Hey There 👋 

Happy Better Yourself Friday! This week in our honest dropshipping & e-commerce series, we’re talking about the part that really can’t be ignored: marketing. Because online, you don’t “open a store and wait” rather you build a system that turns attention into clicks, and clicks into sales 🛒✨ The good news is you don’t need to be a marketing genius to start. You just need to understand a few basics and be willing to test, learn, and stay consistent.

Firstly, creative testing 🎥📸. In ecommerce, “creative” is the content that stops someone mid-scroll. THis could be a video, image, headline, and offer. Testing simply means trying a few variations to see what your audience responds to. One product can perform badly with one video and sell out with another, because people buy what they understand and feel excited about. Expect to test different hooks (the first 2 seconds), different angles (problem vs solution), and different styles (UGC-style videos vs clean product demos). The main lesson: don’t assume your first attempt is the final one, marketing is a process, not a lucky moment.

Next is your landing page 🌐. This is the page people land on after clicking your ad or link, and it’s where the decision happens. If your page is confusing, slow, or looks untrustworthy, people leave, even if your product is great. A strong landing page makes it easy to understand what the product is, why it matters, what it costs, how delivery works, and how to buy in a few taps. Think clear photos, simple benefits, honest pricing, and visible trust signals like reviews, FAQs, and shipping details.

Now let’s talk about the number that matters most: conversion rate 📊. This is the percentage of people who visit your page and actually buy. If 100 people visit and 2 people buy, that’s a 2% conversion rate. Improving conversion is often easier than getting more traffic, because small fixes such as clearer copy, better photos, simpler checkout, can immediately increase sales. This is why ecommerce isn’t just “ads”, t’s the full customer journey from click to checkout.

Another key term is AOV, which means Average Order Value 🧾. This is the average amount someone spends per order. AOV matters because ads cost money and if your AOV is too low, you might not make enough profit to sustain your store. Simple ways to increase AOV include bundles (“Buy 2 and save”), add-ons (“pair it with this”), or free shipping thresholds (“Free delivery over R500”). The goal isn’t to be pushy it’s to make buying feel like better value.

Here’s the honest part: what should you expect when you start marketing an ecommerce store? You should expect a testing budget. Not “thousands overnight”, but enough to test what works without panicking after two days. You should expect a learning curve because you’re learning a skill (marketing), not just trying a trend. And you should expect that consistency wins. Stores don’t succeed because they “tried once”. They succeed because they tested, improved, posted regularly, refined their offer, and kept going long enough for the numbers to teach them what works.

So without further ado, here’s another installment of Better Yourself Friday

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Average Order Value (AOV): Formula, Benchmarks and 7 Ways to Increase It (2026)

A new term for some of us to explore: Average order value (AOV). This is basically what customers spend per order on average. You can calculate it with total revenue ÷ number of orders. Shopify explains that AOV helps you grow revenue (and ad performance), but bigger baskets don’t always mean bigger profit.

Thus, to increase AOV, they suggest things like free shipping thresholds, bundles, upsells/cross-sells, loyalty programmes, live chat, AI recommendations, and post-purchase offers.

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