Case Study: How We Grew an Online Store from €0 to €300K

In 2023, our own test store for Hertwill, Saapavabrik (Boots Factory in Estonian), a shoe store focused on boots, slippers, sandals, and kids’ shoes for the small Estonian market, achieved over €305K in sales. In this guide, I’ll share how we got this far. It’s important to note that we reached this figure solely through sales from our own store—we don’t sell on eBay, Amazon, or any other platforms. Every market is different, and a bit of luck is always involved, but if you’re building your own online business, you’ll find some practical advice here to help your store get off the ground and grow.

General Approach We Took to Building Our Online Store:

Research a niche and find something that sets you apart from other stores.

Launch the store quickly, but ensure it looks nice and trustworthy.

Offer only high-quality products that we would use ourselves.

Start driving traffic as soon as possible.

Learn and iterate until you find what works—what brings in sales.

Scale after you’ve found something that works.

Team

There were three of us (Annamari, Roland and me), and in a way, we had the perfect mix of skills: one software engineer, one designer, and one marketing/e-commerce person. And we were building the store as a side project—Roland was leading the data team at Pipedrive, Annamari was a designer at Delfi Meedia, and I was consulting for a local media company. You don’t need a perfect team to build a successful online business, but it definitely helps to have people with different skills. We’ve noticed that stores partnering with Hertwill, particularly those run by a team, tend to be more successful than those operated by a single person. Plus, working with friends makes the process more enjoyable and brings a level of accountability beyond just yourself.

Budget

We each chipped in €250 at the start, giving us a total of €750. We spent about €60 on a WooCommerce theme, hosting service, and a domain name. The rest went towards ads. Later, we spent an additional €250 on a photoshoot, which we managed on a tight budget thanks to some friends—a photographer and a couple of others who modeled for us (Thanks, Jo, Toomas, Alice, and others). It’s always beneficial to have your own content and photos, but if you’re selling products provided by Hertwill, you don’t need to worry about that since we provide high-quality marketing photos.

Store

You need to choose a niche for your store. The niche should ideally be a combination of three things: market opportunity (e.g., search volume vs. competition), available products (are there great products available for dropshipping in this niche?), and personal interest (it should speak to you at least a little). We decided on a boots store because we’re somewhat shoe enthusiasts (just a bit). We noticed that some of the keywords had considerable traffic, but the competition looked manageable (we used Google Keyword Planner for analysis). Plus, we knew we’d have great boots to sell from a manufacturer called Samelin. Samelin shoes are also available for dropshipping through Hertwill. For more on choosing a niche, check out my detailed guide.

We decided to focus on the Estonian market in the beginning. Although the market is small (only 1.3 million people), we knew it well and were aware that the competition wasn’t too tough. We also knew we could localize the store effectively and hopefully quick first sales.

The platform doesn’t matter much—if your store isn’t successful, it’s almost never because of the platform you chose, and switching platforms won’t change the outcome. Also, always pick one of the most popular themes (unless you’re an e-commerce pro who’s launched multiple successful stores). We built our store on WordPress + WooCommerce using the OceanWP theme (not the best theme in the world). But remember, as long as you stick to mainstream platforms (Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Wix, etc.), you’ll be fine. Hertwill currently supports WooCommerce and Shopify. Still, you should compare them before making a choice based on your needs and skills (e.g., if you have no technical background, you probably shouldn’t choose WooCommerce; Shopify might be better for you). Some platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce also offer lots of themes—our recommendation is to Google and read reviews before making a decision, but whatever you do, prefer the most popular themes (e.g., for WooCommerce, Woodmart is one of the most popular and pretty good). If hosting isn’t included with the platform (like it is with Shopify), go for the most popular hosting services in your market—don’t choose an unknown player to save a couple of euros per month.

Name & Domain

First, your domain and store name should match. It’s easier to start when your store name reflects what the store is about, and if the store domain matches what people are searching for, it gives you an extra SEO boost. Also, avoid choosing a domain name with hyphens or anything that’s hard to spell just from hearing it. In Walter Isaacson’s great book “Elon Musk,” there’s a bit about how Musk regretted naming his first company Zip2 because people didn’t know how to spell it just by hearing it (Was it ZipTwo, ZipToo, Zip2, etc.?). We chose Saapavabrik, which means “Boots Factory” in Estonian. It’s easy to understand, remember, and type in. Plus, it has “boots” in the name.

