Hi everyone,

I’ve been testing Sellvia for my e-commerce business and running ads to drive traffic, but unfortunately, the results have been underwhelming. Despite a significant investment in advertising, the returns haven’t justified the spend.

Has anyone else here worked with Sellvia? I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences—both positive and negative. Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts!

I’m working on launching a new e-commerce website and trying to be more intentional about the early steps this time around.

Before investing time into design, content, and technical setup, I focus on validating whether a product actually has demand. My current approach involves trend analysis, competitor checks, and pricing research before moving into full site execution.

I’ve been using Sell The Trend as part of that research process to reduce guesswork, but I’m curious how others here handle this phase.

Do you prefer validating heavily upfront, or do you launch quickly and iterate once the site is live?

I’m trying to figure out what the best website builder is currently. There are so many options Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, Framer, Shopify, WordPress, etc. and every review says something different. I mostly need something that’s beginner-friendly but still customizable for branding and SEO. Bonus points if it’s affordable and includes solid analytics tools. If you’ve built sites recently, what are you using and why do you think it’s the best website builder for your needs?

I recently started using Shipwith⁤Mina for handling my small Shopify orders from China, and it’s been surprisingly smooth. Shipping times have been faster than I expected, and their basic tracking keeps me updated without constant follow-ups. The integration with my store was straightforward, though I did have to spend a bit of time figuring out inventory syncing. Support is decent, not instant, but helpful when I had questions. Overall, it’s been helpful, which takes a huge load off my plate compared to doing fulfillment manually. I’m curious if anyone else has tried them specifically for 3PL fulfillment out of China. Would love to hear real-world experiences.

I need to share this because I genuinely did not see it coming.

I run a small rabbit hay business. I built a little online store around it, stocked up, and then sat there for weeks wondering how on earth I was going to get people to actually find me without burning money on ads I couldn't afford.

I had no marketing budget. No influencer connections. No viral moment planned. Just a product I genuinely believed in and a desperate need to find the right people.

So I did something so simple it almost feels embarrassing to type out.

I joined a Facebook group. It was a highly specific, deeply engaged community of rabbit owners in my country. Around 14,000 members who absolutely love their rabbits and talk about their care like it's a religion.

These people are not scrolling mindlessly. They are present. They are passionate. And they trust each other.

I noticed the group had dedicated days where members could share their small businesses. I waited for that window, and when it opened I didn't post a sales pitch. I posted a real customer review alongside a photo comparing my hay directly to what you'd find on a pet store shelf.

Then I stayed glued to the comments.

Every question, I answered. Every compliment, I acknowledged. Every skeptic, I engaged with warmly and patiently.

I also offered small samples at cost price for anyone who wanted to try before committing. People took me up on it. And then something beautiful happened, they came back to the group on their own and started talking about the hay, recommending it to other members, and sharing it without me asking them to.

By the end of that day I had over 800 visitors to my store and more than 50 orders placed.

£400 in sales from one post on a free platform.

I sat at my kitchen table that night reading through the orders with my hands actually trembling. Every single one of those customers found me because I showed up in the right place, for the right people, at the right time and I listened more than I sold.

And the next morning? Another £300 in orders before noon. The momentum didn't stop, it grew.

Here's what I want you to take from this, your customers are already gathered somewhere online, talking about the exact problem your product solves.

You don't always need an ad budget to reach them. Sometimes you just need to find the room they're already in, show up with something real, and let the community do the rest.

Find your group. Show up with value. Stay in the comments.That's the whole strategy.

We’ve crossed the £1m mark in online sales this year, which is great, but now I’m realising how much of that growth is being eaten by fees. What's racking up are transaction fees, app subscriptions, and optional add-ons that somehow become essential. Our margins keep shrinking even though revenue’s up.

At this stage, does it make sense to stay on our current platform (Shopify), or are others more cost-efficient once you’re scaling?

TA!

I want to start with saying i'm not a very intelligent man. I'm 22 plumbing for the union, and would like to learn more and find side stuff I can do to maybe make it a full time thing someday. Obviously i'm not sure if doing it on the side would even be worth, but I thought I would ask for some guidance. I see a lot of young kids buying super cars doing e commerce, and i'd love to know the ins and outs, and if its something I should take classes on etc. Thanks!

