I Started a Shopify Store With No Experience: The Story of Lyara

At first, I knew almost nothing about e-commerce. I did not know how to build a product page, run ads, set up shipping, or why choosing a specific audience matters so much.

I began by studying an e-commerce marketing course on YouTube and building everything myself. The name Lyara came from my surname: I took the ending of “QuagLiara” and added a y. I wanted it to sound like a brand, even though I had not yet defined what that brand was meant to stand for.

The idea was to sell generic fashion jewellery: products sourced on Alibaba and very similar to items customers could find on AliExpress. At the beginning, my audience was simply “everyone.” I now know that this is not a strategy—it is the lack of one.

I searched for products on Alibaba, mainly assessing suppliers and negotiating prices and shipping. My first order was around €1,300, including products and custom boxes. It also included watches in the Daniel Wellington style.

I wanted to avoid an anonymous-looking parcel, so I ordered custom boxes. It was my attempt to create a more polished experience around a catalogue that was not exclusive.

My first encounter with operational reality came during importation. Customs required a VAT number to proceed, so I had to open one quickly. That was when I understood that e-commerce is not only about choosing a product, publishing a site, and turning on ads: suppliers, documents, imports, responsibilities, and operations sit behind it.

I built the Shopify site myself, applying what I was learning step by step. That is where I began to understand concepts I now consider essential: storytelling, copywriting, page hierarchy, trust, and the path from a first visit to a purchase.

Storytelling, however, cannot be invented with a catchy sentence. With generic jewellery, no niche, no community, and no truly differentiated product, it was difficult to create a credible story. I could improve pages, images, and copy, but I could not remove the upstream problem: I was offering objects customers could easily compare elsewhere.

I stored the goods in my basement. For fulfilment, I used Packlink connected to Shopify: it selected a carrier and arranged collection from my home before delivery to the customer. For a one-person small store, this reduced manual work, but it did not solve the core question: why should someone buy from Lyara specifically?

I did not receive meaningful returns or support requests. I do not see that as proof of a perfect system; sales volume was simply very low.

Customer acquisition was the hardest part. At first, I did not know how to set up Facebook Ads: I burned through several advertising accounts before I began to understand how they worked. I spent over €1,600 on campaigns, a meaningful amount for a project started from scratch.

I produced creatives, posts, and videos using Adobe Creative Cloud: Photoshop, XD, and Premiere. With a student plan, I paid about €17 per month. I enjoyed that part: I was not only trying to sell a product; I was learning visual communication, messaging, and how a visit might become a conversion.

I also tried collaborations with influencers in Italy, sending free products. I did not generate sales I could attribute to those collaborations. I even spent €400 on a sponsored post through Pastorizianeversdie, and it did not convert at all.

In total, I sold around €800 worth of goods. Revenue alone does not tell the story: product sourcing, packaging, advertising, subscriptions, and time all sat behind it. The project was not a sustainable business.

Lyara stayed active for roughly a year and a half. The financial outcome was not positive, but calling it only a failure would be reductive: it taught me firsthand how much an activity needs foundations before launch.

The most important lesson is this: without a business plan, an activity risks becoming a hobby with potentially huge losses. It does not need to be a polished document for someone else; it needs to force you to put the uncomfortable questions in writing before spending money.

Questions I should have answered first

• Who exactly is the customer, and which problem, desire, or identity am I addressing?
• Why would they buy from me rather than cheaper marketplaces?
• What is the real margin after product, shipping, packaging, fees, ads, and returns?
• How much can I spend to acquire a customer without losing money?
• What can I prove with a small test before placing a significant stock order?
• Which result would make the project sustainable, and which would tell me to stop?

A business plan does not remove risk. It turns vague hopes into measurable assumptions.

Lyara did not become the e-commerce business I imagined, but it gave me skills I reused later: building a website, managing an operational flow, understanding the basics of copywriting and conversion, producing creatives, and facing campaigns that did not work.

Years later, those skills contributed to the path that led me to open a web agency with a partner, with two separate sole proprietorships, before my experience with Spotex.

If you are just starting, do not take this story as a reason to avoid all risk. Take it as an invitation to take risk more consciously: start small, validate before buying too much stock, choose a specific customer, and measure every euro.

Lyara cost me more than it earned. But it also removed an illusion: an e-commerce store is not a button for making money. It is a real business, with real costs and real customers. That is exactly why it needs more method than guru videos make it seem.