If you’ve ever stared at your Shopify dashboard wondering if your store’s flatline graph is some sort of personal insult, you’re not alone.
The thing is, we all start our ecommerce journeys with a cocktail of caffeine, blind optimism, and a vague dream to “make more sales.” Then we see someone on Instagram posting about their “six-figure launch” and suddenly we’re sitting there, side-eyeing our £42 turnover and questioning all our life choices.
Been there. More times than I care to admit.
But here’s the truth most people won’t tell you (because, apparently, honesty doesn’t trend on social media): building an online store that actually works takes time, energy, and the kind of emotional stamina usually reserved for toddlers learning to walk.
So before you start panic-Googling “how to make £10k months” or lighting sage over your laptop, let’s reset your expectations — with humour, honesty, and a few hard truths you’ll thank me for later.
The “I Should Be Further Along By Now” Trap
Ah yes, the classic entrepreneur spiral. You log on, see another business “selling out” their latest launch, and within minutes, you’re convinced you’ve wasted your entire life.
Here’s the thing: those stories you see online? They’ve been edited, filtered, and polished within an inch of their lives. You’re comparing your behind-the-scenes chaos to someone else’s highlight reel.
Growth isn’t linear. It’s lumpy. It’s awkward. It’s like growing out a bad haircut — progress happens, but some days, you’ll swear you’re going backwards.
So, if you’ve been whispering “I should be further along by now” into your morning coffee, stop it. Seriously. You’re building something from scratch. It’s supposed to feel messy.
And no, the universe isn’t punishing you. You’re just in the bit between “idea” and “it’s working.” We’ve all been there.
The Problem With “Double My Sales” Goals
Listen, “I want to double my sales” sounds great in theory — but in reality, it’s about as useful as a chocolate teapot.
Without data, context, or an actual plan, it’s not a goal. It’s a wish. And you can’t run a business on wishes. (I’ve tried. Seems the universe is great at alignment, terrible at direct deposits.)
One of my clients once told me she wanted to triple her revenue by Christmas. “That sounds great,” I said. “What’s your conversion rate right now?”
She blinked. “My what?”
Exactly.
You can’t improve what you’re not measuring. If you want to grow, you need to know your numbers — traffic, conversion, repeat customers, average order value. Those are your four horsemen of growth.
Otherwise, you’re basically shooting arrows in the dark and hoping to hit a unicorn.
And if your goal is to “go viral”? For feck’s sake, no. That’s not a goal. That’s a cry for help disguised as marketing.
The 3 Levers That Actually Move the Needle
Now, let’s simplify things — because business plans don’t need to look like a NASA flight manual.
Every growth goal fits into one of these three buckets:
- Get more visitors (traffic, eyeballs, humans on your site)
- Convert more visitors into buyers (your website doing the best job it can)
- Get customers to come back again and again (think email marketing, sms marketing, loyalty schemes)
That’s it. That’s the game.
Everything you do should feed one of those levers. Not seventeen of them. One at a time, my friend.
Take Katia, for example. She focused purely on visitors — getting seen on Etsy and Pinterest — before fussing over her website’s conversion rate.
Sarah? She doubled down on her email list and turned browsers into repeat buyers.
Both grew steadily. Neither burnt out or cried over abandoned carts (well, not often).
What Good Growth Actually Looks Like
Alright, let’s talk about what “good growth” actually means — because I can already hear you muttering, “But I want BIG growth.”
Of course you do. We all do. But let’s keep it real.
Doubling your revenue overnight looks sexy on Instagram, but adding 5-10% month-on-month consistently? That’s where the grown-up magic happens. That’s compounding, baby.
Think of it like compound interest — but for your shop instead of your pension. Less finance lovely, more “passive-ish income.”
For most small ecommerce brands, healthy looks like this:
- Traffic growing by 5-10% each month
- Conversion rates around 2–3%
- Returning customer rate roughly 30%
Now, let’s talk about the bit nobody posts about because it’s not very influencer-friendly — survival mode.
For a lot of store owners, the first couple of years aren’t about scaling to the moon, they’re about staying afloat. Paying yourself something. Keeping the lights on. Not losing your mind when your supplier ghosts you.
If that’s you, please hear this — that’s not failure. That’s stage one.
Your growth goal might simply be:
- Stay profitable
- Stay consistent
- Stay standing
And honestly? That’s enough. Because survival mode is part of the process. You’re building muscles while everyone else is still waiting for their first sale notification.
There’s strength in staying power. The ones who survive those scrappy, caffeine-fuelled years are the ones who end up thriving.
So if your only goal right now is “don’t drown,” that’s a damn good goal.
How to Set Growth Goals That Don’t Make You Want to Cry
Let’s simplify your to-do list before you throw your laptop out the window.
My three-step sanity plan:
- Pick one focus area per quarter — traffic, conversion, or retention.
- Set a measurable target (“Increase conversion from 1.8% to 2.5%” — boom, done).
- Check in weekly, celebrate monthly. Even tiny wins count.
And please — for the love of god — stop turning everything into a colour-coded spreadsheet you’ll never look at again. A notebook and a sticky note will do.
Because the thing is, if your plan isn’t simple, you won’t stick to it.
And if you’re doom-scrolling your competitors’ success stories at midnight? Close the app. Go to bed. You’ll have better ideas in the morning.
The Mindset Bit (Because You Knew It Was Coming)
Real talk: growth isn’t just about numbers, it’s about how you feel too.
You can be growing slowly and still be succeeding.
You can have a quiet month and still be building something powerful.
You can earn less one month and still be heading in the right direction.
The goal isn’t a constant upward line, it’s creating a business that doesn’t collapse the moment you take a day off or lose Wi-Fi.
So buckle up, buttercup and repeat after me…
Progress over perfection, done is better than perfect, one step at a time.
You don’t need to sprint. You just need to keep walking — ideally toward something that feels good, not just something that looks good on Instagram.
Final Word:
You’re not behind. You’re building.
And that, my friend, is growth.
Now, go on — make yourself a cuppa, open your Shopify analytics, and give yourself some credit. You’re doing far better than you think.