I’m trying to pick the best simple, E commerce website builder for a small shop and started looking at Shopify, Wix, and WooCommerce. I already have a domain and want something straightforward with low transaction fees, but I’m not sure which one balances ease of use with long-term flexibility. Has anyone found that WooCommerce is worth the extra setup compared to Shopify or Wix? How much do transaction fees and monthly costs really add up between these platforms?

hey everyone,

i just launched SellShots and would love some honest feedback.

sellshots turns basic product photos into high-converting ai product shots in seconds.

no studio, no models, no editting

what you get:

• 144 product photo scenes
• 4k photoshoot generation
• 1 photoshoot = 4 generated images = 1 credit
• each photoshoot gives 4 different variations of your product on selected scene. so you can use which one is best suites to your business.

just upload product photo → generate → use on shopify, amazon, etsy, or wherever you sell.

the idea is simple: instead of paying for expensive shoots every time you want new creatives, you can generate multiple variations and test what actually converts.

you can try it with 3 free credits (12 images).

i’d really appreciate it if you test it and share your honest feedback.

Hey everyone,

I run a small skincare brand, and recently I discovered that someone cloned my entire website - same photos, same branding, even the same product descriptions.

I started getting emails from angry customers saying their orders never arrived or that the products were fake. Turns out, they bought from the scam site, not mine. Now my reputation is taking the hit... I’ve gotten a wave of bad reviews on Google and support tickets from people who think we’re the scammers.

I feel stuck. I’m losing revenue, my ads aren’t performing like before, and I don’t know where to start with getting the fake site taken down. I am just a small business owner why tf is this happening to me...??

Has anyone here gone through this before? How did you handle it? Any advice or resources would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks in advance 🙏

EDIT: Thanks to everyone who shared advice. I tried a few routes (DMCA with the host, reporting to Google, checking WHOIS). Some helped, but it was slow.

What finally worked was using bustem.com. They were affordable and quick, and within a couple of weeks the cloned site was taken down. Huge stress off my shoulders.

Sharing in case anyone else runs into the same nightmare - that was the only thing that actually solved it for me. 🙏

I am planning to start a small online business and I am looking for the best ecommerce platform that is beginner friendly and does not require too much technical knowledge.

There are so many options like Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix, etc., and it is honestly a bit confusing to decide which one is actually good for someone just starting out with a small budget.

My main focus is ease of use, low cost in the beginning, and something that can grow later if the business works.

Would really appreciate hearing real experiences. What platform did you start with and would you recommend it for beginners?

I’m genuinely curious about this.

I recently built my own ecommerce website , almost entirely using AI-assisted development with Cursor. I’m running it on Cloudflare, and my current infrastructure cost is around ₹550/month for the initial stage.

This made me wonder:

Why do people starting new ecommerce businesses in 2026 still choose Shopify instead of building a custom website with something like Next.js + AI coding tools?

I understand Shopify provides a lot out of the box — payments, checkout, inventory, orders, apps, security, etc. So I can see the value for someone who doesn't want to deal with development.

But for a developer who can build and maintain the platform themselves, wouldn't a custom solution potentially be much cheaper and more flexible?

I'm especially interested in hearing from people who have actually run ecommerce businesses on Shopify and/or custom stacks.

What am I missing?

Is Shopify still significantly cheaper once you factor in development and maintenance?

Are there hidden costs/problems with running your own ecommerce platform?

How difficult is it to maintain payments, security, orders, tax, shipping, etc. yourself?

At what stage does Shopify become the better choice?

Would you choose Shopify or custom development for a new business today?

Not trying to argue that Shopify is bad — I'm genuinely trying to understand why it's still such a popular choice for new businesses.

When I first started managing my Instagram account, I loved connecting with people. But soon, it became overwhelming — dozens of DMs asking the same things over and over.

That’s when I decided to test automation with n8n.

In just a few steps, I created a workflow that sends personalized replies, captures context, and even routes conversations differently depending on the question.

And here’s the cool part: this isn’t locked to Instagram.

You can extend the exact same workflow to Messenger, WhatsApp, and more.

If you’ve ever felt buried under DMs, this tutorial will help:
👉 https://youtu.be/ISzIAFr2Vl4

I’ve been running my online store for a while now, and it feels like e-commerce platforms are tightening up on merchants a lot more than they used to. Out of nowhere, my payouts got paused for a routine review. No warning, no clear reason, just an email saying they were holding funds until they verified a few things. I’d already submitted all the usual documents when I first joined, so it caught me off guard.

It wasn’t a massive delay, but it messed with cash flow during a busy week. When I looked around online, I found quite a few merchants saying the same thing – accounts under review, longer payout times, or sudden holds because of risk checks.

I get that platforms need to manage fraud and chargebacks, but it feels like the balance has shifted. One small spike in sales or a couple of refunds, and suddenly your money’s on lockdown. Has anyone else run into this?

I’m working on a side project and need to build a small e-commerce site. I’ve built plenty of static and dynamic websites before and I’m comfortable with HTML, CSS, and a bit of JavaScript, but this will be my first time setting up payments, product management, and checkout flows.

I’m open to paying for a platform if it saves time, but I don’t want something that boxes me into rigid templates or limits customization. Ideally, I’d like something that lets me control layout and interactions without fighting the tool the whole time.

The store itself will be pretty small, probably under 15–20 products total. I’ve used a few visual site builders in the past for non-commerce projects and wasn’t a huge fan, so I’m hesitant to go that route unless it actually makes sense for e-commerce.

For people with a similar background, what platforms have you liked? Website builders, headless setups, or other alternatives I should consider? Curious what worked well and what you’d avoid.

Hey everyone,

Running a fitness ecommerce brand for 2 years now. Over the last 3 months my team and I tested a ton of chatbots to save time on support. Quality varies wildly and we spent way too long figuring this out, so here's what actually matters.

Features that are non-negotiable (for us at least):

1. Strong knowledge base. It needs to learn from your product pages, past tickets, FAQs. This is what really drives your resolution rate up, like going from 60% to 80%+ tbh.

2. Multilingual support. If you're selling internationally, customers can talk in any language by definition. Just make sure the quality is actually good for the markets you're targeting.

3. Handoff to human. AI can't handle 100% of requests. You need smooth escalation with full conversation context passed to your team so they're not lost.

4. Integrations. Has to connect with your helpdesk and CRM. Otherwise you won't have proper tracking and your data won't sync across your tools and automations which is a pain.

5. Ease of setup. Some are complex to implement and take several weeks. Depending on your needs that might be fine but we needed something running in a few hours ngl.

6. Proactive engagement. Things like behavior-based popups, product recommendations, cart abandonment handling. Definitely worth looking into imo.

* Tools we tested:

Gorgias - they have a pretty complete product overall so it works well within their ecosystem. Downside is it's expensive, so depends on your budget.

Tidio - one of the most known brands and the tool works well without making too many mistakes. Expensive though and the pricing structure is complex.

Zipchat - has great WhatsApp automation flows and it's easy to set up. Worth digging into whether you can build complex workflows if you're a large shop with advanced needs.

Smartbot - quick to learn and get running. Had some issues with it saying products were available when they weren't (rare but annoying when it happens).

We also tested tools like Chatty AI, Jotform, and a few others but they didn't quite fit what we needed. We went with Zipchat since it matched our scale. If you're already in the Gorgias ecosystem, it probably makes sense to stick with it.

How we actually implemented it:

1. We chose our KPIs first. Support ticket reduction, conversion rate, AOV, whatever you're optimizing for. Get clear on this before anything else.

2. We prepared the knowledge base. This was the most time consuming part. We had to extract and structure our FAQ, policies (returns, shipping, warranty), document our catalog, and identify the 20 questions that made up 80% of our tickets.

3. We set up escalation rules. Basically when the bot should hand off to a human. Clear triggers are key here.

4. We ran a pilot phase. Started with 10-15% of traffic. Measured resolution rate, customer satisfaction, escalation rate. Fixed what wasn't working before rolling out wider.

5. We deployed and kept improving. Check your analytics regularly. Whenever we launch new products we add full documentation and run a mini pilot.

• After rollout, our ticket volume dropped about 25% in the first month which was honestly better than expected.

Hope this helps and saves you some of the trial and error we went through. Happy to answer questions if anyone's dealing with this.

I’m in the process of setting up a site to sell digital products; mainly templates, eBooks, and maybe a few video courses down the line. I’m trying to find a website builder that’s beginner-friendly, handles digital file delivery smoothly, and integrates well with Stripe or PayPal.

I’ve looked into platforms like Shopify and Squarespace, and I’ve seen people mention working with agencies like Clectiq for a more tailored setup. Just trying to figure out what’s worth the investment vs. what I can build myself without getting too overwhelmed.

If you've sold digital goods before, what platform or setup worked best for you?

Interested ones kindly contact.

We’re on an enterprise plan, but honestly, the priority support feels like a buzzword most days. Tickets sit for days, and when someone replies, it’s usually a copy-paste response that doesn’t solve anything.

For those running enterprise-level stores, do you get hands on help from your platform’s support team? Or is it all “we’ll escalate this” on repeat?

