3 amazing benefits of doing the unscalable

Begin with the end in mind. It’s something I constantly remind our team when strategic planning and setting up structures in the business. 

And while it’s true that you want to carefully consider where you want to end up, your first action doesn’t always mirror your desired end result.

It can be tempting to setup your online store with big systems and processes and to make sure that everything you do is scalable. But I want to challenge this concept. 

In fact, I want to go as far as saying that you actually want to do the unscalable. Sometimes! 

Why would a system-loving eCommerce growth strategist be telling you to do the unscalable?  

Simple. There is magic in doing the unscalable. 

Here are 3 benefits you can gain from doing the unscalable in your business. 

1. Uncover amazing insights

You can uncover amazing insights by engaging directly with a small group of customers. This can either be your first purchasers if you’re just starting out, or your highest value customers if you have a more established customer base.

Instead of asking people to fill out a survey, email people individually with a personal note asking for insights or feedback. I promise you’ll get a better % response rate and the insights you’ll gain will be much more usable than the responses from a survey. 

Pro Tip: if you are looking for feedback, ask one specific question at a time.

2. Create sticky, long-term relationships

Similar to the point above, you can create long-term loyal customers by simply engaging with them personally, aka in an unscalable way. Think about it… sure, your automated email sequences are there to do the heavy lifting for abandon carts, post-purchase sequences, return reminders, etc., and you absolutely should have these in place, but if you took the time to email repeat customers personally, saying thanks and starting up a conversation… how sticky are they going to become? They will go from loyal customer to raving fan! 

Hint: raving fans do marketing for you by telling all their friends and family about you, so taking a little unscalable time to activate an evangelist could pay off many times over! 

3. Generate memorable experiences and repeat customers 

Your online store needs to be more than an online store. It needs to be more than what you sell. It needs to be magnetic, engaging and unique. Most of all it needs to be memorable. 

Every touchpoint in your online store (meaning every time someone comes in contact with your brand) is an opportunity to make your audience smile, evoke an emotion and create a lasting impression. In fact, you’re evoking an emotion whether you like it or not… sometimes it just might not be a great one. 

Take the unboxing experience as an example. I recently purchased some earrings from Poppy Lane. She could have simply put the earrings in a padded envelope along with the invoice and sent them out. She would have been delivering on her promise. But instead, she packaged the earring in a brightly coloured pink (her brand colour) and instead it was some silver tinsel, a pink fizzer lolly thing, a hand written note (on nice stock) and of course the earrings. 

She made me smile, evoked joy and left a lasting memory… and you bet your favourite hat I’ll be shopping from her again. I loved it enough to do an Instagram story about it. Not only that, but because the experience was so good I now know where to buy gifts from… I have complete confidence that if I ship directly to my friends and family, they will receive a great experience too.  

Final word 

So, yes, start with the end in mind but don’t be afraid to do the unscalable to accelerate the growth of your business. Uncover insights, create sticky relationships and go one step further to make people smile and leave a lasting memory. Do the unscalable and I promise, you will discover some magic. 

Megan Winter

Megan is an inspiring, brilliant and fun digital marketer and has worked with some of the fastest-growing eCommerce brands in the world.

Megan loves helping purpose-driven online store owners to make more income and achieve more impact.