In 2026, 9 out of 10 online stores will slam into a wall. Why? They’re running 2022’s playbook with a 2018 mindset. Here’s the playbook I’m drilling into every brand I touch 👇 1. Product Pages = Landing Pages.  Each SKU must convert cold scrolls into warm carts in < 7 seconds.  (Images in motion, reviews in sight, payment in one thumb-reach.) 2. Traffic ≠ Demand.  Demand is built in community.  Community is built in conversation.  Start yours long before the first click, keep it long after the last delivery. 3. AI-Search will decide 70 % of sessions.  Feed it: structured data, semantic titles, human answers in FAQs.  Starve it: thin descriptions, duplicate listings, slow edge servers.  (Algorithm hunger is predictable. Serve the feast.) 4. 1 Offer → 1 Persona Cluster → 1 Channel → $1 M.  Yes, edge cases exist. No, you’re probably not one.  Find the SKU-Channel fit, then squeeze till it squeals. 5. Checkout friction is theft.  0 pop-ups after payment click.  0 hidden fees on screen four.  0 captcha nightmares on mobile.  Every extra field costs you 4 % in 2026. Do the math. 6. Post-purchase is Pre-purchase 2.0.  Unboxings filmed in AR, loyalty NFTs that unlock drop-only bundles,  carbon-tracked delivery updates.  Delight here and you halve your CAC next quarter. 7. Retention flies on three wings:  Speed, Story, Status.  Ship in 24 h, narrate the journey, badge the buyer.  Miss one wing, the bird crashes. 8. Your dashboard hierarchy:  Cashflow > Contribution Margin > GMV.  (No metric seduces founders like GMV. No metric lies faster.) 9. Document every SOP as if a stranger must run the store tomorrow.  Because in Q3 2026, that stranger will be an LLM agent—and it will. 10. Double what works before you invent what’s next.  Twice the ad budget on the best creative.  Twice the emails to the warmest segment.  Twice the UGC incentives on the top-selling line. And above all: 11. Promise an 8/10 experience, deliver a 10/10. Every. Single. Order.  That delta is where lifetime value compounds. Your store isn’t a catalogue. It’s a conversation, a system, a living algorithm. Build it that way and 2026 will be your highest-score run yet.