What is Ecommerce Growth Readiness Score?
An Ecommerce Growth Readiness Score is a diagnostic assessment that evaluates five dimensions: business stage, primary growth bottleneck, traffic channel mix, product type, and technology platform. The score identifies which growth lever (traffic, conversion, retention, or unit economics) will produce the highest return on effort at the current stage.
Why This Matters
Stage determines the right growth lever
Shopify 2025 Commerce Report data shows stores with fewer than 1,000 monthly sessions convert at functionally zero regardless of site quality. A growth diagnostic prevents premature optimization by identifying whether traffic acquisition, conversion, or retention is the binding constraint.
Conversion gap represents hidden revenue
Shopify 2025 benchmark data shows the median ecommerce conversion rate is 1.4%, with top-quartile stores converting at 3.2%. The gap between median and top-quartile represents a 2.3x revenue difference on identical traffic, making CRO the highest-leverage investment for stores with traffic.
Retention economics outperform acquisition
Bain and Company research shows increasing customer retention by 5% increases profits by 25 to 95%. Shopify 2025 data shows repeat customers spend 67% more per order and cost 5 to 7 times less to acquire than new customers.
Common Mistakes
❌ Scaling paid ads before conversion rate is healthy
Spending more on traffic to a store that converts at 0.5% amplifies the problem. Fixing conversion rate from 0.5% to 2% quadruples revenue from existing traffic at zero additional acquisition cost. Always optimize conversion before scaling traffic spend.
❌ Choosing platform based on price rather than product fit
Shopify 2025 migration data shows 23% of stores switch platforms within 2 years at $10,000 to $50,000 in development cost. Matching platform to product type (physical, digital, subscription, custom) upfront avoids this cost.
❌ Ignoring unit economics while scaling revenue
The median DTC ecommerce gross margin is 40 to 60%, but after shipping, returns, and acquisition costs, net margin drops to 5 to 15%. Scaling a store with negative unit economics accelerates losses rather than building a business.
Industry Benchmarks
| Category | Good | Average | Poor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conversion Rate | 3.0%+ (top quartile) | 1.4% (median) | Under 1.0% |
| Customer Acquisition Cost | Under 20% of first-order AOV | 20 to 40% of first-order AOV | Over 40% of first-order AOV |
| Repeat Purchase Rate | Over 30% within 90 days | 15 to 30% within 90 days | Under 15% within 90 days |
Source: Shopify, Bain and Company
Benchmark data sourced from Shopify, Bain and Company.