What I Learnt Scaling Gearbunch: An 8-Figure eCommerce Journey

Achieving eight-figure revenue with Gearbunch required a relentless focus on customer lifetime value, not just acquisition.

When I started the business, the goal was simple. Build a brand that people loved and that could support my family. But as we grew, the ambition got bigger. The new target became $10 million in annual revenue.

Getting there wasn’t about finding one secret channel or a magic growth hack. It was a slow, methodical grind. It was about shifting focus from the top of the funnel to the entire customer journey.

This is the story of how we did it. It covers the strategic shifts, the operational headaches, and the marketing channels that actually moved the needle. I’ve made every mistake possible, so you don’t have to.

The Gearbunch origin story and 8-figure ambition

I launched Gearbunch to sell unique, colourful activewear. The initial niche was clear: leggings with bold, all-over prints that you couldn’t find in mainstream stores. Our unique selling proposition was the sheer variety of designs. We could launch new patterns weekly, keeping the catalogue fresh.

In the early days, every dollar went back into the business. The pursuit of growth was relentless because it had to be. We were competing with established players and needed to carve out our space.

The goal of ‘8-figure success’ wasn’t just a number on a spreadsheet. It meant stability. It meant we could build a real team, invest in better systems, and stop worrying about paying suppliers month to month. It meant we had built something that could last.

Our first year was all about product-market fit. I spent hours reading customer emails and social media comments. What designs did they love? What did they hate? This direct feedback loop was everything. We didn’t spend a cent on marketing until we knew we had a product that people genuinely wanted to buy again.

Shifting from acquisition to retention for scaling an ecommerce brand

The first few million in revenue came from paid acquisition. We poured money into Facebook Ads and it worked, for a while. But soon we hit a plateau. Customer acquisition cost (CAC) started to climb. The return on ad spend (ROAS) began to drop.

This was the ‘aha’ moment. I realised we couldn’t just keep buying new customers. It was too expensive and unsustainable. The real path to 8 figures was getting the customers we already had to buy from us again, and again.

We shifted our focus and budget towards retention. This meant getting serious about our post-purchase experience. We stopped treating the time after checkout as an afterthought and started treating it as the beginning of the next sale.

We implemented a proper loyalty program with VIP tiers. Customers who spent more got early access to new designs and exclusive discounts. We measured our repeat purchase rate obsessively. Our goal was to get it from 15% to over 30% within 12 months.

Segmentation was also critical. We stopped sending the same email to everyone. A first-time buyer got a different message than a VIP customer who had purchased 10 times. This level of personalisation made our marketing feel more like a conversation.

using Klaviyo for advanced email automation

Email became the engine room for our retention strategy. We moved to Klaviyo and built out a series of automated flows that ran 24/7. This wasn’t just about sending more emails. It was about sending the right email to the right person at the right time.

Our welcome series wasn’t just a 10% off coupon. It was a four-part sequence that introduced the brand story, highlighted our best-selling categories, and shared social proof. We found that adding a plain-text email from me on day three lifted the series’ revenue-per-recipient by over 20%.

The abandoned cart flow was another focus. We tested different timings and offers. A simple two-step flow (reminder at 1 hour, final offer at 24 hours) consistently performed best. It recovered around 18% of abandoned carts for us, month after month.

Post-purchase flows were where we built loyalty. We sent order confirmations, shipping updates, and then a follow-up asking for a review. Two weeks later, we’d send a cross-sell email suggesting a matching sports bra for the leggings they just bought. These small, relevant touchpoints dramatically increased customer lifetime value. If you need help with this, our team offers hands-on Klaviyo management.

Building a passionate community around the Gearbunch brand

A brand is more than just products and a logo. For Gearbunch, our community was our biggest asset. We didn’t just want customers. We wanted fans.

We created a private Facebook Group for our top customers. This became a place for them to share photos of themselves in our gear, talk about their fitness journeys, and connect with each other. It wasn’t a sales channel. It was a community hub, and we policed it heavily to keep it that way.

User-generated content (UGC) was a huge part of our strategy. We encouraged customers to tag us on Instagram and ran weekly contests where we’d feature our favourite photos. This gave us a constant stream of authentic social proof. It was far more powerful than any professional photoshoot we could have done.

