2023 Annual Review: A Solo Seller's Real Journey from Zero to 20K+ Weekly Revenue

Key Milestones Review

In February 2023, I started my independent online store. Unlike other newcomers, I didn't do any so-called product selection research - I just jumped in blindly. My "preparation" was simply searching various social media platforms for what global selling was. At that time, I felt the content quality was quite poor, which planted the seed for me to create my own content.

For three months, I had zero orders. I didn't think about running ads either. I just saw others saying that posting on Instagram could generate sales, so I updated Reels daily and posted content every day. At my lowest point, to gain followers and account engagement, I even used Midjourney to create AI images for KOLs in the industry, hoping to get traffic.

In May 2023, Shopify's $1/month trial period ended. I made a bold decision - with zero orders, I paid for the annual subscription directly. And to leave myself no retreat, I decided to start sharing on social media. I figured if I was going to embarrass myself, I might as well do it thoroughly.

On May 15, 2023, I got my first order! I was actually traveling in Shengzhou that day. When I opened my email and saw a message, I thought it was just another spam advertisement. But looking closer, it was an order notification! I quickly downloaded the Shopify app to verify, and sure enough, it was a real order! I even suspected it might be a fraudulent order and investigated the customer's information - and surprisingly, I actually found them on LinkedIn.

In July 2023, I started running Google ads and began getting orders consistently. The ROAS performance was decent, and I gradually became more committed to this business. During the same period, I started sharing my real experiences and practical tips, providing weekly reports to my followers.

In October 2023, I quietly launched a personal consulting service. After running it for a few rounds, I decided to abandon it because: 1) The return on investment wasn't good. 2) It would severely limit my personal growth.

In November 2023, while maintaining 3-5 content pieces per week, my store achieved 20k+ weekly revenue during peak season.

In December 2023, I launched my personal blog, deciding to explore more business possibilities.

Key Insights

Sharing some insights that newcomers care about most. Let me emphasize again - my store's scale is tiny, this is just for reference.

Global Selling Related

1) Stop overthinking, just start!

Obsessing over product selection, platforms, business entities, traffic channels - does any of this bring results? If not, go do something about it! Even if you lose money, how much could you possibly lose? 1,000 yuan?

2) Product Selection: Only Two Paths, No Need for Complexity!

One path is content-driven discovery: Using social media as your traffic source - Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest. Products should be fun, visually appealing, or novel. You stimulate purchase demand through various videos and images you post.

The other path is demand-driven: Using Google search engine as your traffic source. Users actively search for products and find yours.

The first path is suitable for small bets with big potential. The advantage is that persistence can create miracles, and operational skills requirements aren't that high (since both products and content are market-validated). The disadvantage is constantly chasing trending products and testing content. For newcomers, if you don't see results the first or second time, you might give up immediately because you won't gain much experience or insight - you're just copying products, content, and copy.

The second path is suitable for steady, long-term growth. The advantage is stability and accumulation. The disadvantage is higher requirements for market insight and operational skills, plus expensive traffic costs.

3) Traffic: Paid Traffic Gets Results Fast! Free Traffic Is Always More Expensive!

For the first path, honestly use platform advertising products like Meta Ads or TikTok Ads. For the second path, honestly invest in Google Ads. Use paid traffic to get results first - even if you don't make sales, that's still a result. At least you'll know what level your product, website, and creative assets are at.

Looking back at my journey, I spent almost the first six months on worthless free traffic efforts, investing too much ineffective energy on Instagram.

Mindset Related

1) Anxiety

My social media positioning has always been to share truthfully and help relieve newcomer anxiety. Because I've been through this stage, I know what real sellers experience. On one side, no sales or ad spend not breaking even. On the other side, social media shows people "exploding with orders" every day.

Making money through entrepreneurship is never easy. If everyone could easily make money by casually copying and reselling, wouldn't that defy logic?

Rest assured, 90% of those people on social media claiming daily explosive orders probably don't even have a Shopify account. Just building your store already puts you ahead of many people. And the remaining 10% who are real are working harder than you and investing more resources. Why do you think you can surpass veterans right from the start? Do you really think pie will fall from the sky and hit you?

2) Don't Be Intimidated by Buzzwords

SEO, EDM, Affiliate Marketing - these terms have become the most common words used to exploit newcomers in global selling. Why are these terms unfamiliar to Chinese people? Because Chinese e-commerce and mobile internet are so developed that these marketing techniques aren't needed. Would you use Baidu search to buy things? Look at what those doing Baidu SEO ten years ago are doing now. Or look at whether Baidu even has SEO anymore. Do you read email ads? Isn't affiliate marketing just influencer marketing? You scroll through Douyin and Xiaohongshu daily, you can even do affiliate marketing on Douyin yourself - why is this suddenly mysterious in global selling?

Don't have unrealistic expectations about these things. These terms are just specialized vocabulary for exploiting newcomers. After calming down, simply learn the basics and take action - that's enough. Never think that these buzzwords online will bring you earth-shattering changes.

2024 Plans

1) Business Direction

Continue deepening my independent store, improving everything from products to branding, traffic to operations. No longer pursuing short-term explosive sales, but healthy, sustainable growth.

2) Content Direction

Continue authentic sharing, not creating anxiety, not exploiting newcomers. Use real experiences and insights to help more newcomers avoid detours.

3) Personal Growth

Continuous learning, continuous output, continuous iteration. Combine personal growth with business growth for a win-win outcome.

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