Stores scaled into real revenue.
Cake Box e-commerce scaled to £21m, inside a brand and digital transformation to £90m-plus revenue.
SCI-MX grown to £45m revenue, number two in UK sports nutrition, sold to Samworth Brothers.
Senior commercial and digital leadership, from scale-up to PLC board, owning the growth number.
Busy stores that still aren’t profitable.
Most stores scale spend and hope. Blended ROAS slips, CAC climbs chasing new customers on paid social, the checkout leaks at every step, and platform-reported numbers flatter whatever took the last click.
Revenue up. Contribution flat.
The fix is often not more spend. It is measuring the real numbers, finding the orders hiding in retention and conversion, and moving budget to where it actually grows margin.
Measure. Understand. Act.
One discipline, run with the store every month. Each step feeds the next, and the loop compounds.
Measure
Server-side tracking, blended ROAS and MER, true CAC and LTV by cohort. One dashboard the board actually reads, instead of platform numbers taken at face value.
Understand
Marketing-mix modelling and full-funnel analysis show what really drives profitable orders, channel by channel, so you stop paying twice for the same customer.
Act
Move budget to what pays, lift AOV and conversion rate, win back abandoned carts, and turn first orders into repeat purchases with lifecycle and retention.
Held together by e-commerce strategy, which channels to scale, which to cut, and where the next pound should go.
Profitable revenue, not just traffic.
Win back a slice of abandoned carts, lift conversion a point, or push repeat purchase up, and the whole return changes. The first win comes first, then the next one.
Fractional or project.
Fractional
OngoingA part-time e-commerce director, embedded in the business. The loop run every month, ROAS and contribution owned, senior judgement in the room, without the full-time cost.
Project
DefinedA defined piece of work on one part of the loop: a store and channel audit, a server-side tracking rebuild, a marketing-mix and budget review, or a checkout and conversion overhaul.
Most stores start with a project and move to fractional once they have seen the return.
Fractional, full-time or agency.
Three ways to put senior e-commerce leadership behind the store. The right one depends on the stage, not the spend.
Fractional director
Brand Impact- A senior operator owning ROAS and contribution, in the work every week.
- Embedded in the business, accountable to the growth number, not a retainer.
- Scales up and down with the need, without a full-time hire on the payroll.
Full-time hire
In-house- Right once the store is large enough to keep a senior leader fully loaded.
- Months to find, onboard and prove, with the cost carried from day one.
- One person, one perspective, hard to flex when priorities shift.
Agency
Outsourced- Strong at execution, weaker at owning the profit and the trade-offs.
- A partner who sells and a junior who delivers, with the senior time thin.
- Channel-by-channel reporting, rarely the blended contribution picture.
A senior operator, not an agency or a junior hire.
For DTC founders and online stores on Shopify or the marketplaces, scaling spend with no senior person owning the profit.
A senior operator in the work
Not a partner who sells and a junior who delivers.
The return is proven
Blended ROAS, MER and honest attribution, not platform numbers at face value.
Retention does the heavy lifting
Lifecycle and repeat purchase, not just acquisition, so LTV compounds.
AI used where it pays
Automation inside the work, not bolted on for show.
Stores grown as commercial assets.
Cake Box PLC
Brand and digital transformation to £90m-plus revenue. E-commerce scaled to £21m, with a refresh adding 5pts awareness and 7% like-for-like on a £3m budget.
SCI-MX Nutrition
Grown to £45m revenue, up 39% YoY, number two in UK sports nutrition, sold to Samworth Brothers. 25-plus new products and an international launch.
Samworth Brothers
Chaired the group marketing board and led the digital and direct agenda, shaping where the next pound of growth should go.
Dairy Crest FRijj
Shifted the brand from promotion-led to premium, lifting value rather than chasing volume on discount.
What boards and teams say.
“A very broad marketing, e-commerce and brand skill set, deployed expertly in new business environments. An agile self-starter who does not need a sizeable budget to hit the goals set.”
“An exceptional marketing leader and mentor. Strategic vision, work ethic and unwavering support that made a lasting impact on the team and the business.”
“An outstanding marketing leader, able to quickly assess a business, develop a strategy and implement at pace.”
“Very clear in what he seeks from agencies, and very commercially focused.”
What buyers ask first.
How quickly will the store see a return?
The first measurement pass usually surfaces quick wins inside the first few weeks: a leaking checkout step, a channel that looks profitable on platform numbers but is not on blended contribution, or abandoned carts going unworked. The bigger gains, retention and budget reallocation, compound over the monthly loop.
Which platforms does this work across?
Shopify, Magento and Salesforce Commerce on the storefront side, Klaviyo and HubSpot for lifecycle, and Amazon and the marketplaces for channel. The discipline is the same wherever the store runs: measure the real numbers, understand where the margin is, and act on it.
Is this acquisition or retention?
Both, judged on contribution rather than top-line revenue. Acquisition is managed on true CAC and payback, and retention does the heavy lifting through lifecycle and repeat purchase, so LTV compounds rather than every order being bought again on paid social.
How does fractional differ from hiring an agency?
An agency is strong at execution but rarely owns the profit or the trade-offs across channels. Fractional puts a senior operator in the work every week, accountable to ROAS and contribution, embedded in the business rather than reporting in from outside.
Building AI into the wider business, not just marketing? That is the AI programme. Same hands, different job.
See the AI programmeFind your return.
Share where the store is now and what it is spending. Get a clear read on where it pays back.