Day 100: Reflecting on the Journey So Far

When I launched isloved.shop on October 14, 2024, it wasn’t because I had some grand master plan or a perfect vision for success. It was curiosity, plain and simple. I knew AI could do a lot, and I wanted to challenge myself with a project that would push my skills and make the most of this downtime between jobs. I saw it as an opportunity to learn and grow, especially in a brutal job market. Plus, I’d always been curious about Shopify and wanted to understand its capabilities.

In the beginning, the biggest hurdle was ramping up to a new domain. A decade ago, I built an entire e-commerce site from scratch with a developer, nailing down the information architecture and figuring out what worked and what didn’t. Back then, I would have killed for something like Shopify. The platform offers so much functionality right out of the box. But there’s also a lot of unnecessary complexity to navigate, and everyone pitching a solution seems to want you to sign up for their service for life.

One of the biggest realizations came around day 100. I had to pivot my focus back to finding stable income and redesigning my portfolio, actively interviewing and applying for roles. I hoped that by now the site would be generating consistent sales, but it turns out that my ad spend was directly tied to sales volume. I spent more than I made, so scaling back became a priority. I also had to take a hard look at why my SEO wasn’t working and what it would take to get it right.

One of the toughest lessons I learned was from relying too heavily on AI to automate image placement and data loading into Shopify. It felt efficient at first—quick results, easy uploads—but I didn’t realize the subtle gaps it was leaving behind. For instance, Google flagged my products for missing information like gender and age on most of the clothing items. The error replicated across all 13,000 SKUs. I tried downloading the data, fixing it in a spreadsheet, even running it through ChatGPT to streamline the corrections, but every time I reuploaded it, I lost all my progress. I ended up right back at square one.

It’s frustrating to feel like you’re making headway only to get stuck in a loop like that. I thought automation would save me time, but in the end, it cost me hours of rework. I realized that AI might get you 80% of the way there, but that last 20% is all about careful, manual fine-tuning.

There were a few highlights, though. Seeing the first samples come in—those dog faces on the products—was pretty rewarding. Holding a tangible result of all that effort made it feel real. I took some sample puzzles to a retailer here in Seattle, and while the feedback was tough (apparently, all the puzzle pieces being the exact same shape made them way harder and less fun), it was valuable. Plus, the pricing didn’t make sense once I factored in the retailer’s cut. It made me take a step back and ask myself: What am I really aiming for here? Scaling into retail? Or focusing more on small-batch, handmade products that I can produce in-house?

That’s why I’m excited about the next phase. I’m moving into a new place on April 1, and I can’t wait to set up my laser cutter and start making my own puzzles. I’m also looking into diversifying onto other marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy, and Walmart to increase visibility without relying solely on paid ads.

If I could go back 100 days and give myself advice, it would be not to expect instant results. Everything is a test-and-learn process. Sometimes the platforms change, and the problems I’m running into might not even be on my end. The best thing I can do is keep going until there’s nothing left to learn.

Looking back, I think I’m pivoting toward a more handmade, small-batch approach—limited edition drops while keeping print-on-demand as a side option. I’ve also got a few ideas about redesigning the template and landing pages, maybe using Webflow to create my own Shopify template since I had some success with my new personal portfolio that way.

No matter what happens next, I’m not giving up. This whole journey has been about learning and adapting, and I’m not done figuring it out yet.