Most brands run tactics without constraints. Here’s how to define a profitable growth strategy and document it on one page.

Most eCommerce brands think they have a growth strategy, when in reality, they have a collection of tactics.

More ads, creatives, emails, and tools.

Activity increases, but direction doesn’t.

This is why growth feels messy rather than intentional.

It’s why teams stay busy but momentum stalls. And it’s why performance swings wildly quarter to quarter.

This happens when tactics exist without a system to govern them.

A real growth strategy is a set of constraints and priorities that dictate what not to do.

Without those constraints, everything feels equally important, and when everything is important, nothing is able to grow as it should.

In this email, I want to reset how you think about “strategy” and give you a simple way to document one that actually guides execution.

Let’s break it down.

​What $2.9B in BFCM Sales Actually Looked Like​

With 26 million orders, and $607M in ad spend: conversion value peaked at 5am on Black Friday.

But the most interesting number: Triple Whale brands made up 19.7% of ALL Shopify sales during BFCM, tracking $2.9B across nearly 50,000+ stores.

Here’s what actually worked:

• Travel & Luggage brands led AOV at $150+

• New customer revenue: $1.4B and climbing

• Apparel owned the weekend (36% of total revenue)

• TikTok ROAS jumped +28% YoY while CPM dropped 27%

The Triple Whale BFCM Breakdown Report has it all:

• Campaign strategies that actually worked

• CPA by vertical, with 15 industries benchmarked

• ROAS by platform (Meta, TikTok, Google, Amazon, AppLovin)

If you’re planning 2026 without this data, you’re flying blind.

Get the full breakdown here:

Most brands operate reactively.

ROAS dips, so they launch new creatives.

Revenue slows, so they add a promo.

CPMs rise, so they test another channel.

None of these actions are wrong on their own, the problem is that they’re disconnected.

When tactics aren’t anchored to a strategy, decisions are made in isolation.

Teams chase short-term fixes instead of building durable growth.

This leads to common symptoms:

• Burnout without leverage

• No clear definition of success

• Constant pivoting without learning

• Too many initiatives running at once

Strategy is what prevents this chaos by creating a filter.

A growth strategy answers three questions clearly:

• Where are we focusing?

• What are we intentionally deprioritizing?

• What constraint are we solving right now?

Most brands skip the last question.

Constraints are uncomfortable to acknowledge, but they’re where leverage lives.

Every business has one dominant constraint at any given time.

Growth only happens when effort is concentrated there.

A strategy without constraints is just ambition. A strategy with constraints becomes executable.

Once the constraint is clear, priorities become obvious.

If demand is the constraint, priorities might include creative velocity, concept testing, and audience expansion.

Conversion optimizations and retention initiatives take a back seat, not because they don’t matter, but because they’re not the current bottleneck.

This is where most teams struggle.

They intellectually understand focus, but emotionally resist de-prioritization.

Strategy requires saying “not now” to good ideas so great ones can compound.

All that you need to be successful is a single page that your team can reference weekly.

Here’s how to build it:

Start with your primary growth constraint. Write it in one sentence, and be specific. Avoid vague language like “brand awareness” or “scaling challenges.”

Next, define your 90-day objective. This should directly address the constraint. If demand is the issue, the objective might be increasing creative throughput or stabilizing acquisition costs.

Then list your top three priorities for the quarter. These are the only initiatives allowed to consume meaningful resources, everything else is maintenance.

Finally, document what you’re explicitly deprioritizing. This is the most important section, as it protects focus and prevents scope creep.

If it doesn’t serve the constraint, it doesn’t ship.

Once this document exists, execution becomes cleaner.

• Decisions are faster.

• Meetings are shorter.

• Trade-offs are clearer.

When a new idea comes up, the question isn’t “Is this good?” It’s “Does this solve the constraint?”

If the answer is no, it waits.

This is how small teams outperform larger ones, and how effort is able to bear fruit instead of fragments.

Most brands unfortunately lack the proper direction that they need to be most successful.

A proper growth strategy is about doing fewer things with more intent, for long enough to see results.

If your team feels busy but growth feels fragile, the problem is likely the absence of constraints.

Find them for yourself, and take messy action, fast.

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Disclaimer: Special thanks to TripleWhale for sponsoring today’s newsletter.