Launch Quickly

Our goal was to launch the store as quickly as possible so we could start learning from real users about what works and what doesn’t. You want to start bringing in traffic as soon as possible. At Hertwill, we often see store owners spending months fine-tuning small issues that don’t really affect the bottom line. We built the first version of our store in one weekend and then fixed the issues over the next two weeks. We had extra motivation since December and the peak sales season were coming, and we wanted to be live before that. (In retail, it’s good to remember that for most categories, seasonality is important—most business happens during the colder months.)

Must-Haves in a Store

While launching quickly was a priority, our store, Saapavabrik, was—and still is—adequate and trustworthy. If your store looks unprofessional or untrustworthy, you’re dead in the water. It’s crucial that your store looks good not just on desktop but also on mobile, where most people will visit. The good news is that with most platforms, as long as you choose a popular theme, the overall experience should be fine. Here are some essentials to include in your store’s first version:

Hero Image: The hero image should reflect your store’s niche and create a strong first impression. At Saapavabrik, we’ve been using the same hero image from our original photoshoot for over three years. Annamari, our UI/UX designer at Hertwill, has also written a short post on how to choose a hero image and where to source one. You can read it here.

Main Slogan: Your main slogan should reflect your store’s values. While some stores can do without a slogan, most new online stores need to clearly communicate what they’re about. For example, if your ads highlight that you sell backpacks made in Europe, your store’s front page should reinforce that message. You can find more on this topic in my article on how to increase sales through better messaging.
Design Elements: Stick to mainstream fonts and avoid using overly colorful fonts—they rarely work well. Dark backgrounds are also usually a bad idea unless you’re a professional designer. We see many merchants opting for dark backgrounds, but it’s better to avoid them.
About Us or Story Page: This page should tell a real story about your store and mention the people behind it. A photo adds a personal touch. At Hertwill, we’ve noticed that 39% of the stores we partner with lack an ‘About Us’ page, even though analytics show it’s often one of the most visited pages for new stores. This is understandable, as it builds trust. For tips on crafting a compelling About Us page, check out this guide. Here’s a fun excerpt from our Saapavabrik About Us page that shows our humor and that it was genuinely written by us, not AI.

Essential Pages: Your store should include Terms, Privacy, Shipping, Returns, and Contact pages—these are must-haves for building trust with customers. We made sure to include them in the first version of Saapavabrik.

Favicon: This is a small detail, but many stores overlook it. Not having a favicon can hurt your store’s trustworthiness.

Main Menu: Make sure your main menu includes categories. Some stores don’t, yet they aim to be full-fledged online stores. Also, avoid using a burger menu on desktop versions.

Social Icons: Include icons linking to your social media pages, like Facebook or Instagram. These add credibility and allow visitors to check you out if they haven’t heard of you. Plus, you’ll need to create social accounts anyway to help drive traffic.

Footer: Ensure your footer contains important information like privacy policies, shipping details, and social icons. People often look to the footer for this information, so make sure it’s comprehensive.

Payment Methods: Offer payment options that are known and trusted by your target customers. Avoid lesser-known providers, even if they offer slightly better terms—the small savings you might gain in fees won’t make up for the potential loss in conversions if the payment provider is unfamiliar to your customers. Also, consider how quickly payouts are processed—some providers, like Stripe, can take several days before funds reach your account. For expensive items like boots, offering “pay later” options can help with conversions. Klarna is a well-known provider of such services, but many others now offer similar options. We at Saapavabrik started with MakeCommerce as our payment provider, but soon switched to Montonio and have been very happy with them. They are a great option if you operate a WooCommerce store in the Baltics.
Product Pages: Pay extra attention to your product pages. They should feature high-quality images, great product descriptions, and create a strong first impression. Avoid overwhelming users with too much text (we made this mistake initially) and ensure your product pages have breadcrumbs, which are especially important for mobile UX. People also love bullet points, so use them where appropriate. We also spent extra time ensuring that related products were displayed on every product page, and that returns and warranty information, as well as a size chart, were included. For a more thorough guide on optimizing product pages for higher conversion rates, check out this article.

