Uncover Growth Strategies and Insights with Chur Lim

1. Can you provide some insight into your background and how you became involved in ecommerce growth?

I started off dropshipping back in 2020 as well as started an online pet food brand. Whilst I didn’t’ succeed in either, it sparked my interest in ecommerce and set up the foundation of being a media buyer who knew how to relate to my target market. I was committed to being a successful ecommerce brand owner, but found myself with a talent for running ads instead and scaling other ecomm brands instead of my own.

2. What sparked your interest in helping ecommerce brands achieve significant growth, and what drives your passion in this area?

I worked at a content agency which helped scale one of the biggest ecommerce brands in Australia. Seeing what an impact our ad creatives made to scaling these brands gave me a lot of satisfaction and gets my up in the morning every day.

3. Could you share a standout success story where your strategies led to remarkable growth for an ecommerce brand?

An activewear brand that started off in their bed room doing 4 figures a month came to me, initially unqualified. However they were a friend of my friend so I agreed to take them on. They had great branding and needed to reach more eyeballs so I not only took over their paid ads for both FB and Google but also created a healthy flow of ad creatives using UGC. Within 6 months they had moved out of home and into their dream warehouse and do close to 6 figures a month now.

4. In your opinion, what are the key factors that differentiate successful ecommerce growth strategies from those that fall short?

How holistic these strategies are when it comes to ecommerce as a whole. For example, there’s little point creating a paid ads strategy when there’s a bottleneck with website conversion rate or the AOV is too low. A lot of agencies will hyper focussing on a paid ads strategy because that is all that they understand but don’t realise ads is only a small cog in the machine of running an ecomm brand.

5. How do you approach developing a comprehensive growth strategy that aligns with an ecommerce brand's unique goals and challenges?

I look at the foundation first: what is the website CR, what is the AOV, what is the product offer like and what sort of content has historically worked for them. Depending on the strength of the foundation, I’ll then curate strategies or recommendations to boost the foundation before moving onto an in-depth ads strategy. The trend is that ads will always come last in terms of prioritising a growth strategy

6. Can you discuss the role of data analytics and insights in shaping effective growth strategies for ecommerce brands?

Data shows us everything from your target demographic all the way to how long people watch your ad creatives. Using data to analyse your creative performance is one of the more crucial aspects of shaping growth strategies. I commonly find that media buyers who perform well have both a very logical mind to read data as well as a creative mind where that data provides feedback on the creative ideas implemented

7. What are some common misconceptions about ecommerce brand growth that you've encountered, and how do you address them?

Ads will not save a struggling business, despite many believing so. It’s only an amplifier of your brand. If a brand is struggling, then it’s likely a foundational problem that they need to resolve first before turning to paid ads. I’ve turned away prospects because they had a poor foundation that ads wouldn’t resolve. One prospect ended up coming back after fixing their foundation and are now one of my case studies for being one of my fastest growing brands.

8. How do you navigate the balance between short-term revenue boosts and sustainable, long-term growth for ecommerce brands?

Biggest warning is for brands to treat sales/promotions very sparingly since they drive a lot of short-term revenue but can easily be addictive. Brands that get addicted to running sales risk compromising their branding to look “cheap” and it also conditions their audience to buy only when they have sales. Long term growth comes from having a great product offer with good branding, only using promotions during seasonal periods and not relying on it for immediate revenue.

9. When working with ecommerce brands, how do you tailor your approach to accommodate different industries, like fashion, jewellery or self-care?

For one, the creative strategy behind each niche is very different. Fashion and jewellery only require simple creatives since these items are straight forward to understand whereas a more complex product like technology will need more product explainers and video content to promote.

The ads strategy will vary based on their advertising history. What’s universal across all brands is setting up a creative testing funnel and constantly rotating and trying out new creatives to identify winners.

10. What's your perspective on the interplay between user experience and ecommerce growth, and how do you optimize both?

User experience being conversion rate, they are directly linked. The conversion rate is an amplifier of revenue, so any small improvements will have exponential increases in growth. I can provide small recommendations to the website though I also have website partners more specialised in developing and auditing websites whom I send referrals to.

11. How do you stay ahead of evolving digital marketing trends and algorithms to ensure continuous growth for your clients?

Staying connected with a lot of other media buyers on X and Tiktok. Seeing what ideas are trending and trialing them out myself to validate these results.

12. Finally, what advice would you offer to ecommerce brands looking to embark on a journey of significant growth and expansion?

If you are to focus on anything relating to paid ads, focus on content. If you do onboard a marketing partner at all, ensure that they contribute to your content systems otherwise their work will have a diminishing impact on your growth.

Chur Lim