- Resources
eCommerce Guides You Can Actually Run
Three kinds of resource, all published in full. Complete guides are evergreen, chapter-length references on one subject. Short guides are single procedures with a defined output. Comparisons settle a choice between two options. Nothing is gated, there are no email walls, and everything is written by the team running the accounts.
- Written as procedures, not opinion pieces
- Every threshold stated, so you know what clears and what does not
- Runnable in-house with a spreadsheet and admin access
9
complete guides
3
short guides
2
comparisons
- Featured guide
The Complete Guide to eCommerce Marketing
Chapter-length, evergreen, and the reference we hand to anyone deciding where the next quarter of budget goes.
Most marketing advice is a list of channels. This one starts with the constraint that is actually holding the store back, works out what you can afford to pay for a customer, and only then decides where the budget goes.
- Naming the binding constraint: traffic, conversion, margin or repeat rate
- Contribution margin, break-even CAC and what each channel is genuinely for
- Conversion, retention, creative, and measurement that survives attribution loss
- 37 minutes, eight chapters, nothing gated
Chapter one is the question most marketing plans skip: which of four things is actually limiting the business.
- Complete guides
Nine more, published in full
Alongside the marketing guide above, nine chapter-length references covering growth, organic search, paid media, conversion, retention, marketplaces, international expansion, Shopify and Etsy. Each runs to eight chapters with its own checklists and frameworks, and none of them is gated.
Growth · 37 min
The growth equation, what matters at each stage, order value, cash and inventory, forecasting, cadence and team.
- Output: one named lever for the quarter
- Best used before writing a growth plan
Organic search · 38 min
Demand mapping, category architecture, faceted navigation, product content at scale and honest measurement.
- Output: a ranked list of pages that should exist
- Best used before commissioning any SEO work
Paid media · 38 min
Profit maths, account architecture, Shopping feeds, paid social, retail media, budget pacing and measurement.
- Output: break-even, target and growth ROAS written down
- Best used before raising a media budget
Conversion · 37 min
What a point of conversion is worth, where funnels leak, the four template fixes, and testing at realistic traffic.
- Output: a named leaking step and a sized test plan
- Best used before buying more traffic
Retention · 38 min
Customer value, cohort measurement, segmentation, the five flows, cadence, deliverability and honest reporting.
- Output: cohort repeat rates and a flow build order
- Best used before increasing send frequency
Marketplaces · 38 min
Channel fit, fees and margin, listing quality, ranking, retail media, operations and contribution reporting.
- Output: which products should be listed at all
- Best used before opening a channel
International · 38 min
Readiness, market selection, landed cost and duty, operating model, hreflang, localisation and logistics.
- Output: a scored market shortlist and a landed cost model
- Best used before committing to a country
Platform · 32 min
The platform-specific version: URL prefixes, collection pages, product duplication, theme performance and app markup.
- Output: a facet decision table for your store
- Best used if you are already on Shopify
Platform · 24 min
How Etsy search really ranks: relevance, listing quality score, shipping price and service record — and the thirteen-tag budget.
- Output: a tag allocation table and a listing triage
- Best used if Etsy is a real channel for you
- Short guides
One procedure, one output
Each of these is a single procedure you can work through in an afternoon. They are cross-listed under Insights, so you will find them in both places.
Operations · 7 min
The diagnosis we run before touching a budget. Twelve points in sequence, each with a threshold.
- Output: one named constraint, ranked, with evidence
- Best used before committing new budget
Marketplaces · 8 min
What has to be true before you open a second marketplace, from catalogue readiness to pricing policy.
- Output: a go or no-go decision with five owned gates
- Best used four to six weeks before launch
Conversion · 8 min
Nine elements that reliably move conversion, four that rarely do, and a test for telling them apart.
- Output: your top 20 pages scored against a standard
- Best used before a redesign, not after one
- Comparisons
Comparison resources
When the question is which of two options to choose, a comparison answers it faster than a guide does. Each one ends with a decision and a route to the page that follows.
Platforms
Hosted guardrails or open-source control, compared across cost of ownership, SEO, checkout, apps, scale and the cost of leaving.
