Many operators are addicted to chasing unicorns.
They’re looking for the next 5X ROAS ad, the TikTok that goes viral, the product drop that sells out in 15 minutes.
But the truth is, those lightning strikes are rare – and unpredictable. You can’t build a business hoping to get lucky.
The brands that win consistently? They’re not focused on going viral.
They’re obsessed with the unsexy stuff: conversion rate optimization, AOV bumps, retention flows, shipping margins, and product bundling.
Tiny wins. Stacked daily. That’s where the money is.
The myth of the silver bullet
There’s a misconception that the big levers are all about new customer acquisition.
More paid spend. More influencers. More SEO.
But every brand eventually learns the hard way: top-line growth without margin growth is a mirage.
I worked with a DTC skincare brand last year doing $8M a year. They had beautiful branding, a killer product, and solid traffic. But they were losing money every month.
Why?
- Their returns were too high.
- Their subscription cancellation emails were going unanswered.
- They were discounting too often and too early.
Nothing glamorous. Just death by a thousand paper cuts.
So we got surgical. We made their return window clearer. Built a cancellation flow that offered help, not a brick wall. Replaced sitewide discounts with personalized bundles. All in, these tiny tweaks increased contribution margin by 17%.
Not headline-worthy stuff. But it took them from losing money to printing it.
The margin mindset
Every operator should be asking: “Where are we leaking profit?”
It’s rarely one big hole. It’s usually a dozen pinpricks.
- A landing page with a 0.3% lower conversion rate than your best one
- A warehouse packing error rate that goes unchecked
- A post-purchase flow that ends after the thank-you page
These are the opportunities hiding in plain sight. Not sexy. But wildly profitable when optimized.
Many brands overlook them because they don’t feel like growth. They feel like operations. But smart operators know: operations is growth.
Why this works
The magic is in the math.
If you increase:
- Your AOV by 10%
- Your conversion rate by 10%
- Your repeat purchase rate by 10%
You don’t get 30% more revenue. You get nearly a 33% increase in profit.
Margins amplify everything.
Which is why great brands don’t think in terms of more. They think in terms of better.
The quiet wins are the loudest
We live in a world where e-commerce case studies are all about top-line wins.
“$1M in 24 hours!”
“10X growth in 6 weeks!”
But most of those stories leave out the context – or the cost. What matters more is what’s left after the dust settles.
The brands that last? They’re not the loudest.
They’re the ones quietly stacking marginal gains – until one day, they look up and realize they’re winning the whole game.
One question to ask this week
What 1% improvement could you ship today that your competitors won’t notice – but your bottom line will?
Go do that.
That’s all for this week.
See you next Saturday.