PaperTube currently operates two distinct business lines from a single Shopify website: a ready-made e-commerce store and a custom-order lead-gen business. As part of the [1] engagement, Asymmetric is scoping whether to split these into two separate domains — e-commerce remaining on Shopify, custom orders migrating to WordPress — to better serve two fundamentally different audiences and unlock SEO and UX improvements.
This analysis was surfaced during the [2] and assigned as a scoping task for Karly and Sebastian before the next call.
| Dimension | E-Commerce (Ready-Made) | Custom Orders |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | Shopify (current) | Would move to WordPress |
| Order volume | ~10 orders/day | ~3x larger by revenue |
| Buyer profile | Small businesses, mom-and-pop shops | Mid-to-large companies, B2B |
| Transaction type | Self-serve checkout | Consultative, quote-driven |
| Lead source | SEO, Google Shopping | ABM, Google Ads, LinkedIn |
| Avg. order size | Low-to-mid (stock SKUs) | High (custom design + volume) |
| Customization | None — ships as-is | Full custom design and spec |
Parag's framing: "Guys who are ready-made, they tend to stay ready-made. The guys who are custom, they're not interested in 500 tubes tomorrow — they're interested in 10,000 tubes." The two audiences rarely cross over.
Splitting a single domain into two divides the existing traffic signal, which can reduce the SEO authority of both sites in the short term.
Mitigating factors:
- If each focused site achieves higher engagement rates than the current combined site, Google will reward both with improved rankings over time.
- The current site already has poor engagement (high bounce rate, low engagement rate) because it serves two conflicting audiences — so the baseline to beat is low.
- The custom-orders site, built on WordPress, would unlock SEO tactics currently blocked by Shopify's API constraints (bulk meta updates, schema injection, programmatic content).
Mark's framing: "If we took your website and split it, and both websites get better engagement than they got before, you'll be in better shape. If everybody splits and you don't get more engagement, then you'll lose some SEO value."
Parag is intrigued by the split but cautious. His preference is to first push on the existing Shopify infrastructure, identify concrete blockers, and use that evidence to inform the migration decision. He is concerned about disrupting working e-commerce logistics (shipping rate APIs, order routing) and wants to avoid a rebuild before it's clearly necessary.
"Let's push on what we have right now on Shopify. And as you're running through that, you guys are going to tell me, hey, this is where we're running into real challenges. That'll help inform the decision on, do we really have to split this."
Assigned to: Karly Oykhman, Sebastian Gant
Due: Before next PaperTube strategy call
Scope the effort required to execute the split and present findings. Key questions to answer: