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How to build a simple, sustainable plan for growth when your current audience has already bought

There comes a time in every ecommerce business when the sales start to slow down—and it’s not because your products aren’t good or your customers don’t love you. It’s because the people who’ve already bought… have already bought.

If you’re relying on the same loyal group to keep your store going, and your numbers are starting to slide, it’s probably time to do something most business owners put off as long as possible:

Go get new customers.

Now before your brain spirals into “I don’t have time,” or “ads are expensive,” or “I have no idea how to do that,” stay with me. This post is going to walk you through a simple, repeatable plan for customer acquisition—and how to know when it’s actually the right time to make that shift.

Let’s start there.

Is it time to focus on new customers?

This is one of the most common questions store owners ask me. The easiest way to find out is by checking your Shopify dashboard and looking at your Returning Customer Rate.

If about 30–40% of your orders are from returning customers, you’re in a great place. That means your retention strategy is working and your existing customers are coming back—which is amazing.

But once your returning customer rate creeps above 40%, it’s time to shift gears.

“When you get over 40% [returning customers], I think it’s actually urgent that you focus hard on getting new customers.”

That doesn’t mean you stop serving your existing customers. It just means you stop relying on them to drive your growth. At some point, your audience becomes a well you’ve tapped too many times. And if you want to increase your sales, you need more people entering the funnel.

Choose one product to promote

One of the biggest mistakes I see people make when trying to attract new customers is that they try to sell everything. All the products. All at once.

It doesn’t work.

Instead, pick one product to promote—something you know people love, something easy to understand, something giftable or entry-level or just really good. This could be your best-seller, a bundle of related products, or even a curated “starter set” made up of existing items.

And then?

Focus all your marketing around that one product.

“Whatever I shine a light on and focus on is what people buy.”

You’re not trying to sell your whole store. You’re inviting new people into your world through a single, compelling entry point.

Build a simple system to promote it

Once you’ve picked your product, the next step is to build a marketing plan around it. And don’t worry—it doesn’t have to be complicated. You just want to make sure you’re showing the product to new people regularly, and giving them multiple ways to see, understand, and trust it.

Here’s what that might look like:

• Create a short brand-style video focused just on this product, and run inexpensive video view ads to build awareness.
• Run a review ad (if you’re using JudgeMe, you can do this right inside the platform) using your best social proof.
• Create a simple static ad with an image of the product and a clear CTA—this can run as a conversion or traffic ad.
• Email your list regularly, and feature the product in at least one mini campaign each month. Even better? Add a P.S. about it to every other email.
• Feature the product in your site’s pop-up (especially if it has a discount tied to it), and include it in your welcome flow.
• Once people start buying, set up automated review requests to collect even more social proof.

You don’t have to do it all at once—but the more places people see the product, the more likely they are to trust it and buy.

One product, one path: a real example

One of our longtime Inner Circle members is a maker in the cosmetics space. A while back, she created a bundle of her bestselling items and called it the “Start Here Bundle.” It’s the product she features everywhere—on her pop-up, in her welcome flow, in ads, and across her site.

She doesn’t discount her entire store—just that one bundle. And it works.

When I checked recently, that single product had almost 500 reviews.

Why? Because she’s not leaving it up to chance. She decided what product she wanted new customers to buy, and then she made a plan to support it from every angle.

If it’s not working, check these things—in order

When you’re trying something new and it’s not converting, it’s easy to assume the problem is the product or the offer. But more often than not, it’s just the numbers.

Here’s what I recommend checking—in this order:

1. Traffic: How many people are actually seeing the product? If only a handful of visitors are landing on the page, you don’t have enough data to know if it’s working.
2. Click-through rate on ads: Aim for 2% or better on a conversion ad. If you’re not getting clicks, test your visuals or messaging.
3. Product page performance: Add a heatmap tool like Lucky Orange to see how people are interacting with the page.
4. Pop-up opt-in rate: You should be getting at least 5% of visitors to subscribe. If not, tweak your offer or design.
5. Email open and click rates: If people aren’t opening, try new subject lines. If they’re opening but not clicking, rework your call to action.

That’s really the key. Don’t throw out the whole plan—just keep adjusting the pieces that aren’t performing until they are.

Track what matters

If you’re going to focus on acquiring new customers, the most important thing you can do is track your progress. Not obsessively—but consistently.

Here’s what to look at each month:

• How many new customers did you get?
• How much did you spend on ads?
• What was your cost to acquire a customer? (Total ad spend ÷ new customers)

Once you have that number, you can make smart decisions about scaling. If it costs you $10 to get a customer who spends $70 and buys again later… you’ve got a growth engine on your hands.

Just Start

There’s no magic bullet for getting new customers. But there is a method—and it’s much simpler than you think.

Start with one product. Build a system around it. Track what matters. And keep going until it works.

Because it will.

RELATED LINKS:

Do you even know what it costs to get a new customer?

https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/do-you-even-know-what-it-costs-to-get-a-new-customer-episode-187/

How Melissa reduced her cost of acquiring a customer by 44%

https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/how-melissa-reduced-her-cost-of-acquiring-a-customer-by-44-percent-episode-191/

Growing your sales: what you must know first

https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/growing-your-sales-what-you-must-know-first-episode-261/

10x’ing Jane’s Sales

https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/10xing-janes-sales-episode-251/

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(without breaking the bank)

Conversion School is a step by step process to grow your sales,
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