- Eight dimensions, each with a named winner
- A weighted decision framework
- Routes on to the platform and service pages
Marketplaces
Where the demand actually is, what each channel really costs, and what running one or both asks of your team.
- Demand, fees, listings, advertising, fulfilment
- Sequencing advice for running both
- Written from live seller accounts
Index
The full comparison index, including the platform and marketplace comparisons currently in production.
- One consistent method across every pair
- Planned comparisons listed, not linked
- Updated when pricing or policy changes
- How this differs
Insight, short guide, complete guide
Three kinds of writing, distinguished by what you are meant to do with them rather than by length.
Insight article
Short guide
Complete guide
Argues a position
Gives one procedure
Covers a whole subject in chapters
You finish understanding something differently
You finish holding a document or a decision
You return to it as a reference
7–8 minutes
7–8 minutes
30 minutes or more
Read once, when the topic comes up
Worked through, then repeated
Read in order once, then used as an index
All three are published in full. The distinction is editorial, not commercial — nothing is held back for a longer version.
- Suggested order
How they fit together
They are independent, but run in this order they answer four questions in the sequence a business usually needs them.
01
Diagnose first
Run the twelve-point audit and name the binding constraint in one sentence. Most teams discover the work they were about to commission is not the work that matters.
02
Fix conversion before buying more traffic
If the constraint sits on the storefront, the product page standard is the cheapest revenue in the account, because releasing it does not require buying anything.
03
Then earn the traffic
If the constraint is demand rather than conversion, the eCommerce SEO guide is the long version: demand mapping, category architecture and indexation control, in priority order, with a Shopify-specific companion if that is your platform.
04
Expand only once the base is stable
A second marketplace multiplies operational load immediately and revenue eventually. The launch checklist exists to stop that happening before you are ready.
Each guide names the point at which you should stop and do something else instead.
- In production
Guides we are writing next
Listed so you know what is coming. None of these are published yet, so none of them are linked.
The Complete Guide to Amazon Account Management
Catalogue, content, advertising and account health as one chapter-length reference.
The lifecycle coverage map
Which flows a store should have live at each stage of maturity, and the order to build them in.
A contribution margin model
A working spreadsheet structure for pricing to margin rather than shelf price across channels.
A page speed budget for eCommerce
Setting and holding a performance budget on the templates that carry your revenue.
- Elsewhere in Resources
Where to go next
Guides are one of four branches. The rest of the library is here.
The parent index: insights, guides, case studies and what is coming, in one place.
Ten articles on operations, marketplaces, SEO, paid media, conversion, retention and AI search.
Six engagements with the constraint we found, the work we did and the numbers that moved.
Twelve engagements in brief, across Shopify, Amazon, Walmart and BigCommerce.
- Questions
About these guides
Short answers on how they are written, what they cost and what they are not.
What is the difference between a complete guide and a short guide?
A complete guide covers a whole subject in chapters and is written to be returned to — each of the nine complete guides runs to eight chapters and thirty minutes or more. A short guide is one procedure with one output, worked through in an afternoon. Both are published in full; the difference is scope, not how much we held back.
Are these gated? Do I have to give you my email?
No. Every guide is a complete, published page. There is no download form, no email wall and no shortened version. If a guide is useful you are welcome to print it, share it or hand it to your team.
Can I run these without hiring an agency?
Yes, and each guide says so explicitly. The audit guide includes a six-step version you can run with a spreadsheet and admin access. We would rather you ran it yourself and came to us with a named constraint than appointed anyone blind.
How often are they updated?
Each guide carries an updated date. We revise them when the underlying practice changes — a platform policy shift, a fee change, a measurement change — rather than on a content calendar.
Can you run a guide with us rather than for us?
Yes. Several clients start with a working session where we run the audit alongside their team so the framework stays in the building afterwards. Get in touch if that is the shape you want.
Can I republish or quote a guide?
Quote it freely with a link back. If you want to reproduce one in full — for an internal training deck, say — ask us and the answer is almost certainly yes.
Run a guide, then talk to us
The most useful first conversation is one where you already know your constraint. Work through a guide, then bring us the sentence.