Only 3 Things: My Biggest Shopify Month in 5 Years

There were three key drivers, three levers I pulled, that supported my biggest revenue month outside of a sale that I've ever had in five years. My revenue in Klaviyo was up on May last year by 260%.

If you've turned on the TV once in the last several months, you'll know the doom and gloom that's around the media at the moment. New economic modelling suggests Australia could be in a recession by September. The labour market is starting to show some cracks. Recession, cost of living crisis, it's hard to get away from that messaging, and it's hard as business owners not to get discouraged by it too.

That's exactly why I wanted to share this. When I looked back at my numbers for May, I felt like I did a great job. I paid off my credit card debt for my small business. My profit was up. And I thought, is this really as good a result as I think it is?

Yes. Even in this environment, customers are still spending money. There is money flowing through the economy, and your results in your own Meta ads, your Klaviyo account or your Shopify store may not have to be part of the cost of living crisis narrative. That's an easy thing to fall back on when results are down, but for some businesses, including mine and a couple of my clients, May was the strongest month in a long time.

The Numbers

Last year on Black Friday, I did an over $20,000 revenue month in Shopify. May was the first time I cracked $20,000 when I wasn't running a sale. That's massive for me. I haven't had a $20,000 business-as-usual revenue month before. That's the stage of online business I'm at.

My revenue on Shopify was up 80% on last year.

My ROAS in May was five, which is my blended ROAS, meaning Meta and Klaviyo together, not just Meta on its own.

For context, my Meta ROAS alone was four. My ASC (Advantage+ Shopping Campaign), which has been running for around six months with fresh content added constantly, sits at 3.9.

When I add Klaviyo revenue on top of that and pull it all together, the blended number comes to five.

My Klaviyo revenue was up 260% on May last year, and email made up 31% of all of my Shopify revenue for the month.

In 2025, email marketing made up 22% of my total revenue across the year, which was itself an 80% increase on the year before.

So this isn't a one-off, it's a trend I've been building for a while. This can be you too. If you haven't yet cracked your first $5,000 or $10,000 revenue month, these three things are exactly where I'd start.

1. Fresh Content Volume

I launched 17 new ads in May. About a third video, two-thirds images. If you've listened to my last couple of episodes, you already know how much I bang on about this, because it matters that much. If you're running an Advantage+ Shopping Campaign (ASC), it thrives on regular fresh content. Meta quickly sorts whatever you add in and starts pushing out the content it likes, and that content gets a really high reach. The rest sifts to the bottom and doesn't get much money spent on it either, which is exactly why ASCs are so good.

You're not going to spend $100 on a piece of creative that no one sees. New creative inside an ASC also gets seen first by your warm audience. Your video viewers, your website visitors, people who've engaged with your Facebook page and Instagram, your existing customers, your Klaviyo list. All of them see new content first before it moves further down the funnel. That makes adding fresh creative a great way to stay in touch with your customers weekly without having to build brand new campaigns.

If you're running a detailed interest campaign instead of an ASC, 17 ads in a month is probably too much unless you're spending a couple hundred dollars a day. The amount of creative you need really hinges on your daily budget, because each ad needs a fair crack at that budget before you can make real decisions on it.I practice what I preach here. All 17 of those ads were also organic content I reused elsewhere, so nothing was a one-off, throwaway piece of work.

2. New Product Launches

I launched 20 new products in May. Soft launches, low MOQs, nothing massive. A lot of them were wholesale, known brands my customers already trust, which meant I could get them out the door fast without having to research, develop and sample 20 branded products myself in a single month.

At the same time, I added around 30 products to my clearance collection, which meant I was cycling through my catalogue far faster than I had in April.

Here's the part I think matters most: whatever you decide to do in your business, lean into it wholeheartedly. I knew customers might wonder why I kept adding things to clearance and emailing about it. Was I closing down? So instead of hiding from that, I addressed it head on. I sent an email that said, essentially, yes you've had a few emails from me about new things in the clearance collection, and that's a good sign, not a bad one. The quicker you help me clear the shelves, the faster I can bring in new, fresh things.

That email brought in $1,100 in revenue on its own. If you have to make a decision for your business, one that's going to make you money, go all in on it. Don't second-guess the optics. Just message it honestly and lean into the positive side of it. New products in Klaviyo drove revenue, which in turn supported Meta ad spend, because Klaviyo and Meta work hand in hand. Spend money on Meta and your Klaviyo works better for you. The more you spend on Meta, the harder Klaviyo should be working too, and vice versa.

3. I Deliberately Dropped My Deliverability Score

This one surprises people. My Klaviyo deliverability score had been sitting at excellent for a couple of months, roughly since January. I decided to juice it. I sent more emails than I ever have before to segments across my list (never everybody at once), and my deliverability score dropped from excellent to good.

I sent around 14 campaigns in May to different segments. That's a lot. And it paid off. If your deliverability score is sitting at excellent, you're probably leaving money on the table. Go email your segments more. Encourage them to shop, encourage them to connect with you.

The flip side matters just as much: if your deliverability score is at fair, don't send 14 emails in a month, it'll be hard to pull back.

Fix the fundamentals first.

But if you're sitting comfortably at good or excellent, there's very likely revenue sitting there you haven't scooped up yet.

The Real Point

The news cycle is doom and gloom, but the reality can be different for you too. Customers are still shopping. They're still spending money. They want to spend it with brands that show up consistently, that give them something fun and worth connecting with.

So don't let the news cycle stop you launching new products, connecting with customers on social, jumping into ads, refreshing what's already running, or sending emails.

Keep showing up.

Keep launching.

Keep reaching out.

These are real numbers from a very real recent period here in Australia. It's not all doom and gloom. Take control of it for yourself, and go find your customers something worth buying. They will.

*If you haven't cracked your first $5k or $10k revenue month yet, or your online side of the business isn't getting the attention it deserves because the rest of your business keeps you busy day and night, let's chat.

I work project by project, no long retainers to worry about.

Book yourself a discovery call at and let's get you moving toward that next milestone.