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India-based Shopify brand · Case study

A store rebuilt to sell: 4 to 11 purchases.

An India-based natural skincare brand on Shopify (soap, lip balm, skincare). We rebuilt the store, fixed hidden leaks, then tested Meta Ads. Early-stage store, small order volumes. This is an India client, not a US one.

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11
purchases in August, up from 4 in May
448
add-to-carts in August
6
product pages with full storytelling
Natural skincare products on a dark stone display with dried botanicals
New orderShopify · online payment
Purchases a month
411
May to August
Real stock counts onlyNo fake social proof
Online store owner taking orders by phone beside packed boxes
4problems in April

Stock photo, for illustration.

Where we started

A store with no store-craft.

Good products, a storefront that did not sell them.

  • Bare product pagesNo story. Nothing guided a first-time visitor to a decision.
  • Pricing with no structureNo launch pricing, no bundles, no compare-at prices. Nothing gave a reason to buy more than one item.
  • Money leaking on deliveryShipping rules did not match the displayed threshold. We found this later.
  • No analytics layerNo pixel and no integrations. Ad spend could not be tied to anything in the store.
What we did

Fix the store first. Then buy traffic.

No amount of ad spend fixes a store that leaks.

01

Store build

Custom theme with 12-plus homepage sections. Six full product pages. Cart logic, a skin type quiz, online payments checked, and seven integrations with pixel tracking.

02

Pricing and bundles

All nine products repriced. Three combo offers with savings shown at checkout. A post-purchase add-on offer.

03

Meta Ads

Awareness, traffic, add-to-cart and purchase campaigns, reviewed for cost per purchase. Spend held low while the store was fixed.

August campaigns
Lip Balm campaign7 purchasesBest
Phase-2 campaign2 purchases3.5x spend
Add-to-cart campaign448 add-to-cartsinactive
Purchases a month4 → 11
MayAugust
The ads funnel

Judge each campaign, not the average.

In August the Lip Balm campaign produced 7 purchases. The Phase-2 campaign spent about 3.5 times as much and produced 2. An account average would have hidden both.

  • 448 add-to-carts in AugustReal product interest at the top of the funnel.
  • Dormant campaigns reported separatelyWe do not fold them into averages.
  • Spend held low on purposeThe store was fixed first.
Small numbers, honestly reported

What August showed.

11
purchases in August, up from 4 in May
175%
more purchases than May
448
add-to-carts in August
4
silent store issues found and fixed in a month
Timeline

From April to today.

One month paused at the client's request. The numbers are small. This is an early-stage store.

01

Foundation

Store version 1 built, 60% of the full build. Meta Ads access secured.

April
02

Build sprint

21 development tasks done. Custom theme, 6 product pages, 7 integrations. 97 add-to-carts and 4 first purchases.

May
03

Paused

Paused at the client's request. No work this month.

June
04

Pricing and the shipping bug

All nine products repriced. Three bundles live. Shipping bug found and fixed. Storytelling built for three more product pages.

July
05

Conversion fixes

11 purchases, up 175% on May. 448 add-to-carts. Real stock indicators live. Abandoned-cart email published.

August
Laptop with sales charts next to packed shipping boxes
What we refused to build

Honest social proof only.

We built real "only X left in stock" indicators that read actual inventory. We built an "X sold this month" message and are holding it until sales volume justifies it. We did not build "X people bought this" popups. Real ones need fabricated data. That is a legal and reputation risk.

Stock photo, for illustration.

The hard months

What went wrong, and what we did.

  • Free shipping applied by accidentA configuration bug gave free shipping on every order. On a low-value catalog that can erase the margin. We fixed it and rebuilt the discount logic.
  • Then free shipping on purposeIn August free shipping became a deliberate pricing choice, with the numbers visible. An accident is not a decision.
  • Abandoned-cart email never sentThe recovery email sat in Draft. We published it, checked online payments and fixed mobile menu bugs.
  • Still open: budget on the weakest campaignPhase-2 held most of the spend for 2 purchases. We recommended moving budget toward Lip Balm.
Laptop showing a store dashboard with charts

Stock photo, for illustration.

Smiling store owner at her desk with a laptop

Stock photo, for illustration.

What this means for your business

Audit the store before you scale ads.

  • The leak is usually insideAudit the store and checkout first.
  • Read campaign-level cost per purchaseAn account average hides the winner.
  • No tricks that risk your brandWe will not build fake popups or invented counts.
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  • We call you within 30 minutes
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Operating from India · serving US businesses.

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