Real monthly online retail income report – March 2021
Online retail income report. What's the purpose of me sharing my monthly?
Every month, I get a little raw and real about my revenue and return – good or bad.
Why do I share my online retail income reports? Because I believe that complete transparency is the key to eCommerce and online retail success. So often, you’ll see ads from gurus promising six-figure incomes in a matter of weeks, and the reality is that making money from your online store isn’t as cut and dry as they’d have you believe.
Yes, it’s absolutely possible to make serious cash from eCommerce, but it’s certainly not overnight – and mostly, it starts with smaller wins, like adding ten more sales to your weekly report, doubling your monthly revenue, or seeing 50% annual growth. Your retail price also has a lot to do with it – have a squizz here about how to set your prices.
In this online retail income report series, I’ll be sharing my revenue, returns, top-line ad spend, and return-on-ad-spend (ROAS), in the hope that you get a real glimpse into the cash comings and goings of a working eCommerce business. Enjoy.
March 2021 Income
$119,039
-$5,177 in returns
Income Breakdown
$50,491.17 was from Social
$13,248.03 was from Email
$15,501.70 was from Paid Search
$14,811.57 was Direct
$11,006.13 was Organic Search
$3,565.05 was Referral
Any income not accounted for is from Display or Other
Facebook ads are a beast we are still wrestling with on the daily.
Anyone who gets their kicks inside of Ads Manager like I do will know that out of all of the ads submitted to review, only a handful make it through Facebook’s rigorous approval process.
It often feels like an uphill battle with this platform - sometimes we’re nailing it and it’s smooth sailing, and sometimes we have months and months where we’re scratching our heads wondering what’s going on. I see a lot of students getting deterred from persisting with their paid ad strategy after a month or two of disappointing (but still profitable) return on their spend, and I always encourage them to keep going.
Persist and try, persist and try until you find what works - and then double down on that until it stops working. Algorithms change, regulations change, so it’s a matter of keeping up as best you can and then hammering it home when it’s good.
In terms of Google Ads, we started strong but after scaling the budget, struggled to maintain our high ROAS. Definitely looking to improve this for April.
In other news, we ran another big influencer collaboration which was exciting; this exposed our brand to a lot of fresh, new faces in our target demographic and helped us to expand our database of on-brand templates for support and customer enquiries.
Always use a big influx of queries or traffic to craft great support content, and then save it somewhere so you’re not overwhelmed the next time it happens - we often overlook our support copy but it’s where we sow the seeds of brand loyalty. Customers shop again if they feel well taken care of when shipping, product concerns or payment issues go awry. Don’t let it slip.
With all of that covered, let’s breakdown the ROI for the month:
Social
Spend: $19,155.68
Return: $50,491.17
ROAS: 263.58%
Google Ads
Spend: $4,253.97
Return: $15,501.70
ROAS: 364.41%
So, all in all, a good March which we’re happy with, but looking to move onwards and upwards in April.
And if you follow me on Instagram, you’ll see I’ve been working in overdrive to get the new and improved Online Store Success, my signature course, released into the world later this year. Some who have had a look at the content already have coined it the eCommerce founder’s straight shot to scaling, because it covers everything you NEED to know and do if you want to run a profitable online store (Instagram to emails, SEO to ads, branding to websites conversion, and everything in between).
Questions about my online retail income report
If my online retail income report has raised any questions for you, please feel free to drop me a line. I love chatting with other online retail entrepreneurs about their highs, lows, wins and setbacks. In case you missed it, I posted 3 quick-fire Easter campaign ideas on the blog, too - take a look.
