Last updated on May 18th, 2026 at 03:09 am
Trey Lewellen tripped over a box one morning trying to get into his closet. Inside were about 100 flashlights, leftover inventory from a previous business he’d honestly forgotten about.
He pulled one out and looked at it, remembering these things had only cost him $5 each on Amazon when he’d bought them in bulk. He didn’t need them anymore, so he figured he’d try selling a few just to clear out the space.
He built a funnel and listed them at $12, and within a few days they sold. Then he raised the price to $25 and they still sold. Then $35, then $45, and eventually $56.
At $56, people were buying a flashlight they could get on Amazon for $5. And they kept buying. He ended up selling over 500,000 units in two and a half months. And once he ran through that original batch of 100, he didn’t stop. He just started placing orders on Amazon every time a customer bought from his funnel, shipping them out himself without holding the inventory.
What started as clearing out his closet became the foundation of a system that’s made Trey over $100 million in e-commerce sales over the past decade. The approach was simple: test the product in a funnel first, and only buy inventory after customers paid him. If it didn’t sell, he owned nothing.
Most people think you need products sitting in your garage before you can sell online, but Trey proved the opposite. That’s why when Russell Brunson needs an e-commerce sounding board, Trey is his first call.
So if you’re thinking about getting into e-commerce or want to improve your conversions, here’s how Trey built a business selling products before he owned them, the exact framework he used to validate every product, and why funnels convert better than stores no matter where you’re starting from.
The Phone Call That Doubled Sales
Trey had been selling the flashlights for a while when he started doing something most e-commerce store owners never think to do. He called the people who didn’t buy.
Not the customers. The leads. The ones who clicked the ad, landed on the sales page, and left without purchasing.
He’d ask them one simple question: why didn’t you buy?
One guy told him he was a flashlight collector, which apparently is a thing. And he only bought tactical flashlights.
Trey was still on the phone when he opened ClickFunnels, clicked edit on the sales page, and changed the headline. Instead of “G700 Flashlight,” it now read “G700 Tactical Flashlight.”
He added one word, and conversions doubled almost instantly.
People often think the product is the problem, or the ads, or the audience. But sometimes it’s just the language. You’re using words that make sense to you, but your customer is searching for something slightly different.
Eventually, Trey started recording those calls so he could go back and listen for patterns. He wasn’t focused on taking notes during the conversation, he was focused on actually talking to the person. Then afterward, he’d pull out the exact phrases they used and drop them into the funnel.
He did the same thing with microfiber towels. He bought them in bulk on Amazon for 50 cents each and sold them as an order bump for $7. But he didn’t call them microfiber towels, because that’s what you type into Amazon when you’re comparing prices. He called them premium cleaning towels.
People bought multiples. The conversion rate on that order bump hit 20 to 30 percent, which is unheard of for an add-on product. They could have gone to Amazon and grabbed the same towels for 50 cents, but they didn’t. Why? Because Trey was selling the right product with the right language at the right time.
How He Sold Products He Didn’t Own Yet
Once Trey knew the flashlights were working, he needed more inventory. But instead of placing a massive order and hoping they’d keep selling, he did something smarter.
He only bought inventory after customers had already paid him.
Here’s how the process worked.
Trey would find a product on Amazon, let’s say those microfiber towels. He’d build a funnel around it, drive some traffic, and see if people bought. If they did, he’d go buy the product on Amazon, have it shipped to his address, then ship it to the customer.
If the funnel flopped and nobody bought, he owned zero inventory.
Amazon became his warehouse. He didn’t pay for storage, didn’t negotiate with suppliers, and didn’t front thousands of dollars hoping the product would sell. He let his customers pay him first, then he went and bought the inventory.
This wasn’t drop shipping in the traditional sense. He wasn’t plugging his store into some third-party fulfillment network and hoping they’d ship on time. He was using Amazon as his supplier, controlling the customer experience, and only buying what he’d already sold.
It’s the same method he still uses today to test new products. He won’t touch inventory until he knows people will buy it, and once he knows it works, then he scales up, negotiates with suppliers, and builds out the back end. But the test always comes first.
One client came to Trey’s workshop a few years ago selling belly button rings. He had 50,000 SKUs. Fifty thousand different designs, all handmade by a team of about 12 people cranking out new styles constantly.
Trey asked him which one sold the most, and the guy knew immediately. He could point to the exact design.
“What if you just sold that one?” Trey asked.
The guy looked confused. Just one? What about giving customers options?
So they built a funnel at the workshop that sold only the top-selling belly button ring. Just one product with a clear offer. If someone bought it and wanted more options, great. But the funnel itself was built around the single best-converting product.