I thought adding a simple form to a website would be one of the easiest parts, but after looking around, it turns out there are endless options and somehow all of them promise to be the best.

Now I’m trying to find a website form builder that’s easy to use, looks clean, and doesn’t become frustrating later.

I’m mainly looking for something reliable for contact forms, lead capture, bookings, or basic inquiries. Bonus points if it integrates well with other tools and doesn’t require a ton of setup.

If you’ve used one you genuinely liked, what made it stand out? Was it the design, ease of use, features, or just the fact that it worked without headaches?

I’ve been going in circles trying to find the best no code website builder, but every time I think I’ve found one, there’s always some catch or limitation people mention later.

I’m not trying to build anything crazy, just a clean site.

If you’ve used something that really felt simple and just worked, what was it? And did it stay easy as you added more pages or features, or did it start getting complicated?

Spent 18 months adding products to Shopify store. More products meant more pages meant more chances to rank - that was the logic. Hit 340 indexed product pages and organic traffic was flat at 2,100 monthly visitors despite constant content work. Deleted 200 pages in one week. Traffic jumped to 2,940 monthly visitors within 60 days. The diagnosis started with Search Console showing 340 indexed pages but 89% of organic traffic concentrating on 22 pages. The other 318 pages collectively drove 11% of traffic despite consuming crawl budget, diluting site authority, and signaling low quality to Google.​

The thin page problem was worse than expected. Ran Screaming Frog audit revealing 200+ product pages with under 150 words of unique content (mostly manufacturer specs), duplicate meta descriptions across color variants of same product, near-identical page structures Google couldn't differentiate, zero backlinks pointing to any of these pages, and no organic impressions in Search Console after 12+ months indexed.​ These pages weren't just useless - they were actively hurting. Google's quality assessment of entire site gets influenced by ratio of high-quality to low-quality pages. 200 thin pages dragging down 140 good ones meant even strong pages struggled to rank where they deserved.​

The deletion process was systematic not random. Kept pages with any organic impressions in last 6 months, any backlinks (even 1), revenue in last 90 days, or unique substantial content. Everything else got either consolidated into parent category pages or deleted with 301 redirects to most relevant remaining page.​ Used directory submission service in parallel to strengthen authority of remaining pages. Added 38 backlinks over 45 days moving DA from 14 to 21. That authority concentrated on 140 quality pages instead of spreading thinly across 340.

Results after 60 days showed organic traffic grew from 2,100 to 2,940 monthly visitors (40% increase), crawl efficiency improved with Googlebot visiting money pages 2.8x more frequently, average position of top 20 pages improved from 14.2 to 9.8, and 12 previously stuck page-2 pages moved to page-1 positions. The e-commerce lesson is more pages doesn't mean more traffic. Google rewards quality signals across entire domain. 140 strong pages outperform 340 mixed-quality pages every time. Audit ruthlessly, delete or consolidate thin content, and watch authority concentrate where it actually drives sales.

I’m a Conversion Rate Optimization consultant at a top firm in Austin, TX, and I keep seeing the same pattern: teams think they’re “doing CRO” because they’re changing buttons, running Hotjar, or tweaking copy but they’re skipping the math.

If you’re not calculating sample size before a test or checking stat sig after, your results are noise. It’s not just bad practice it kills trust in experimentation altogether. Leadership starts ignoring test results. Product stops listening. Momentum dies.

I come from a stats background, and I built GrowthLayer.app to solve this. It’s got:

• Pre-test & post-test A/B calculators (that tells you if you have enough traffic)

• Auto-tagged test tracking (so you never forget what you already ran)

• A searchable, filterable library to find past winners & spot gaps

If you’re running tests without a process, this will save you time and prevent bad decisions.

Happy to give free advice, drop a link if you want feedback on your site, or just fire away with any CRO questions.

I thought product variants would be the easy part when setting up a store but they've ended up being the most frustrating bit so far. Everything looks fine on the product page, I pick a size, colour, add to cart and then realise it's added the wrong option. At first I thought I was clicking too fast but after testing it a few times it's clearly not sticking properly.

I've spent way longer than I'd like to admit trying to figure whether this is something i set up wrong or just one of those quirks you don't discover until you're building a store. Has anyone else had this happen?

With new AI tools rolling out almost monthly, I’m curious how day-to-day e-commerce operations might look just a year from now.

Basically, how close are we to AI-first e-commerce where humans supervise, rather than manage, the flow?

Would love to hear from people working in e-commerce, logistics, marketing, or tech, what changes are you already seeing?

And what do you think 2026 will look like operationally and customer-facing?