Monthly Performance Report

August revenue landed at $132,974 vs July's $148,631 (-$15,657). Orders fell -13.3% to 1,665. A large part of this is arithmetic: total ad spend was cut by $2,708 (-8.4%), from $32,140 to $29,432, which on its own would be expected to pull order volume down. On top of the lower spend, August was also a deliberate testing month — we ran new static-design creative variants and launched back-to-school campaigns, both of which typically carry a learning-phase dip in efficiency before they stabilize. Encouragingly, the traffic that did convert did so more efficiently: conversion rate rose to 0.90% (from 0.62%) and revenue per session climbed to $0.66 (+46.1%), so the softer volume isn't a demand or site-quality issue — it's the combined effect of the reduced budget and this month's testing cycle.

AOV rose from $77.37 to $79.86, reversing July's decline, with items-per-order also up to 3.09 (+6.0%). The gain reflects a stronger showing this month from bundles and higher-value products in the mix, pulling more value into each order rather than any change in buyer behavior.

This month we're concentrating platform analysis and budget decisions on Meta and Google, our two largest channels at a combined 80.5% of paid orders. These are the right platforms to direct additional budget and campaigns as we head into September.

Meta spend dropped to $15,562 (-9.9%) and dashboard orders fell to 1,006 (-12.7%). ROAS eased to 4.37x from 4.61x. Meta remains the largest single channel at 39.3% of paid orders, so this softening — even if modest — has an outsized effect on total account volume. Part of this is explained by adopting new tests for static ad design campaigns this month, which typically carry a short learning-phase dip before performance stabilizes.

Google spend increased in August ($10,360, +10.9%), the only platform to scale up this month. We recently adopted new campaigns — a Branded Search campaign, a PMax campaign, and a Shopping campaign — which are now live and building momentum alongside the existing account structure.

Sessions fell -38.8% to 200,740 this month, largely tracking the $2,708 (-8.4%) cut in ad spend versus July. The decline is concentrated in Snapchat and Meta, which were both cut back this month and are our two channels that primarily drive high-volume traffic through catalog campaigns — so a reduced budget there has an outsized effect on total sessions. Fewer sessions is an expected consequence of that smaller budget, not a separate problem to chase. What matters more is that CVR reversed its three-month decline anyway, rising from 0.62% to 0.90%, and revenue per session climbed to $0.66 (+46.1%). This is the real story: even with less traffic, we're converting it significantly better. Improving CVR further is now the highest-leverage lever we have — every additional 0.1% on top of 200K+ sessions is worth roughly 200+ extra orders without spending a single extra dollar on traffic.

Retention stayed flat at 18.75%, matching July's all-time high. Given revenue and orders both declined this month, holding retention flat rather than dropping is a meaningfully positive signal — it means the softer results are concentrated in new-customer acquisition (tracking with the lower spend and August's campaign testing), while the existing loyal base kept buying at the same rate.