E-commerce Strategy
The commercial decisions behind an online store: what you sell, at what margin, through which channels, and where growth is actually going to come from.
Overview
Most e-commerce plans are a traffic plan. More visitors, more spend, more channels, with the assumption that revenue follows proportionally. It rarely does, because the constraint is usually somewhere else: margin that cannot support the acquisition cost, a catalogue that does not convert, or repeat purchase rates too low to make a customer worth acquiring.
Strategy here means working out where growth can actually come from at your economics. Sometimes that is new customers; often it is basket size, repeat rate, or removing the products that consume attention and produce nothing.
Who this is for
- Retailers whose traffic grows while revenue does not
- Companies weighing marketplaces against their own store
- Businesses whose acquisition cost has passed what a customer is worth
How we approach e-commerce strategy
The specific pieces of work a typical engagement covers. Scope is agreed up front — nothing here is a surprise line item later.
Unit economics
What a customer costs to acquire and what they are worth over their life, by product and channel. The averages usually hide the answer.
Growth model
Where additional revenue can realistically come from: new customers, basket size, frequency or price. Ranked by what is achievable at your margin.
Range and merchandising
Which products earn their place, which subsidise others, and which consume attention without returning anything.
Channel strategy
Own store, marketplaces, retail and social commerce, assessed on margin after fees rather than on gross revenue.
Pricing and promotion
Discount discipline, since a promotional habit trains customers to wait and permanently resets what they will pay.
Retention plan
Repeat purchase economics, which decide how much you can afford to spend acquiring anyone.
From first call to measured result
The same sequence every time, so you always know what happens next.
Model
Build the economics from your own data: margin, acquisition cost and lifetime value by segment.
Diagnose
Identify the constraint limiting growth. It is often not the one the team is working on.
Plan
A sequenced plan against that constraint, with the expected effect and cost of each move.
Review
Re-run the model quarterly as the numbers change, and move to the next constraint.
Outcomes, not deliverables
A pile of artefacts isn't progress. These are the changes the work is meant to produce — and what we report against.
Growth from the right lever
Identifying the actual constraint stops effort disappearing into a part of the system that was never limiting.
Economics you can see
Margin and lifetime value by segment reveal which growth is worth having and which is buying revenue at a loss.
A cleaner range
Cutting products that produce nothing frees attention and inventory for the ones that do.
Discipline on discount
A promotion policy protects margin and stops customers learning to wait for the next sale.
Common questions about E-commerce Strategy
The things people ask before they get in touch. If yours is not here, ask us directly.
Should we sell on marketplaces or only our own store?
Compare margin after all fees, not gross revenue. Marketplaces buy you reach and cost you margin and the customer relationship. For many businesses the sensible answer is both, with different products and different expectations of each.
Our acquisition cost keeps rising. What do we do?
Usually the answer is not a cheaper channel but a more valuable customer. Improving repeat purchase or basket size raises what you can afford to pay, and that is generally more achievable than finding cheaper traffic.
How much data do you need?
At least a year of order history so cohorts are visible, plus margin by product. Where margin data is not readily available, assembling it is often the first and most valuable piece of work.
How is this different from e-commerce development?
That is the engineering build: platform, integrations and migration. This is the commercial side: what to sell, at what margin, through which channels. Companies often need the strategy first so the build serves a decision.
Thinking about E-commerce Strategy?
Tell us what you are trying to change. If we are not the right fit we will say so, and point you somewhere better.
Looking at the wider picture?
E-commerce Strategy usually sits alongside other work in E-commerce & Revenue Enablement. Browse the full area to see what it connects to.