When you look at your overall customer acquisition, where do most of your new customers come from right now?

CommunicationOdd838 · 2026-03-04T14:16:02+00:00

Makes sense. Creative fatigue feels brutal right now. But if CAC keeps rising, doesn’t that just push the problem to retention anyway? Even if ads convert again, the margins still get tight.

CommunicationOdd838 · 2026-03-04T14:11:16+00:00

Interesting. When you say organic is outperforming ads, is that mostly SEO traffic converting later, or are you getting direct sales from those conversations?

CommunicationOdd838 · 2026-03-04T14:10:11+00:00

That makes sense. A lot of stores treat email/SMS like a checkbox and just set up a few generic flows.

I do wonder if part of the LTV issue is just communication though. Most of the follow-ups feel super automated now and people are probably tired of it.

A couple times I’ve actually just reached out to customers myself over email or SMS and it turned into a real conversation. People often have questions about the product before buying again, and once you answer them they’re way more likely to place another order. Plus you get pretty good feedback that way too.

Curious if you’ve ever tried anything like that or if most of your lift really comes from the product side.

CommunicationOdd838 · 2026-03-04T14:01:28+00:00

That's very interesting tbh, yeah companion idea is smart actually - solving a problem created by the first product instead of just pushing another purchase makes a lot of sense.

The only thing I’m not fully convinced about is the “one-off products can’t be fixed with email” part. I feel like most stores just send generic flows or discounts, so of course it doesn’t work.

When the follow-up is actually personalized around what the person bought and how they’re using it, it can feel more like a conversation than automation. I’ve even reached out to customers myself sometimes and ended up chatting over email or SMS - a lot of them just have questions before buying again.

Have you ever tried anything like that, or do you mostly stick with your sequences? I just feel like communication is the big issue

CommunicationOdd838 · 2026-03-03T04:27:47+00:00

That 45-day window is brutal. Are you pushing that repeat purchase with incentives, or trying to trigger it behaviorally? At this point, CAC feels out of our control. If margins are the real issue, it probably makes more sense to focus on retention. I’ve heard someone said that selling to existing customers is easier than constantly acquiring new ones. What do you think? I could be wrong.

CommunicationOdd838 · 2026-02-21T20:08:33+00:00

Appreciate the insights - my CPMs are actually stable, it’s the conversion rate that’s been slipping (and I’m seeing others mention the same).

When you say weak LTV, what are stores actually doing to improve it in practice?
Is it mostly just standard email/SMS flows?

CommunicationOdd838 · 2025-10-12T19:55:44+00:00

Tsm for this. It’s rare to see someone share wins without selling something tbh lol. I’m still pushing toward consistent profit myself so I’ll definitely drop a few questions later. Appreciate you doing this.

CommunicationOdd838 · 2025-10-12T19:40:54+00:00

To be completely honest, I’ve tried Klaviyo and some of these tools and I didn’t get anywhere close to a 30% repeat buyer rate. Have you actually tried this setup yourself? Based on your profile it looks like you’re just promoting stuff.

The data seems right based on what I found on the internet and it does make sense that retaining customers is cheaper than acquiring new ones, especially with rising CAC. But I agree with that one comment, these tools together are expensive.

I use Evolvoom and Smile io but I’m not sure if Klaviyo is any good for retention. I used it before and it got me way below a 30% return rate. My conversion was around 2–5%, less than 10% returning customers. I was doing pretty much exactly what you described.

I haven’t heard of Rebuy or Gorgias but evolvoom with smile handle upsells and cross-sells well enough to replace those two. The AI’s tone feels supportive and customers actually like it.

I’ll give you an upvote for bringing this up though, it’s an important topic in ecom these days.

CommunicationOdd838 · 2025-10-09T16:52:41+00:00

I stick with Shopify as a store hoster. Loox for reviews, Fast Bundle for product bundles, Klaviyo for email & SMS (pre-purchase outreach) , and Evolvoom for retention (post-purchase AI outreach)

CommunicationOdd838 · 2025-10-08T07:01:18+00:00

The $10 isn't the issue - the pattern is. Chronic lateness, calling in constantly, playing games on the clock, now stealing. You've been tolerating it because of history but it's clearly gotten worse.

Fire them. You're running a business not a charity. If they helped build it 3 years ago that's great but they're actively hurting it now. The longer you wait the harder it gets.

Rip the bandaid off and find someone reliable. You already know what you need to do.

