Your operations could be costing you more than you think.
Most ecommerce brands at this size haven't got a growth problem. They've got a transition problem.
The revenue's there. The brand's trusted. The customers are happy. And still the margin's thinner than it should be, the team's busier than it should be, and the tech stack's grown into something nobody can fully explain. Money's leaking out through disconnected systems, manual handoffs, two tools doing the same job and processes that were perfectly good when this was five people in a crowded shared warehouse space.
So that's the work we do together. Find where it's leaking. Plug the holes. Then we scaffold something that supports the brand as it gets bigger.
Why this should matter to you
At $3M you can run it yourself. You know where everything is. You're the engine room, more or less. And how much of last week could only have been done by you?
By $7M, $10M or $15M you can't. There's simply too much of it. And the business either learns to stand up on its own or it starts breaking in ways you've got to personally be there to catch and put back together. That's the transition, and it's where most of my work happens.
When operations are working, decisions are made with real numbers instead of a founder’s intuition (which, to be honest, I always pay attention to because there’s usually truth in there). The team's spending its time on what only people can do. The stack's paying for itself. And everything isn't waiting on you any more.
When they're not? Every new project's costing twice what it should, media gets pushed harder for less, and everyone works longer hours while the margin quietly slides into negative territory. And you can’t see where it went. So which one are you experiencing in right now?
How I think about ecommerce operations
Operations is the glue. Platform, product, warehouse, customer service, finance, marketing, data. None of it's working on its own. It’s an ecosystem with all parts working together like a living breathing thing.
How it works:
- I map it before I fixed it. Look, we can't fix something we can't see. So the first thing I'd be doing, always, is getting a picture of all the processes and flows and what's happening right now. Not what we’d like to be happening.
- I'd put a dollar on every fix. Worth $40K a year. Worth $200K a year. When a process has no number against it, it usually has no place on the list. That's how the priority order gets decided, and it takes most of the argument out of it.
- Automate the boring, keep the judgement. In the real world, what I keep finding is AI's brilliant at the repetitive work, the stuff that's got rules around it. That's where it's really good. Anything that needs someone to make a judgement call, that should be staying with a human.
- Fewer things, done properly. Most brands I walk into have got way too much on the go at once. And a half-finished project costs you more than the one you never started. That's all.
What working with me looks like
It'll start with an audit. The stack, the workflows, the team, the data, the spend, and your own read on where the business is heading. And out of that you get a list, in order, with a dollar figure sitting next to every line. Which one goes first? The number decides that, not me.
Then it's hands-on and embedded. This part runs at a day rate, and a day means a day. So what does that actually buy you? Somebody in the business, doing the work, making the day-to-day calls that a consultant on a monthly call never gets close to.
And AI runs through all of it. Where it saves real hours, in it goes. Where it doesn't, it doesn't. There's no separate AI pitch and there isn't going to be one.
Now I suppose I should say this is one part of what I do rather than the whole of it. Some brands need the diagnosis and the plan and then they're away on their own. Others want me in there two or three days a week for a couple of years. They're both fine by me. But I'd want to work out which one you actually need before quoting you anything.
Who it's for
Founder-led premium retail brands, roughly $3M to $20M. Usually at a transition point. A hire that didn't work out. A migration that's gone pear-shaped. A number the current setup can't reach. And founders who want somebody sitting beside them rather than presenting at them.
Who it isn't for
Brands after a strategy document and a fortnightly call. Or somebody to run one channel in isolation. Or a quick AI implementation with no thinking about the business underneath it. The work's whole-business or it doesn't really work at all.
What clients say
"Owen is one of those rare senior ecommerce leaders who brings equal parts strategy, technical depth, and heart. I brought him on to help scale our global ecommerce business across three brands and eight markets, and he made an immediate and lasting impact."
- Amanda Connors MBA, Global CMO, Total Beauty Network
One brand I've worked with for three years was doing around $5M a year when we started. It's forecast at $12M now. My part of it was ecommerce, operations, forecasting, watching the numbers and keeping an eye on the paid media. Their product and their customer did the rest, and I can't take much credit for that. That's the right way round anyway.
Let's have a look at your system
If the operations side of your brand isn't running the way it should, get in touch. The first conversation's free, and it's usually the point where the money leak becomes visible.
But before then, have a look at last month. Write down the five things that went wrong. Then next to each one, write whether it was a people problem or a system problem. Then have a look at how many were actually people. That's your homework.
Key points
- For founder-led premium retail brands, roughly $3M to $20M, at a transition point
- I'd audit first, then get in there and do the work at a day rate
- Every recommendation carries a dollar figure
- AI in where it earns its place. No separate AI pitch
- Long relationships rather than project work