡Automation

Automation in the context of the video refers to the use of software to automate repetitive tasks, such as sending a series of emails based on customer actions. The script outlines the importance of setting up automated email flows to nurture leads and recover abandoned carts, which can significantly increase sales without constant manual effort.

💡Campaign Strategy

A campaign strategy in email marketing involves planning and executing a series of email campaigns to achieve specific goals. The video script advises on creating a consistent campaign strategy, such as sending multiple campaigns per week, to keep customers engaged and drive sales.

💡Optimization

Optimization in the video refers to the process of refining and adjusting marketing strategies to improve performance. The speaker suggests that once the basics of email marketing are in place, brands should focus on optimizing their strategies, including email copy and design, to maximize results.

Highlights

Expertise in scaling e-commerce brands, having worked with over 75 brands and generated over $40 million in sales.

The importance of focusing on fundamentals rather than relying on trendy platforms or algorithms.

The competitive landscape of e-commerce in 2025 and the challenges of standing out.

The low barrier to entry in e-commerce and the resulting saturation of the market.

The difficulty of converting website visitors into buyers due to increased consumer options and skepticism.

The strategy of using email marketing as a cost-effective alternative to expensive ad platforms.

The significance of building trust with customers through consistent content delivery.

The effectiveness of email marketing in increasing customer lifetime value and profitability.

How to convert website traffic into email list subscribers with effective pop-up forms.

The necessity of having a good email sending provider for successful email marketing.

Recommendation of Klaviyo as the email service provider (ESP) of choice for e-commerce brands.

The process of growing an email list through post-purchase opt-ins and pop-up forms.

The role of automations or email flows in generating sales on autopilot.

The setup of different email flows such as welcome, abandon, and post-purchase flows.

The strategy for setting up campaign emails that provide value and generate sales.

The frequency of email campaigns and how often brands should be sending emails.

Ideas for campaign content that provides value to customers and keeps them engaged.

The impact of email marketing on making the most of ads and acquired traffic.

Offering additional help for e-commerce brands and a free guide on email marketing.

