Building a POD Brand on Shopify

Basic Information​

• Background: I’ve been selling POD on Etsy for over 3 years and doing Facebook Ads for over 5 years. In August, I decided to pivot and focus on building a POD brand. I have some experience in research and ideation, but everything else is almost at square one.
• Store: Shopify
• Traffic Source: 100% Meta Ads
• Market: 100% US
• Product Type: 2D T-shirts
• Suppliers: @Beeful + @Printify
• Budget: $2,500
• Team: 2 people fully dedicated (1 designer + 1 idea creator). Additionally, I borrowed resources from other teams in my company (Email Marketing, Customer Service).
• Target: Initially aimed to reach $100k in revenue by the end of the year. However, I adjusted it later to focus on achieving $5k in monthly profit.

Overview (All-Time: 25/08 - 15/01)​

• Total Revenue: $82,778.42
• COGS: 38%
• Ad Spend: $36,000
• Contribution Margin: $14,000

Monthly Breakdown​

August + September (25/08 - 30/09)​

• Revenue: $462.63
• COGS: 40%
• Ad Spend: $1,096.54
• Contribution Margin: -$819 (-177%)
• Orders: 9
• Returning Customer Rate: 0%
• Conversion Rate (CR): 0.35%
• On-FB ROAS: 0.42
• Off-FB ROAS: 0.42

• Completed basic store setup (SPF Payment, default theme, upsell/cross-sell, Pixel, FB Shop, etc.).
• Tested 150 designs; around 10% generated sales. No winning designs yet, but identified some promising ones for further iteration.
• Fed data into Pixel and Page for optimization.

October​

• Revenue: $3,226.69
• COGS: 36% (switched to prioritize @Beeful for better pricing).
• Ad Spend: $2,020.75
• Contribution Margin: $44 (1.36%)
• Orders: 67
• Returning Customer Rate: 3.08%
• CR: 1.41%
• On-FB ROAS: 1.40
• Off-FB ROAS: 1.60

• Completed CR optimization (Round 1), resulting in slight improvements.
• Tested 200 designs with better product sense but still no major winners.
• Refined ad campaign structure for better performance.
• Secured a supplier offering 20% lower costs compared to Printify, and started branding neck labels.
• Gradually increased budget to $100/day.

November​

• Revenue: $15,365.46
• COGS: 39%
• Ad Spend: $7,478.54
• Contribution Margin: $1,545.76 (10%)
• Orders: 283
• Returning Customer Rate: 5.17%
• CR: 2.04%
• On-FB ROAS: 1.72
• Off-FB ROAS: 2.05

• Continued creating designs, some showing promise as minor winners.
• Increased daily budget to $200-$300.
• Completed CR optimization (Round 2), with results deemed satisfactory.
• Updated offers and launched email marketing flows.
• Prepped for Black Friday/Cyber Monday (BFCM) with a new website theme.
• Started Social & Email Marketing to improve returning customer rates.

December (01/12 - 14/12)​

• Revenue: $17,770.28
• COGS: 38%
• Ad Spend: $6,543.57
• Contribution Margin: $3,973.95 (22.3%)
• Orders: 301
• Returning Customer Rate: 4.75%
• CR: 2.62%
• On-FB ROAS: 2.32
• Off-FB ROAS: 2.73

• Increased daily budget to $400-$500.
• Continued scaling Social & Email Marketing.
• Faced and managed issues with cloned designs.
• Began running cost cap campaigns.

January (15/12 - 15/01)​

• Revenue: $43,182.51
• Ad Spend: $18,873.99
• COGS: 39%
• Contribution Margin: $6,428.42
• Returning Customer Rate: 9%

• Added new product types (sweatshirts, hoodies, long sleeves).
• Daily budget peaked at ~$1k; spend fluctuated due to cost cap campaigns.
• Adjusted free shipping offer from $50 to $75 but didn’t see significant improvement.

Next Steps​

1. Expand into new markets (UK, EU, AU, CA, etc.).
2. Order 500 branded tote bags for upsells and giveaways to increase AOV.
3. Test additional offers.
4. Launch affiliate and wholesale programs.
5. Deepen expertise in Facebook Ads to drive higher results.

Target​

• Short-Term Goal: Reach $100k/month revenue by April 2025 (~$3,300/day).
• Key Focus:
  • Secure additional winning designs.
  • Expand to new markets.
  • Scale Facebook Ads to $1,500/day spend.