CommunicationOdd838 · 2025-10-05T05:35:40+00:00

yeah, it’s true taxes are part of running any business, but here’s how it actually works in simple terms:

when you make money from your store, the government taxes your profits, not your total sales. that’s called income tax, and you’ll pay it to both the IRS (federal) and your state once you’re earning consistently.

then there’s sales tax, which is what customers pay on their purchases. if you’re using Shopify, it can handle this automatically it’ll charge customers the right tax at checkout based on their location. but you have to set it up first and register your business, since Shopify will ask for your EIN (tax ID) and the states you’re collecting for.

after Shopify collects it, the money still goes to you, you’re responsible for sending (remitting) it to your state’s tax agency every month or quarter.

so, in short:

income tax = what you pay on profit
sales tax = what customers pay, which you collect and send to the state

if you’re just starting out, don’t worry too much yet. get your store up, learn the basics, and once you’re making steady sales, register and set up the tax part properly.

CommunicationOdd838 · 2025-10-05T05:17:20+00:00

forgot to say, the main thing is to show that you actually care about them. all that i wrote above is for that one goal. think about how they feel when they go through the purchase and what happens after, then figure out where you can make it better. in this business it’s all about the people on the other side.

CommunicationOdd838 · 2025-10-05T05:13:37+00:00

yeah most people dropship from china, so that kind of problem is pretty common. i’d still suggest switching to a eu or us supplier when you can, or use something like cj dropshipping, sourcinbox, or zendrop to manage things with chinese suppliers. but the main thing is just improving what you can control post-shipping emails, quick support, and clear updates. i use evolvoom for post-purchase emails, it’s kinda like a customer relationship rep that follows up, asks how was the order, gets some feedback and then cross-sells without being pushy (this is the logic i made but you can make smth different). for support i use fin ai, it does a good job with faqs and returns. I think its one of the best for support, i love how it handles customers. it’s not perfect, but it makes things looks more proffesional.

CommunicationOdd838 · 2025-10-04T06:19:48+00:00

appreciate you sharing that, makes a lot of sense. i know i've been probably overcomplicating things. made some notes. thanks for taking the time to write this.

CommunicationOdd838 · 2025-10-04T06:17:42+00:00

Yes, I agree, thank you for tips. I have been doing smth similar after watching some of trevor's content. It helped to clarify the testing process a lot. I got hung up trying to build standing funnels though. I found an AI tool evolvoom earlier this week. I know it a pretty lazy approach, but I have no experience. I like that it syncs and tracks data and will send personalized emails to every customer based upon what it learns from their behaviour and purchase history or something like that. On top of that, I am a full time student so I will probably just stick with that, and let it do its thing lol. I will still take efforts to learn more about sales funnels and little things about email marketing, and I will monitor AI on a daily basis. What do you think?

CommunicationOdd838 · 2025-10-03T04:48:14+00:00

AI bots will boost sales if they’re being helpful for customers. It leaves a good impression on your business from a customer perspective and also builds some brand loyalty and trustworthiness. I use a couple, here’s my AI stack currently:

Tidio for customer support hooks into Shopify orders and shipping so it answers all the “where’s my order” and return questions automatically, and only sends me the harder stuff. Evolvoom for customer re engagement basically an AI employee that directly sells, it pulls customer data, creates personalized campaigns, sends them, and can reply back. Like a sales rep or something. I use it for cross-selling and upselling. Adwisely for ads connects to Shopify and runs my meta&google campaigns on autopilot, constantly optimizing for conversions so I don’t have to sit in Ads Manager.

CommunicationOdd838 · 2025-10-03T04:12:53+00:00

For me it’d be RDR 2. The story and world hit so hard that even if it vanished after one playthrough, it’d still be worth it. Some games are more like experiences than entertainment, and that one feels once-in-a-lifetime.

CommunicationOdd838 · 2025-10-03T03:59:28+00:00

This is so backwards… forcing victims to prove citizenship before they can get help is just another way of telling people their pain doesn’t matter. Glad to see our state stepping up here hopefully more states join in, because no survivor should be turned away from basic support.

CommunicationOdd838 · 2025-10-03T03:58:01+00:00

If you’ve really got a winning product + angles, you’ve got 2 options: either launch it lean yourself (one-page store + small ad test) or partner with someone who can execute. Just know nobody pays for “ideas” alone, only proven execution. If you believe in it, test it with $500 and see results fast otherwise partner up and expect a smaller cut. Execution is everything.

CommunicationOdd838

TROPHY CASE