Transcripts

in this video I'm going to be showing

you how to effectively and profitably

scale an e-commerce brand in 2025 now

I've worked inside and helped scale over

75 different e-commerce brands in the

past 3 years and help generated over $40

million in e-commerce sales in the

process I've been with successful Brands

and seen it firsthand I've also been

with brands that have blown up and gone

bankrupt so I know what works and what

does right off the bat I want to tell

you that what I'm talking about isn't

very flashy it's not as cool and it's

not as fun as popping a ton of money in

like Tik Tok ads ugc

in different AI platforms but the truth

with those methods is that you're just

going to be let down in the long term

because they're all Trends they're

reliant on an algorithm and they can be

blown up with one simple update and some

will go out blindly and spend a ton of

money on these things but the real

winners in 2025 are going to be focusing

on the basics and executing them at a

high level so let's get straight into it

so in 2025 we have to be really really

careful with ad platforms now the

e-commerce landscape is getting more

competitive than ever the barrier to

entry to create a store is so low you

can just go on the internet look up

Shopify Source some product from Alibaba

online and then pump some money into ads

and then boom you have an e-commerce

store and then everybody's fighting for

a limited amount of AD spots yes it's

tempting to go pump a ton of cash over

to Mr Zuckerberg but you're probably

just going to be let down because you

can bring traffic to your site pretty

easily but it's another thing to

actually get these buyers in 2025 to

purchase now there are many different

reasons why customers aren't buying like

they used to in 2025 one of them is

being they have so many options there's

so many different stores out there that

the customer can choose from it's no

longer where you can just go to one

store and purchase you can go shop

around and look at your options because

that's another thing the customer likes

shopping around it's fun to go sit on

the couch and browse a ton of different

stores plus with the amount of internet

scams out there pretty much every

consumer has been burned or scammed and

so a lot of people just don't really

trust your platform or your website

right off the bat to purchase from you

at the first time they see it so what

happens is these people leave your

website and then they don't really come

back maybe they come back a couple other

times but they don't purchase just

because they don't know you they don't

trust you and there are other options

out there so how do you get these people

to know you trust you and choose you

over other brands out there you continue

to show them content now you could do

that with ads or you can go the cheaper

route which is with email marketing

sending emails literally cost a fraction

of a penny compared to ads and if you

can get a really good popup on your

website that can convert 10% of your

website traffic into email list

subscribers then that right there is a

recipe for an acquisition funnel that is

profitable in scale since email is so

cheap this will lower your cost of

acquisition and then also since you can

retarget these people with emails in the

future it's going to increase your

customer lifetime value and in turn your

profitability in the long run not to

mention The Branding side of things you

get by having somebody's email being

able to send them emails consistently

bring them value and bring up your

loyalty and also help you get word of M

once you get somebody's email address

from like a popup you can spend one to

two weeks kind of convincing them one by

one one why they should go with you and

choose your products over like a

competitor with each piece of content

and little piece of advice and value

that you can give them you earn trust

points in their mind until they trust

you enough to make a purchase and they

hand you the credit card again people

don't just buy from you the first time

they see from you they need to see you

multiple times over a duration of time

that's why we need to be consistently

sending emails now to really execute

email marketing at a high level you need

to do four things first you need to get

set up with an email sending provider

and then second you need to get your

pop-up forms locked in third you need to

get your campaign strategy figured out

your onetime emails that you're sending

out to the list on a consistent basis

and then four you need your automations

so first let's talk about getting

started with an email sending provider

AKA and ESP esps are different softwares

that allow you to send emails in Blast

from them via like a shared domain

rather than just using a Gmail address

to blast a ton of emails to people this

also allows you to track your data

connect to Shopify and be able to tell

like where your purchases are coming

from now there's no other platform that

I would recommend other than clavo it is

the most advanced and also the easiest

the most proven I've used them all

MailChimp active campaign HubSpot like

none of them really compare if you

actually want to scale your email list

just create a clavio account and follow

the easy to install instructions and

then you can get connected with your

Shopify or whatever e-commerce platform

that you're using they have a great

support team they'll be able to help you

out if you have any questions now if you

really don't want to use clavio there's

some other options such as send Lane

which is new but it's pretty cool it has

some upand cominging features but again

still pretty early on compared to clavo

it doesn't have all the features and you

can get away with using MailChimp as

well but it's a little bit not as good

as clavio but again you can get by now

that you have your email sending

provider you need to actually like grow

your list so that you have people to

send emails too hey do you want a free

75 page guide on email marketing just

subscribe to my newsletter inbox

newsletter. c/s subscribe and I will

send it to you right now now right off

the bat if you have past customers that

have bought from you before you can get

their email addresses from your Shopify

database and then you can see if they're

consented to receive marketing emails