We also made customer service a core part of our community efforts. Our support team was trained to be helpful and human. No scripts, no canned responses. If a customer had an issue, we fixed it. This built incredible trust and word-of-mouth referrals.

This community feedback loop also drove product development. We listened to what our customers wanted. They asked for pockets in their leggings, so we added them. They asked for new colours, so we made them. The community felt heard because they were.

Key channels for sustainable 8-figure ecommerce brand scaling

To get to 8 figures, you need a diversified marketing mix. Relying on a single channel is a recipe for disaster. We built our growth on four core pillars.

First was Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram). This was our primary channel for new customer acquisition. We ran campaigns targeting cold audiences with our best-selling products. But we also used it heavily for retargeting, showing different ads to people who had visited our site, added to cart, or purchased before.

Second was Google Ads. We focused on high-intent search queries for terms like “printed leggings” and ran highly optimised Google Shopping campaigns. This captured people who were actively looking to buy.

Third was our affiliate and influencer program. We partnered with fitness influencers who genuinely loved our product. We gave them a unique code to share with their followers. This provided a steady stream of high-quality traffic and sales.

Fourth was content and SEO. This was a long-term play. We started a blog with articles about fitness, nutrition, and style. It took over a year to see significant results, but eventually, it became a major source of organic traffic for us.

Balancing paid acquisition with profitability

Scaling paid ads is easy. Scaling them profitably is hard. We were obsessed with our numbers. Every campaign had a clear ROAS target. If a campaign fell below that target for more than three days, we killed it.

We also watched our blended CAC like a hawk. This is the total marketing spend divided by the number of new customers. It gave us a true picture of what it cost to acquire a customer across all channels.

Continuous testing was the key. My team was constantly testing new ad creatives, new headlines, and new audiences. We used Meta’s tools to build lookalike audiences from our best customer lists, which you can read about in their business help centre. This allowed us to find new people who were highly likely to be interested in our products.

We never assumed something was working. We tested everything and let the data decide. If your Meta Ads are not performing, it might be time for an audit. We offer a free Meta audit to identify opportunities.

Overcoming operational challenges in scaling ecommerce

Marketing gets all the attention, but operations are what can kill a growing ecommerce brand. Scaling from 7 to 8 figures broke a lot of our initial processes.

Inventory management became a massive headache. We went from a few dozen SKUs to thousands. We invested in an inventory management system that integrated directly with Shopify. This helped us avoid stock-outs on our best-sellers and prevent over-ordering on slow-moving items.

Customer support volume exploded. We couldn’t handle it through a shared email inbox anymore. We implemented Gorgias to manage all our customer conversations in one place. We also built a detailed help centre to allow customers to find answers to common questions themselves. This reduced our ticket volume by about 30%.

Our team grew from just me to over 15 people, all working remotely. Building a strong culture without a physical office was a challenge. We set up clear communication channels in Slack, held weekly all-hands video calls, and made sure everyone understood the company’s goals.

The tech stack also had to evolve. We upgraded to Shopify Plus to handle the increased order volume and gain access to more powerful features. We integrated an ERP to connect our inventory, orders, and accounting. These were expensive investments, but they were necessary to support our growth.

The enduring lessons from scaling an ecommerce brand to 8 figures

The journey from starting Gearbunch to scaling it past $10 million was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It taught me more than any business school could.

The most important lesson is that the customer is everything. Every decision we made, from product design to marketing, started with the customer. If you obsess over providing a great product and experience, the growth will follow.

Second, you have to be guided by data, not gut feelings. We tracked everything and made decisions based on what the numbers told us. This removed emotion and ego from the equation.

Third, you must never stop testing. What worked last month might not work this month. The market, the ad platforms, and the customers are always changing. Continuous iteration is the only way to stay ahead.

Finally, building a great team is the ultimate growth lever. I couldn’t have done it alone. Hiring smart people and giving them the autonomy to do their best work was the key to breaking through our growth plateaus.

These are the same principles we now apply to the brands we work with at Elite Brands. You can see how we’ve applied them for other clients by looking at our results.

Scaling a brand is a complex process. If you want a team of operators who have been there before to look at your business, we can help.