Have you ever considered starting your own business? Or do you have your own business?

You’re not alone. According to the latest U.S. Small Business Administration data, there are over 33 million small businesses in the United States today. With millions of entrepreneurs chasing their dreams, some will inevitably struggle or even fail.

I’ve worked alongside hundreds of small business owners, and I’ve seen it all—the wins, the setbacks, the pivots, and the burnout. But here’s what I believe: Failure doesn’t mean the end. It often sharpens your strategy, strengthens your resilience, and fuels future success. The key is learning how to move through it with clarity, support, and a plan.

According to the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, supported by industry insights, approximately 20% of small businesses fail within their first year, and about 33% close within two years. While these numbers have held steady over the past few years, new data specific to eCommerce reveals an even more sobering reality:

Over 80% of Shopify stores fail, most often due to a lack of strategic execution, technical overwhelm, and low conversions, rather than poor products.

Only 10% of Shopify stores reach six-figure annual revenue, highlighting the critical need for clarity, structure, and marketing expertise from the start. 

For new business owners, especially in the eCommerce space, the key to success isn’t just having a great idea—it’s about building smart, launching confidently, and making data-driven decisions early on.

If you're like most e-commerce store owners I work with, your relationship with email marketing is… complicated.

You know email delivers the highest ROI of any marketing channel—according to Campaign Monitor, email marketing generates $42 for every$1 spent. You've probably heard success stories of stores driving 30-40% of their revenue from email.

Yet when you look at your own email marketing efforts, you might feel like you're barely scratching the surface of what's possible. Between running your store, managing inventory, handling customer service, and trying to have some semblance of a personal life, comprehensive email marketing feels like a luxury you don't have time for.

Here's the good news: you don't need 15 different email automations to see significant results.

After working with hundreds of e-commerce store owners, I've identified the three automated email sequences that deliver 80% of the results with just 20% of the effort. These are the non-negotiable sequences that even the busiest store owners can—and should—implement.

In this guide, I'll show you exactly how to set up these three essential sequences, what to include in each one, and how to measure their effectiveness—all without requiring you to become an email marketing expert or hire a dedicated team.

Not all customers are created equal.

That's not controversial—you already know that some shoppers spend more, shop more frequently, or influence more people than others. The challenge has always been identifying exactly who these valuable customers are and understanding what makes them different.

Traditional customer segmentation (grouping by age, location, or basic purchase history) only tells part of the story. It's like trying to understand a person by knowing only their height and shoe size.

AI-powered segmentation, on the other hand, can analyze hundreds of behavior patterns and purchasing signals to identify your most valuable customer groups with remarkable precision—without requiring you to become a data scientist.

According to McKinsey & Company, businesses that excel at personalization generate 40% more revenue from targeted activities. The foundation of this personalization? Sophisticated customer segmentation.

In this guide, I'll walk you through how e-commerce store owners can leverage AI for customer segmentation in practical, actionable ways—even if terms like "neural networks" and "regression analysis" make your eyes glaze over.