and you could add them to your clavio

email list if they don't you could send

them a confirmation email being like hey

do you want to opt into like our email

marketing and then the people who do you

can send emails to them other than that

there are really two main ways to grow

your email list the first is with post-

purchase optins which essentially is

going to be just a checkbox when

somebody purchases saying like hey I

approve to receive marketing from this

company you can install that in Shopify

super easy just follow this guide and

then you're pretty much just going to

get email signups on autopilot from

people who' have bought from you and

they've already proven that they know

like and trust you so those are post-

purchase optins really low hanging fruit

and the second is with what we already

talked about which are popup forms now a

good pop-up form is going to convert 10%

of your website traffic into email

subscribers meaning if you have 50,000

website viewers unique viewers then you

could get 5,000 people to opt into your

email list now I have a really in-depth

breakdown on pop-up forms which you can

find right here on my Channel with

suggest you check it out if you want a

more in-depth guide on how to really

nail your form a couple things to note

is you want to make sure that your

trigger is at like a 4 to 10 second

delay upon a page loading this way

you're not showing it right in front of

somebody right at the time that they

view your website but instead there's a

little bit of delay and maybe the person

has already shown a little bit of

interest on your site do you want to

make sure you have a decent offer you

don't need to give away this massive

discount but you could give away a

little discount or you could give

something like a free guide you can't

just say sign up to our email list

that's just just not strong enough and

people aren't going to buy if there's

nothing in it for them so try to see if

you can give something away in exchange

for the email then three you want to

have as little words as possible on your

popup form these people are just

browsing the site they're in zombie mode

you don't want to overload them with a

bunch of words just keep it really

simple list out your offer and then let

people get on their way the last tip is

make it as easy as possible to fill out

don't ask for their first name their

birthday their social security card no

we just want to ask them for their email

address every little question that we

ask is going to significantly increase

the churn all you really need is the

email address so that's your list growth

you want to make sure that you have the

post purchase optin checked so you get

people who have bought from you to join

your email list and then two you want to

make sure you have a popup form and you

want to make sure that it is effective

so we have our email sending provider we

know how to grow our list now let's talk

about how we can kind of get sales on

autopilot and we're talking about our

automations AKA or email flows now flows

you can set up in clavio and you create

these emails once and they're like a

sequence and so you can send one email

then a couple days later send another

based on like a customer's action

luckily clavio makes it really easy for

you and these are the main flows that

you want to make sure that you have

installed and automated so you can

contribute to the customer experience

and generate revenue on autopilot first

you want to have the welcome flow which

is going to fire whenever somebody joins

your email list you want to give them

the discount if you did give them one

you want to give them some information

about the brand show them some of your

best sellers show them some of your

unique selling propositions and you want

to at least have around four to five

emails in here what we typically do is 8

to 12 emails to really educate people

over like a twoe time period but you can

get away with only having a few emails

the next flow that you want is the

website abandoned flow which is if

anybody is active on your website but

they don't actually view any products

and they don't add any items to cart

it's just they're active on your site

and you could just have a simple one to

two emails just being like hey we saw

you browsing our site if you need some

help here are some of our best sellers

and then the third is the browse

abandoned flow which is for anybody who

actually views an item but they don't

add it to C and they don't make a

purchase so for this we want to send a

few reminders at least four again we

typically do 6 to 8 to make it a little

bit longer but you want to actually show

the customer hey you left this product

behind and you can use Dynamic content

inside of clavo which is going to show

the customer what they left behind

essentially you just want to remind them

you want to give social proof and you

want to overcome objections to try to

get them over the line to purchase and

then taking it a step further we have

the cart and checkout abandoned flows

which are two different events you want

to make sure that you have flows for

both of these but I like to have at

least like eight emails in the sequence

again you could get by with just a

couple having like eight is a bit

Advanced but really all you want to do

is you want to show the customer what

they left behind give them a ton of

social proof give them information about

shipping let them know of like a

guarantee if you have it you can return

your order if you need to anything that

reduces risk for the customer can get

them over the line so those are the pre-

purchase flows again that's welcome flow

website abandon browse abandon card

abandon and checkout abandon and then we

have post- purchase flows which you at

least want to have the post purchase

flow which is going to fire immediately

after customer purchases and in this

flow you just want to give like a thank

you thank you for ordering with us you

can do UPS sales and cross sales to try

to get people to buy again you could

also give information on like shipping

or tell people how to use their product

things like that are going to help in

the customer experience typically the

post purchase flow will be between 14

days of the purchase and then if you

want to get Advanced you can have

