r/ecommerce

I’ve been using an AI agent recently, and I kinda regret not starting earlier. It’s been saving me a lot of time. Tbh, I didn’t really expect much from AI before. I thought it would just waste my time and money and not be that useful. AI agents started popping up last year. Every big company seemed to be jumping in. Posts about OpenClaw and ClawBot everywhere, but I never really tried any of them myself given that I’m not a tech person. That changed last week when I saw a reel about Accio Work, promoted to be built specifically for e-commerce. The main reason I gave it a try was how easy it looked to set up. I spent about 10 mins setting it up, then asked it to help me find suppliers. It gave me way more than I expected. The results were pretty detailed and actually useful. I can even send the auto-drafted inquiry with a single click. I followed someone‘s automation workflow that uses IMAP to read Gmail and Telegram for alerts, so I can track Alibaba shipping updates and flag anything unusual. Glad I didn’t start this any later.

Delhivery lost a parcel and RTO is through the roof.

BlueDart plays weight discrepancy games every single shipment. Shiprocket somehow manages to be the worst of both, highest RTO and weight issues.

.RTO literally eats my margins alive.

Someone please tell me there's a courier out there that doesn't suck. What's actually working for you?

Hi all. first time posting here

I found this chinese manufacturer that makes copies of designer and niche perfumes for wholesalers.

I am a real fan of perfumes and its something that aligns with my hobbie instead of just selling whatever is trending, so i am willing to try and see how it goes.

the thing is, that i am completely new in terms of Ecommerce, so I have no idea of the steps needed to create my online business with little money , if i need to buy MOQ from the manufacturer and i am stuck with the supplies without having a client base... these kind of worries.

if you would guide me a little bit without having to pay a random e-commerce guru to tell me what everyone already knows, I would be appreciated.

I run a small ecommerce store and I feel like I’m watching something shift in real time.

Customers aren’t just Googling anymore. They’re asking ChatGPT what to buy.

At first I didn’t think it mattered.

But then I started testing it.

When you ask AI for product recommendations, it gives you a few options and that’s it. No pages of results, no comparing, just “here’s what you should buy.”

And that’s when it hit me:

If your product isn’t in those answers, you’re not just ranking lower… you’re invisible.

I checked a bunch of queries in my niche and most of my products don’t show up at all. Meanwhile a few competitors keep getting recommended over and over again.

It doesn’t even seem tied to who has the best product or biggest brand. It’s more about who’s mentioned across content, comparisons, different sites.

Which honestly feels like early SEO all over again, except now there are only a few spots instead of a whole first page.

I don’t know if this is happening fast or if I’m early, but it feels like one of those things that suddenly matters a lot.

I started looking into AEO (answer engine optimization) and ended up joining the waitlist for rankler. ai to test it. Feels like something I probably shouldn’t ignore.

Anyone else here is thinking about AI search yet or just sticking to normal SEO for now?

How do you deal with chargebacks? Do you do it manually or are there automation tools to do it, and are they good

And how much do you lose from fraud chargebacks monthly, and how do you deal with scammers?

I’ve been looking at affiliate tools recently for a couple of WooCommerce stores, and honestly, the pricing caught me off guard.

A lot of the well-known options are subscription-based now, and once you add everything up, it can get pretty pricey, especially if the store is still small or just experimenting with an affiliate program.

What surprised me is that most stores don’t seem to need anything super complex. Usually, it’s just tracking referrals properly, giving affiliates a simple dashboard, maybe coupon or link tracking, and a way to handle payouts.

However, many tools are designed for large SaaS companies rather than typical WooCommerce stores.

So I’m curious what people here are actually using.

Are you running your affiliate program with a plugin, a SaaS tool, or something custom? And are you paying monthly for it? (I came up with some of them, like WC Affiliate, SliceWP, Coupon Affiliates, etc.)

Would love to hear what tool you guys are using. Honest take only.

Thanks!

My question as a cash strapped brand is, should I go for a readymade site from an online agency and launch? Do I need my own developer? Will this cause problems in the future? What have you used, ODOO or similar? What has been your experience and what would you recommend? Thank you!

I have tried a ton of creative experiments to grow my channels: weird hooks, unusual formats, quick collaborations.

Fun stuff, and sometimes it works. But long-term growth almost always comes from one incredibly boring thing: writing one piece of content every day that solves one specific micro-problem for one micro-niche.

Since I stopped chasing "the viral idea" and focused on:

- 1 problem = 1 piece of content

- 1 KPI to improve at a time

- 1 real piece of feedback to apply every week

...growth became much more predictable (fewer spikes, but almost no crashes).

What is the "boring" growth hack that works better for you than any fancy trick?

Hey guys. If you’ve seen my previous rants, you know I’ve been on a crusade against the absolute nightmare of manual inventory math. I spent months helping a friend with his store, and let me tell you: staring at spreadsheets until your eyes bleed while trying to guess 'reorder points' is a cry for help.

We were either overstocking stuff or running out of best-sellers right when ads were peaking. I’m a dev, so I finally had a screw it moment and decided to build my own engine to automate my chores.

The result? I built a custom interface powered by an AI model. Instead of me doing math and crying, the AI constantly monitors the store's 'burn rate' and alerts us BEFORE a stockout happens. It completely killed our spreadsheet trauma.

I just finished polishing it and I'm not here for your money; I'm here for your brutal honesty. I want to see if this AI logic holds up for other setups, so I'm opening it up for free. If you are trapped in Excel Hell and want to see if this cures the headache, let's talk in the comments!

I made a post yesterday asking if Ecommerce was basically just everyone selling the same exact products from the same Chinese manufactures and slapping their logo on it.

A few people mentioned how Chinese manufactures are also selling direct to consumer now, so competing in this space is getting super hard.

The model used to be, 1- Find some software to figure out what products are trending right now, 2- Go source the same thing from China and sell it yourself, and EVERYONE was doing that so everyones selling the same thing, but now that model doesn't work.

My question is, what about food?

Food would be a product you can sell that still has a moat.

If you make some good ass homemade cookies, China isn't going to be able to copy your cookies the way that you make them, and there's FDA restrictions anyways.

Does anyone remember that Ice Cream cake product called "Viennetta" from back in the 90s / early 2000s?

Go Google image it to see what i'm talking about

It's this layered ice cream cake thing that had GREAT marketing behind it.

The company just sold that one single product and they ran commercials that made it seem like the most high end, luxury, delicacy of a dessert ever. Like something you'd get at a 5 start restaurant but you can get it shipped to you in a box.

Now, the product actually sucked, that thing was just some cheap ass ice cream with frost bite, but they made a KILLING selling just that one product and running really good marketing behind it to hype it up.

The Dubia Chocolate bar was another one, remember that on Tiktok? They made a killing selling that thing.