I think about ecommerce growth through product presentation, shipping, advertising, differentiation, customer conversations, and repeat purchases. These posts capture questions and ideas rather than a single settled playbook; some of the advice I shared was quoted from @daviefogarty, not my own experience.
On December 5, 2024, I posed a choice between an Apple-level presentation and unboxing experience with a product delivered directly from China, or mid-level presentation with 2 day shipping locally. I asked which option people would prefer, but did not state my own preference or report any responses.
On April 25, 2025, I described ecommerce growth with a physics metaphor: most products are noise, an occasional product is a signal, and ads provide energy that amplifies the signal. With enough momentum, the signal escapes gravity; I called that outcome a brand. I did not define how to identify a signal or measure momentum.
On June 11, 2025, I replied “So good” to @daviefogarty’s account of lessons from $850M in self-funded ecommerce sales. Davie’s quoted advice was to favor being early with a good-enough product over being perfect but late, use distinctive design to avoid identical-product price competition and protect margins, and make profitable decisions focused on cash flow rather than feel-good choices in an early-stage business. The captured excerpt cuts off during the third lesson at “Find your po...”; I do not know how it continued, and these lessons and sales were Davie’s, not mine.
On March 28, 2026, I said @daviefogarty’s unconventional ecommerce advice was “really good” and thanked Davie for sharing it. The quoted recommendations were to sell more of the first product before launching new ones; build products people see in public; learn Meta ads before hiring another agency; talk with 10 customers a month in real conversations rather than surveys; wait until 100 orders before optimizing a website; read 1-star reviews before 5-star reviews; prioritize repeat purchase rate over ROAS; and hire one person at a time. The hiring parenthetical is truncated after “max one per mo...”; I do not know its full ending. These were Davie’s recommendations, and I did not say that I had implemented them.
Related: dropshipping as launchpad to brands, scaling ad budgets aggressively, meta ads fuel amazon growth