winback flows and cross sale flows which

are can be anywhere to like 1 to two to

3 months down the line after someone's

purchase to try to get them to come back

and buy again so that's one flow that

you could do you could also do a VIP

flow for anybody who purchases say like

five times overall time from you you

could give them special discount give

them exclusive information if you want

it you could also do things like an

unengaged flow where if somebody hasn't

opened an email in like six months and

we kind of just want to say goodbye to

remove them off the list you can have a

couple emails in place there to give

them a last chance and one last

suggestion for like a fun one is you

could do a purchase anniversary so say

some somebody bought on like September

1st of 2023 then you could tag their

profile inside of clavo and Mark that as

like their purchase date and then one

year after that purchase date you can

send like a happy birthday of hey it's

been one year since your last purchase

here's like a discount so those are all

the ideas but really the core ones that

I want to make sure that you have are

the welcome flow website abandon browse

abandon card abandon checkout abandon

and post purchase flows I have a full

breakdown of all these flows as well on

my YouTube you can check that video out

if you want to see these in a a little

bit more detail okay so now we have an

email sending provider we are growing

our list with forms and postp purchase

options then we also have our core

automations built out now we want to set

up our campaign strategy campaigns are

the one-time emails that you're sending

to your list at a set day and a set time

these defer from flows because flows are

going to fire automatically you set

flows active and then as customers

complete actions they're joining the

campaigns are just broadcast to the

whole list you click Send and the email

goes out you really want to establish a

consistent C for sending campaigns to

your list so that you're keeping them

engaged over time don't want to be

sending emails like once a month because

that's way too long people are often

subscrib to over 40 different e-commerce

Brands and when so many brands are

sending emails you're just going to get

lost and customers will forget about you

at the bare minimum i' like to see

brands at least doing one to two email

campaigns per week but for our clients

and what we see the best results with is

with three to four email campaigns a

week and that's how we generate on

average 41% of our client's total

revenue coming from clavo and email

marketing you might be thinking three to

four email campaigns a week what the

heck are you sending to your list that's

a good question and there are a lot of

things that you can do there're actually

unlimited different ideas and campaigns

that you can be sending but at its core

we just want to be sending our customers

value people love to learn so if you can

educate them about your Niche or even

your product or other customers that are

like them then you are winning some

examples of some of these campaigns that

you can be sending are things like

frequently Asked question emails so you

could pick like 10 of your most

frequently asked questions and create an

email for each each one of them if you

have blog content on your website you

could do blog emails if you have

testimonials you could do emails

highlighting specific testimonials one

that I really like to do is find like a

really long and passionate testimonial

and just do a full email just on that

you could also do like myths versus

facts in your industry that's always a

fun one and of course you can do like

product highlights or specific features

about your product and send a full email

just about that and then of course with

campaigns you can also run promotions

sales and discounts so you can do

something like once a month or once

every other month things like site

discounts or discounts on specific

products or you can do giveaways things

like that you can send those to your

list to keep them engaged over time and

generate sales now anytime you run a

promotion on your website you want to

send a few different reminders to your

email list again these are your

customers these are people who gave you

their email they know like and trust you

already and they're going to be the

easiest to sell to and also sending

these emails are going to cost literally

pennies so you can send emails like

teasing the sale being like Hey we're

going to run a sale next week make sure

you're ready and pick out your items

then you can run sale launch email sale

reminder emails then also sale closing

emails to really induce urgency one

thing you could even do is a sale

extension email if you want to squeeze a

few extra dollars out of your list but

you want to make sure you don't get

carried away with your discounts keep it

pretty simple and don't do it too often

just focus on giving your customers

value and try to generate sales without

discounts and then you're going to be

set up really well now once you have

campaigns firing you're sending at least

two to three email campaigns per week

you have automations going in the back

end saving abandoned sales having post

purchase sales then welcoming people to

the email list then you're also growing

your list with your forms then you're

going to be in a good spot at that point

it's just about really optimizing things

and taking them to the next level with

your strategy with your copy and your

design and I have in-depth guides on

these all over my YouTube channel so be

sure to check those out now again email

marketing isn't the flashiest thing but

it is the best way to scale an

e-commerce brand in 2025 so you want to

make sure that you have this done and

you have it done correctly having a

proper email system operating in the

back end is going to to help you make

the most out of your ads and the traffic

that you're spending so much to acquire

now I hope you got some value from this

tutorial if you want extra help and

you're an e-commerce brand above $50,000

a month you can book a call with me

below but everybody else subscribe to my

newsletter inbox newsletter. c/s

subscribe for a free guide on email

marketing let me know what kind of video

you want to see next and I will see you

in the next one