How a Side Hustler Makes 7500 Monthly as a Freelance Ecommerce Customer Experience Consultant

Lucas: So we talk a lot on this show about turning specific professional experience into a freelance income — and today's guest did exactly that with a background most people wouldn't immediately think to monetise on its own. Luna: Customer experience consulting for ecommerce brands — and the person we're profiling is a former retail manager named Jenna who now makes around seventy-five hundred dollars a month doing this on the side. Lucas: Yeah, and what I love about her story is that she didn't have a fancy UX degree or a background in tech. She spent eight years managing stores for a mid-size apparel chain, dealing with returns, complaints, and operational hiccups every single day. Luna: The kind of stuff that makes you want to pull your hair out — but she realised that the same patterns she saw in-store were happening online, only worse. Lucas: Exactly. So in 2024, she started offering what she calls 'customer journey audits' for small to mid-size ecommerce shops. She'd go through their entire purchase flow — from the first Google search to the unboxing experience — and flag where customers were dropping off or getting frustrated. Luna: And she charged fifteen hundred dollars per audit. That's the starting price. She did four or five of those a month and built from there. Lucas: Right. Her first client came through Upwork — a DTC candle brand that had a thirty percent return rate. Jenna spent a week digging into their return reasons and found that most customers were complaining about scent descriptions being misleading. The copy said 'fresh linen' but the candle actually smelled like laundry detergent. Luna: Such a simple fix — rewrite the product descriptions to be more literal — and it cut their return rate by nearly half within two months. Lucas: And that became her signature deliverable. She'd produce a detailed report with specific recommendations, but she also offered an ongoing retainer for two thousand a month where she'd monitor customer feedback, run quarterly surveys, and advise on policy changes. That retainer now makes up about half her income. Luna: So she's earning roughly three thousand from one-off audits and forty-five hundred from retainers. Let's talk about how she found those clients, because I think that's the part most people get stuck on. Lucas: Sure. Jenna told us she used a very targeted approach. She searched for ecommerce brands on Upwork that had job posts for 'customer service manager' or 'returns specialist' — not because she wanted those jobs, but because those were companies clearly struggling with CX issues. She'd then pitch a diagnostic audit instead. Luna: Smart. She wasn't competing with a hundred other freelancers for a 'CX consultant' listing. She was creating demand where they didn't know they needed it. Lucas: Exactly. Her cold outreach message was super specific: 'I saw you're hiring for a returns specialist. I've helped similar brands reduce returns by twenty-five percent in sixty days. Here's a free sample audit of your checkout page.' That got her a reply rate of about one in five. Luna: And from there, she'd convert a chunk of those into paid audits. She told us her close rate was around thirty percent after the free sample. Lucas: Now, one thing she emphasised is that she doesn't pretend to be a tech expert. She doesn't touch their Shopify backend or write code. She works entirely from the customer's perspective — placing test orders, reading reviews, chatting with support as a mystery shopper. It's a very human skill set. Luna: I think that's reassuring for listeners who might feel they lack 'hard skills.' You don't need to know SQL or Python to do this. You need empathy, pattern recognition, and the ability to write a clear report. Lucas: Right. And she also developed a few frameworks that made her stand out. One is the 'Five Friction Points' — she looks at search, product page, checkout, delivery, and post-purchase. Another is the 'Emotional Journey Map' where she charts how a customer feels at each touchpoint. Luna: Can we talk numbers for a second? She's making seventy-five hundred a month. How many hours is she putting in? Lucas: She said roughly twenty hours a week. So it's a serious side hustle but not a full-time job. The audits take about ten hours each, and the retainer clients take maybe two to three hours per week for check-ins and reporting. Luna: That's around ninety-four dollars an hour. Not bad for work that doesn't require a new certification. Lucas: Not bad at all. And she's actually turning down work now because she wants to keep it part-time. She has a young kid and doesn't want to scale into an agency. Luna: That's a good problem to have. But for listeners who might be thinking about getting started, what are the biggest pitfalls Jenna mentioned? Lucas: Two main ones. First, undercharging. She started at five hundred dollars per audit and quickly realised she was leaving money on the table because the value she delivered was much higher. She doubled her price after three months and didn't lose a single client. Luna: Classic freelancer mistake — pricing based on your own hourly worth instead of the client's ROI. Lucas: Exactly. The second pitfall is scope creep. Retainer clients can start asking for more and more — 'Can you also rewrite our FAQ? Can you train our support team?' — and if you're not careful, you're working thirty hours for two thousand dollars. She now has a very clear scope document that lists exactly what's included and what costs extra. Luna: That's something we've heard from almost every successful freelancer on this show. Boundaries are everything. Lucas: Yeah. And I think one reason Jenna's story resonates is that it's a reminder that the skills we develop in seemingly unrelated jobs can be incredibly valuable if we reframe them correctly. Managing a store taught her about customer psychology, operational bottlenecks, and how to communicate with upset people — all of which are exactly what an ecommerce brand needs. Luna: And we should say, if you're listening and you've worked in retail, hospitality, or any customer-facing role, you have a head start. The question is how you package that experience. Lucas: Before we wrap, I want to mention something that's relevant here. We keep this show ad-free because we think the advice should stand on its own — no sponsor interruptions, no product placements. If you've gotten value from these episodes and want to support that choice, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: It's a small way to keep the podcast independent and focused on what works, not what sells. Lucas: Exactly. And speaking of what works, let's close with one final piece of advice from Jenna. She said the best time to start is when you still have your day job, because the lack of financial pressure lets you price confidently and say no to bad clients. Luna: That's a good note to end on. Start small, charge what you're worth, and let the results speak for themselves.