Account Creation: You don’t need to offer account creation functionality. We often see new stores that force customers to create an account to make a purchase, which can be a deterrent.

Popups and Notifications: We haven’t used any popups or browser push notifications. Unless you know how to implement them effectively (e.g., offering real value to customers), it’s best to avoid them. Simply asking customers to sign up for a newsletter without offering something valuable in return doesn’t count as real value. If you’re interested in collecting emails more effectively, check out this article.

Search Functionality: If you don’t have many products, consider hiding the search bar. It can be an unnecessary distraction and might disappoint users if they don’t find what they’re looking for.

Live Chat: Adding a live chat feature can be beneficial, so it’s worth trying. Hubspot offers a free chat option, but there are lots of options out there. Just make sure that whatever app you choose doesn’t cover important content in the mobile view.

Cookie Consent: No matter what platform you’re using, there are plugins available that make adding cookie consent easy and relatively pain-free.

FAQ: Initially, we didn’t have an FAQ section, but we added one later when we realized the common questions our customers had.

Familiar Design: Your store should feel standard and familiar, meaning everything should be where customers expect it to be. For example, the shopping cart should be on the right side of the screen. Don’t try to innovate with the UI too —save that for when you’re established big ecommerce store.

To wrap up this point, don’t hesitate to ask for feedback on your store from e-commerce Facebook groups, Reddit, or friends who know the business. This not only helps you improve but also spreads the word about your store, and you might even make a sale. When we first launched Saapavabrik, I posted in the local nerd forum Hinnavaatlus, asking for feedback, and got some great tips and a valuable backlink. You can also send your store link to us at hello@hertwill.com, and we’ll give you some tips.

Products

As our store name, Saapavabrik (Boots Factory), suggests, we primarily sell boots and shoes. Like I mentioned earlier, our goal was to offer only high-quality products that we would use ourselves—we didn’t want to sell low-quality products or have our names associated with them. We chose shoes and boots not only because we knew about them (I’m a bit of a sneakerhead) but also because we felt we could create compelling content to sell them. Essentially, we wanted to sell products we’d be happy to recommend to our friends. We also considered that selling great products with word-of-mouth potential increases the estimated lifetime value of a customer and lowers acquisition costs in the long term.

This has proven true for Saapavabrik. On average, each customer makes about 1.5 orders from us, which might not seem like much, but our store is still new, and we’re not selling products that need to be restocked frequently (like cosmetics, for example). Additionally, our average order value is €77. Our top customers have bought 7 pairs of shoes from us, and some of our top business clients have purchased over 60 pairs—an unexpected but pleasant surprise that we hadn’t initially considered. Offering great products leads to higher customer satisfaction, low return rates, high repurchase rates, and potential word-of-mouth advertising.

We started Saapavabrik with just one brand (Samelin) and one category: boots. For the first few months, we had fewer than 25 products in our store. It was over six months before we added another brand and category (sandals). Even now, Saapavabrik carries only five brands, yet we generated over €305,000 in 2023. The brands we currently carry are:

Samelin: About 73% of total sales, contributing €220,000 out of the total €305,000 in 2023.

TOKU & Omaking: Slippers, sandals, and kids’ shoes brands that made up €45,000 or 15% of all sales.

AIPI: Handmade boots, contributing about €17,500 or 6% of all sales.

Kira Sustainable: Sustainable boots, accounting for about €15,000 or 5% of sales.

Gift cards: Around 1% of all sales.

All of these brands and products are also available for dropshipping through Hertwill.

Champions

Before launching the store, we anticipated that the Norwegian M77 boots would be our champion product. These boots are well-known in the military world, even mentioned on the Combat Boots Wikipedia page, and are worn by the Estonian, Norwegian, and other armies. This existing recognition suggested there might already be some demand. To capitalize on this, we ensured that the M77s had great pictures, detailed description, and reviews, and we continue to spend a significant portion of our ad budget on these boots. We promoted them as all-purpose, no-nonsense boots—among the best in the world for their price. We also emphasized that they are manufactured according to NATO standards. This approach has proven to be effective.

Additionally, we found some content about M77s on YouTube, which we linked to in the product description to further engage potential customers. Our hypothesis was correct, as the sales data for 2023 clearly shows.