Revenue jumped almost immediately. The guy didn’t have to manage 50,000 SKUs anymore, didn’t have to train his team on new designs every week, and didn’t have to guess which ones would sell. He had one blockbuster product doing most of the work.
That’s the difference between a store mindset and a funnel mindset. Stores train you to stock the shelves, give people options, and hope they find what they want. Funnels train you to think like a closer. Show them one thing, make it impossible to say no, then show them what’s next.
Why Funnels Convert and Stores Confuse
The average online store converts at 1.4 to 1.6 percent, which means 98 out of every 100 people who visit leave without buying.
Trey’s funnels convert somewhere between 5 and 15 percent, depending on the product and the traffic source.
The reason is pretty simple. When someone clicks an ad for a black dress, they expect to see that black dress. Not a category page with 30 dresses or a homepage with a rotating banner and a newsletter popup. Just the black dress they clicked on.
But most e-commerce stores don’t work that way. You click the ad, land on a category page, scroll through options, maybe add something to your cart, get distracted, and then leave to compare prices on Amazon.
Trey’s wife does this all the time. She’ll see a dress on Instagram, click it, land on some vague category page, and immediately bounce. She wanted the dress from the ad, not a shopping trip.
Funnels fix that. The ad shows the product, the sales page talks about the product, the order form sells the product. It’s the same thing all the way through, no distractions, decisions, or chance to second-guess.
When someone clicks your ad, they have intent to buy. If they don’t buy, you unsold them somewhere along the way.
Trey put it this way: it would be like Target having 100 people walk into the store, and 98 of them skip the checkout line and go back home.
That’s what most online stores are doing. They’re spending money to drive traffic to a page that confuses people, and then wondering why conversions are so low.
The other issue is trust. When you land on an e-commerce store, you’re browsing. You’re not sure if this is the right product, if the company is legit, or if you should just go check Amazon first. You’re in research mode, not buying mode.
Funnels build trust faster because they’re designed to answer objections before you even ask them. The sales page explains why this product works, shows proof it’s real, and makes the case for buying now instead of later. By the time you hit the order form, you’re not researching anymore. You’re ready.
That’s why Trey could pay $110 to acquire a customer on a $56 flashlight. He knew the lifetime value was way higher than the front-end sale. He wasn’t making money on the flashlight. He was making money on everything that came after.
What He’d Tell You If You’re Starting From Scratch
Trey’s been teaching e-commerce for over a decade now, and the advice hasn’t changed much. The platforms are different, the products are different, but the principles are the same.
Test before you invest. Don’t marry a product until you know people will buy it. You don’t need a warehouse, team, or brand to start. Just proof that someone will hand you money for what you’re selling.
Call the people who don’t buy. Most store owners obsess over customers who purchased and ignore everyone else. But the non-buyers will tell you what’s broken. They’ll hand you the exact words to use, the objections to answer, and the tweaks that’ll double conversions overnight.
Focus on one product at a time. The guy with 50,000 belly button ring designs was drowning in complexity. The moment he focused on his best seller, revenue jumped. One blockbuster product beats a catalog of mediocre ones every time.
Trey built his business on test-first principles, but the deeper lesson is about adaptability. He didn’t have a perfect plan when he tripped over those flashlights. He had a product, a funnel, and a willingness to see if it worked.
It did, and when it didn’t, he moved on to the next thing.
Start Testing Today
Trey’s made over $100 million in e-commerce using the same frameworks Russell Brunson teaches in DotCom Secrets. Funnels, upsells, order bumps, and backend offers haven’t changed.
What has changed is how fast you can test an idea. You don’t need to spend months building an online store, sourcing products, and hoping people show up. You can build a funnel in a day, drive some traffic, and know within a week whether the product has legs.
Trey still operates this way. He runs maybe three products a year now, all blockbusters, all tested before he ever touches inventory. This approach is what keeps his team small, his systems lean, and his margins healthy.
And he still calls people who don’t buy, because that’s where the gold is.
So if you’re sitting on an idea but waiting for the “right time” to start, Trey would tell you the right time is when someone hands you money for it. Everything else comes after.
And the fastest way to get that proof? Build a funnel and see if people convert.
Trey’s entire system runs on ClickFunnels because it’s built for testing. You’re not building a store and hoping traffic shows up. You’re building a focused sales page that does one job: prove people will buy. Once you have proof, you scale.
Click here to start your free ClickFunnels trial and run Trey’s test-first playbook. One product, one funnel, and you’ll know in days whether you have a winner.