Regen Health sees new customers grow 50% through OpenStore Drive

• Ian, founder of Regen Health, is one of the first merchants working with OpenStore Drive
• OpenStore Drive increased new customers by 50% MoM
• Total orders spiked 35% and net sales increased 29% MoM
• Ian is using the time he got back to focus on other e-commerce businesses and write his second book

When Ian Schechter started his supplement company, Regen Health, it was his first solo venture after co-founding, scaling, and selling other e-commerce companies. That’s why we were thrilled when he turned to OpenStore Drive to run Regen Health.

I sat down with Ian to learn what prompted him to outsource the day-to-day operations of his business in exchange for a monthly payment and what he’s doing with his newfound time. 

Regen Health’s origins: e-commerce as a path to a flexible lifestyle

While traveling in his 20s, Ian observed other travelers working remotely and selling products online –– that flexibility paired with a solid income stream had a lot of appeal. He ran and sold another Shopify store before launching Regen Health, a doctor-backed supplement company helping people regenerate their recovery, sleep, mood, and more, in 2019. 

“I learned a lot from starting and eventually selling two businesses in the health and beauty space,” Ian says. “I care about what I put in my body and knew I had to start Regen after learning about gaps in the market, and that I could manufacture the products domestically.”

A ‘no-brainer’

“Since this was my third company in the space, I was able to draw on my prior experiences and move at a faster clip when scaling Regen,” Ian tells me. He surpassed the $1M sales mark in roughly a year.

The challenge for Regen Health was in scaling once the business hit that peak –– or rather, that plateau. In spite of a solid business, that plateau had him thinking about options to sell. He started exploring options and offers and reconnected with one of his friends here at OpenStore. 

“When the OpenStore Drive team pitched the concept to me, it sounded too good to be true,” says Ian. “OpenStore takes no equity, guarantees me payments, runs my business, and runs it well –– that’s a no-brainer.”

Increasing new customers, orders, and sales

Within a few months of OpenStore Drive operating Regen Health, we’ve been able to overcome that plateau. So far, month over month, we’ve increased new customers by 49%, total orders by 35%, net sales by 29%, and lowered CAC by 5%.

How’d we drive growth so quickly? Multi-channel marketing, economies of scale, and using technology. We operate the largest number of Shopify stores in the world across different categories and our portfolio of 40+ brands is run by DTC experts from Amazon, HelloFresh, Wayfair, and Wal-Mart.

Our team deploys a wide range of marketing strategies including paid social, paid search, email, SMS, price testing, and more. We also drive efficiencies across shipping costs and customer support, for example. And our engineering team helps automate otherwise manual processes, and for some brands, even create standalone iOS apps to boost repeat purchases.

“As a business owner, I have to care a lot more about profitability, but the OpenStore team is able to drive top-line revenue without such a strong focus on short-term profitability, and that top-line increase also means the store is likely to have more repeat customers, which is making this ‘asset’ more profitable for me, the business owner,” Ian says.  

Turning his store into a passive income stream

With OpenStore Drive, Ian turned his Shopify business into a passive income stream and handed over all day-to-day operations. Our team runs everything from marketing and operations to customer support and logistics. Ian gets a monthly check based on OpenStore’s analysis of his store’s performance, which was used to calculate payments for a full year. OpenStore receives a small management fee and any upside beyond that fixed monthly payout.

“I’ve started to think about the store as a piece of digital real estate; I check in once or twice a month the way I would keep tabs on an investment property, but as long as the checks keep coming, I’m good.”  

Getting time back to write another book

We often hear from Shopify entrepreneurs that one reason they want to sell their store is because they’re burned out. Not Ian! 

“I already have downtime, so I don't need more, but OpenStore Drive running Regen Health gives me the ability to do more,” he says. He continues building new businesses, and he’s writing his second book. 

If you want the freedom to start a new business, focus on an existing one, or take a break, we’d love to talk with you. As Ian told us, “It’s a stupidly good deal.”

If you're building a Shopify store and want to connect with Ian about his experience scaling brands or his experience with OpenStore, you can find him here.