Order routing
- STORE ORDER
- SUPPLIER OR PRINT PARTNER
- SHIPPED
Each order went to the right supplier or print partner without anyone touching it.
FIELD REPORT 17 · FOUNDER · TWIN SALES
Seven figures
on Shopify
and Amazon
My own ecommerce business, cofounded in my mid twenties. Shopify stores for drop shipping and print on demand, Amazon FBA for inventory, and six figures of my own money in the ad accounts. About $1M in revenue in its first full fiscal year, then sold.
~$1Mrevenue, first
full fiscal year
full fiscal year
01 THE BRIEF
My money, my stores, my ad accounts.
In November 2016 I cofounded Twin Sales Inc., an internet marketing business built on two models: Shopify stores running drop shipping and print on demand, and Amazon FBA. I was in my mid twenties, and the capital was my own.
I did the market research and ran the logistics of sourcing, manufacturing and shipping physical goods worldwide. I ran the paid side across Facebook, AdWords, Amazon PPC, Twitter, email and influencers, with six figures of my own money in live ad accounts.
The business did about $1,000,000 in revenue in its first full fiscal year. I automated the operations, built the exit strategy and sold the company in May 2018.
ROLECofounder
and owner
and owner
MODELSShopify +
Amazon FBA
Amazon FBA
CAPITALSix figures of my own,
in live ad accounts
in live ad accounts
WHENNov 2016 to
May 2018
May 2018
02 THE UNIT MATH
Every product had to pay for its own ads.
Pick a storefront and move the numbers. The bar splits one order's price into where the money goes. Fees are typical and editable. Defaults are illustrative, not the company's figures.
● UNIT ECONOMICS · ONE ORDERILLUSTRATIVE DEFAULTS · TYPICAL FEES, EDITABLE
STOREFRONT
PLATFORM FEES · SHOPIFY PAYMENTS · TYPICAL, EDITABLE
WHERE ONE ORDER'S MONEY GOES
BREAK EVEN AD COST$14.83per order, before ads turn it into a loss
AFTER ADS, PER ORDER$4.8316.1% of the sale price
BREAK EVEN ROAS2.02price divided by the break even ad cost
ROAS AT THIS AD COST3.00price divided by the ad cost per order
Each order clears $4.83 after ads. Ads could cost up to $14.83 an order before this product loses money.
ONE P&L PER STOREFRONT
SHOPIFY, AFTER ADS$4.83
AMAZON FBA, AFTER ADS$9.50
Typical fees: Shopify Payments charges about 2.9% plus 30 cents an order, Amazon's referral fee is 15% in most categories, and the FBA fee depends on size and weight. Storage, returns and monthly plan fees are left out. Every figure is computed live, and the five parts add up to the sale price.
03 THE TEST LOOP
Products earned inventory by selling first.
Drop shipping and print on demand put a product in front of buyers with no stock bought. Only proven products got inventory and a place in Amazon FBA.
- 01RESEARCH
Market research picks a product worth a test.
- 02LIST
On a Shopify store, drop shipped or print on demand. No stock bought.
- 03TEST
A small paid test for that one product.
- 04READ
Cost per order against the product's break even.
KILL FASTAbove its break even, the test stops. There is no stock to clear.
- 05STOCK
Winners get inventory, made and shipped into Amazon FBA.
- 06REORDER
Winners get reordered as they sell.
THE NEXT PRODUCT STARTS AGAIN AT 01Steps and wording describe the method, not a record of any one product.
| Dimension | ENGINE 1 · SHOPIFY | ENGINE 2 · AMAZON FBA |
|---|---|---|
| THE JOB | Find demand | Scale demand |
| INVENTORY | None bought. The supplier or print partner holds it. | Bought in bulk, only for proven products. |
| WHO SHIPS | The supplier or print partner, order by order. | Amazon, from its fulfillment centers. |
| FEES PER ORDER | Payment processing. | A referral fee plus an FBA fee per unit. |
| PAID TRAFFIC | Facebook, AdWords, Twitter, influencers, email. | Amazon PPC. |
| THE RISK | Ad spend on a product nobody wants. | Stock nobody buys. |
04 THE CHANNELS
Six paid channels, two storefronts, my own money.
Every channel had to earn its budget against the unit math. The map shows where each channel's traffic mostly went.
MY OWN CAPITALSix figures in live ad accounts
TO THE SHOPIFY STORES
- FACEBOOKproduct tests and prospecting
- ADWORDSsearch and shopping intent
- TWITTERpromoted posts
- INFLUENCERSlaunches and social proof
- EMAILrepeat buyers
TO AMAZON FBA
- AMAZON PPCsponsored products on Amazon
Amazon PPC can only send shoppers to Amazon listings. The other five drove the Shopify stores. Channel roles are how each one mostly earned its budget.
05 THE EXIT
Built to run without me, then sold.
A buyer pays for a business that runs without its founder. So the routine work moved into automations, and the last stretch went into making the company easy to hand over.
Reorder triggers
- STOCK LEVEL
- BELOW THE LINE
- REORDER
Winners got reordered before they ran out of stock.
Customer service templates
- COMMON QUESTION
- SAVED TEMPLATE
- ANSWERED
Order status and return questions were answered from written templates.
Daily ad reporting
- EVERY AD ACCOUNT
- ONE DAILY REPORT
- BUDGET CALLS
Spend and cost per order from every account, in one report each day.
- NOV 2016Cofounded, first stores.
- TEST ON SHOPIFY
- WINNERS TO FBA
- ~$1M REVENUEFirst full fiscal year.
- AUTOMATE
- EXIT PREP
- MAY 2018Sold, about 18 months after the start.
Not to scale. The three labeled points are real; the phases between them are approximate.
CLEAN BOOKS
A buyer could read the business from its numbers.
DOCUMENTED PROCESSES
Every recurring task was written down step by step.
RUNS WITHOUT ME
Orders, reorders, service and reporting ran on days I didn't log in.
06 THE RESULT
About $1M in the first full year. Then a sale.
Eighteen months from start to sale, with six figures of my own capital in live ad accounts along the way.
~$1Mrevenue in the first full fiscal year
2storefront models: Shopify for tests, Amazon FBA for scale
6paid channels: Facebook, AdWords, Amazon PPC, Twitter, email, influencers
~18 mofrom cofounding in Nov 2016 to the sale in May 2018
The revenue figure is from my own records of the company's first full fiscal year. Product names, margins, order counts and the sale price stay private. Calculator defaults, the flow in the hero and the phases on the timeline are illustrative.
07 WHAT CARRIES OVER
What I'd tell any brand selling on Shopify and Amazon.
01
Test before inventory. Let buyers pay for a product before you pay for a pallet of it.
02
Keep one P&L per channel. Referral and fulfillment fees change the math, so a product that pays on Shopify can lose money on Amazon, and the other way around.
03
Build the business to run without you. Routing, reorders, service and reporting should work on a day you don't log in. That is also what a buyer pays for.