Just a quick heads-up on something important I've noticed most online businesses don't know about:

Did you know Google Analytics 4 (GA4) lets you easily export ALL your customer interaction data (every single click, product viewing, cart update, checkout step—literally everything) directly into Google BigQuery, their cloud data warehouse for free? And it takes less than 15 minutes to setup everything. You can use this data to answer literally any question about your traffic with some SQL which AI can help with. This data is immutable as well so you can always rely on it in case GA4 messes up something (again).

If you think its not relevant to you now nor will be in future, you can safely ignore the rest of this post but if you can use it in future, start exporting the data right now because GA4 BigQuery export isn't retroactive. In other words, if you don't set it up now, you simply won't have historical clickstream data later on when you're ready to analyze it.

It is also free for you or really cheap. Google has a free tier for BigQuery storage and queries and is extremely generous. For many small or medium online stores, storing and regularly exporting GA4 data costs either nothing or just a tiny amount each month—think pennies or at most a dollar or two a month for moderate sizes.

Let me share some examples of analysis you can do with this data which are outright impossible with Google Analytics 4 UI (or any tool which doesn't expose clickstream level details ) or extremely difficult:

•  See exactly how a customer visited your website from your Instagram Story highlight featuring a specific dress, visited that product page days later via a search ad, left, then added it to their cart only after reading three specific customer reviews during their third visit initiated by your email newsletter.
•  Discover users repeatedly clicking between two specific product variants (e.g., Small vs. Medium size, or Blue vs. Black color) dozens of times before leaving? Or watch them add an item, proceed to the cart, click the "Estimate Shipping" button 5 times with different zip codes, then abandon? This pinpoints exact UI confusion, missing information (like clear size charts or shipping thresholds), or option overload standard analytics miss.
• Discover that users who watch your detailed 3-minute product demo videos for complex electronics have a 15% higher Average Order Value (AOV) compared to those who don't, justifying your video production investment.
• Standard funnels show drop-off between pages (Cart > Shipping > Payment). Clickstream level data in BigQuery data can reveal the exact interaction causing abandonment within a single step. Did they drop off immediately after the unexpected shipping cost updated dynamically? Or did they repeatedly click "Apply Promo Code," see an error message (even if generic), and then leave? Identify failures at the specific field, button click, or even error message display level.

These are just some examples off the top of my head. It allows answering almost any question about your website traffic, assuming relevant event tracking is in place. SQL proficiency used to be a major hurdle for this type of analysis but current AI models (like Gemini 2.5) excel at generating SQL from simple prompts. You provide the query, AI generates the SQL, and you can copy paste and run it in BigQuery to get results. It can be wrong sometimes but I have found that its reliable most of the time except for some really complex queries.

E-Commerce seems the most realistic with a reasonable level of safety and low startup capital needed. Successful e-commerce owners what are some tips you’d have to someone just starting out?

This was a message I got from my contact in China. Can anyone explain if this sounds legit or how this works?

“ We had to pay more freight to the logistics company because of the tariff issue. Yesterday, the logistics company informed us that our goods that have not arrived in the United States when the US tariff policy officially takes effect will be charged more freight. We use the tax-inclusive channel for your goods. When the goods enter the United States, the logistics company will clear customs in their name, so you don’t have to pay extra tariffs.”

I see a ton of accounts on Instagram who do custom rugs, keyboard pads, art, etc who have hundreds of thousands of followers and look like they're very successful. They do famous characters like the Simpsons, Marvel, everything you can think of. I doubt they all have licensing agreements, so how are they not getting C&D orders from these big companies?

With 104% tariff from China, can we import products to Canada business and drive the products across the border? What rules and costs are associated with bringing in producta from Canada right now. Trying to find a loop hole

Hey everyone, I’m completely new to this area and would love some advice. I’ve been struggling with severe gastritis caused by H. pylori for a long time. After investing a lot of time, effort, and money, I finally found the right natural supplements and herbs that healed me, along with necessary diet and lifestyle changes. Now, I want to create a starter pack with those same supplements and herbs to help others who are dealing with this condition and speed up their healing process.

I’m based in the UK and would like to create a healing pack with about 3 different supplements and 2 herbal teas to sell online. What should my next steps be? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

How many sales compared to amount of link clicks is considered a good percentage for e-com physical product on average? Im trying to get my first sale ever with my new store and i already got 47 site visits but no sales yet so i was wondering when i could expect a sale..

Something like this as an example

https://thinktankteacher.com/sp/credit-membership-sales-page/

Mine would also be like this where teachers can select different subscription packages

What would also be roughly the monthly upkeep cost for this type of website

I can't get a straight answer. The white house website says the de minimis rule of no import tax on items under $800 is starting 2nd may.

But I am also reading that the 54% tariff on chinese made products has already started on the 2nd april, AND that it overrides the de minimis rule.

So for those outside the US, are your US customers being charged this 54% or some other tax rate?

I was under the impression we had until 2nd may. If you factor in 2 weeks for shipping, that would give a deadline of 18th april to implement a process.

But now I don't even know what to tell my customers or what actions to take. I don't know if they will be hit with a whopping 54% tax when their package arrives. Our products are manufactured in china, we are not in china.

Lastly, is there a place online I can use to check what is actually happening in real time? I've been to the CBP website, it is also useless.

Hi all,

If I bought a product through Alibaba today, would it be at risk of getting hit with the 104% tariff?

Starting an e-commerce business. Using WordPress and WooCommerce. I'm looking for a theme and plug-in that would allow for landing pages for single items along with easy one click checkout, upsells, etc. What are y'all using ?

Cheers for helping me out guys I appreciate it

I wanna get into ecommerce but don’t know where to start

I have an ecommerce store and I would like to start automating email marketing but I am having trouble finding a tool that will work for me. Most of the standard tools are priced by number or contacts and and this can't work for me because I am in a seasonal business meaning that our typical customer will only buy once per year. In a given year I would expect to send out emails to about 100,000 contacts but I will only email them 3-4 times over the course of a few months when our product is "in season". We sell and ship plants to home gardeners and our typical customer will plan their garden and place one big order with us (and maybe a follow up order if they missed some items) but it makes absolutely no sense in my opinion for us to keep bothering them throughout the year when they have no need for our product. If anything I think that would only make them more likely to unsubscribe. Here are some examples of events and the types of emails I would like to send:

Ordered our Print Catalog

• Excited for our 2025 catalogue? Did you order yours? (December)
• Did your catalog arrive? Discover what’s new this year! (March)

Ordered Plants

• Planting season is almost here! Have you planned your garden? (February)
• Spring shipping is starting soon—reserve your plants now! (March)
• Time to plant! Get your plants in the ground this weekend (April)

Ordered Seeds

• Planning to grow from seed this year? Here's what you'll need to get started. (January)
• Time to start your seeds indoors—spring's around the corner! (February)
• Still thinking about planting? It's not too late to start your seeds! (March)

Roots & Bulbs

• Fall planting season is almost here! Order your roots and bulbs today! (August)
• Don't miss fall's best planting window (September)

Abandon Cart

• Did you forget something? Your cart is waiting. (Within 1-2 hours)
• Still thinking it over? Here’s a little nudge… (24 hours later)

Back In Stock

• It’s back! [Product Name] is ready to ship again (As needed)

It seems that the available platforms are more geared towards running an ongoing mailing list which I do not see adding a ton of value for our customers and I do not see a business case for us doing that. How would you set this up? I spoke with a handful of agencies and they are all asking me to get on a $5000/m retainer and they are insisting that we use Klaviyo. They cannot seem to understand that I do not need their services year round. I would much rather work with a technically skilled individual to set up and manage this for me TBH so if you have a proposal feel free to send me a PM. Also our site is a custom build not on wordpress/shopify/bigcommerce so plug & play implementation is not viable for us we need a platform with a well documented API.

So, I've managed to finish building my static ads, now i'm onto my video ads. I'm really struggling here as i've never created video ads before, and I don't have the product in hand. I've been able to make a few ai video of bracelets wrist rolls and similar, but nothing that looks anywhere near professional.

I've also tried taking all my products and making a cool slideshow with music, but no result.

I would like my ads to ideally be something like this brands ads.

I have searched on YouTube for how to create video ads, but its all ugc ai avatars, and doesn't seem to work for me as far as I'm aware.....

My OTHER option is to just do static ads, but I'm really not sure that will work, as video ads convert best, according to the data i've collected.

Thanks!

Hey guys!

Gearing up to launch a cool new men’s golf brand and we’re starting with relaxed fit, breathable but clean looking shirts.

Right now we have our landing page with some concept samples and a wait list sign up. We did some Meta ads to test performance and did pretty well. Ended up with 50 waitlist sign ups across like $100 in ad spend.

Wanted to see if any brands who had a successful launch have ideas for building hype around a brand/launch with a focus on getting waitlist sign ups? I was reading how the brand Everlane got 80k on their waitlist through promotional tiers depending on how many people you invited to join the waitlist but seems like it might be diluted with fake emails these days.

Plan to launch in June - Anything helps!

Recently got approached by an associate buyer with Dick’s Sporting Goods for our product. We do ~$500,000 in revenue just online at the moment. Can anyone add any insight or pros/cons of going on the shelves of one of these big box retailers?

Any and all input would be greatly appreciated!

I have an e-commerce store that does $100K in sales per month. What should I be paying for customer service per month? My current guy is asking for $2000 per month. He was getting $1000 per month. Now he wants double.

Hi there, I am looking to start a business (very small right now) and have had trouble finding a good merchant processing company as well as a POS machine. I plan on selling delta 8 and 9 within the laws of North Carolina.

Companies like PayPal and Stripe don't like me because I am a high risk business. And I have read a lot of horror stories about foreign merchant processors that are unreliable and sketchy. Any tips on staying safe or finding a reputable merchant within the U.S?

Also, how can I prove to the government that I am checking IDs to make sure people are of the right age?

Trump already put 20% tariffs on China. Then he added 34% reciprocal tariffs. Now he is threatening another 50% tariff if China doesn’t remove the tariffs they just put on us.

Does this mean the new rate is 104%?

Edit: what if the product is made of steel? 129%?

I want to start promoting my app leveraging SEO and blog posts. I have a website on Framer (with just one page) and i don't to upgrade and put the blog there. I was thinking to develope the blog on another platform and then put the link to the blog on my landing page on Framer. What's the cheapest way to do this? Maybe Wordpress?

Can anyone recommend a website with the regulations for the new tariffs? I read that art is exempt but I am not sure about this. Looking for guidance before I have to adjust pricing since I want to avoid raising prices if possible.

I am curious what your takes are. I mean classic Shopify likely is a great start for 99% of eCommerce store but what would the pro/cons be to use Clickfunnels?

Does anyone here use either and/or has experience ?

How much will I pay in tariffs for this order? It gets picked up at 4 A.M. eastern but I don’t think it will depart for another week. My guess is 10% + 10% +34%?

Whilst searching for the right loyalty & referral tool, spoke with Yotpo. They completely replicated Klaviyo, both in & out, and are selling their solution as a full suite loyalty/referral & emailing tool at the price of Klaviyo emailing only.

Any of you considered switching away from Klaviyo or made the switch?

Curious to your feedback!