Revenue growing, cash shrinking
Top line is up and the bank balance is not. Almost always a contribution-margin or working-capital problem hidden by growth. We rebuild the unit economics from actual costs.
Commerce Practice
Direct-to-Consumer Brand Building
Built and scaled from the operator's seat, not the agency's. Positioning, storefront, fulfillment, acquisition, and the numbers that tell you which of those is actually broken.
What this service actually is
This practice exists because I have run these businesses myself. KittyKickStix was built end to end and scaled into seven figures. MyPetDMV was built to six figures in a different category with a different acquisition model. Both required doing the unglamorous parts: negotiating with suppliers, fixing a fulfillment process that was silently losing money, and cutting ad spend that looked profitable in the platform dashboard and was not.
That operating history sets the shape of the work. Agencies are typically organized around one lever, usually paid media or creative, and are structurally incapable of telling you that your problem is actually a 43 percent gross margin or a three-week lead time. We work across the whole system, because in a consumer business the constraint moves and the answer is almost never the thing you were already worried about.
Engagements cover four areas, weighted by where the actual constraint is: brand and positioning, including who the customer is, why they choose you, and what you can honestly charge; the commerce stack, meaning the storefront, checkout, subscription logic, and post-purchase experience; operations, covering inventory, suppliers, fulfillment, returns, and unit economics; and acquisition and retention across paid, organic, email, and lifecycle.
Underneath all four is measurement, and this is where the technical side of the practice matters. Most consumer brands are optimizing on numbers that are wrong: platform-reported ROAS that double-counts, contribution margin that omits shipping and payment fees, and lifetime value modeled on a cohort too young to support the conclusion. We build the analytics that reconcile to the bank account, because every downstream decision inherits the error in that measurement.
The problems we are usually hired to solve
Acquisition cost that stopped working
Paid channels that were profitable and are no longer. We separate a creative problem from a margin problem from an attribution problem, because the fixes are entirely different.
Fulfillment that leaks money
Shipping tables that undercharge, packaging that pushes a rate tier, and returns nobody has costed. Frequently the fastest available margin improvement.
Numbers nobody trusts
The ad platform, the store, and the accountant report three different figures. We build one reconciled view of contribution margin by product and channel.
Launching a first brand
A product and no operating system around it. We build the stack, the ops, and the measurement in the correct order so early spend produces learning.
One-time purchase ceiling
Growth entirely dependent on new customer acquisition. We look at whether repeat, subscription, or bundling is genuinely available in your category, or not.
How an engagement actually works
- 01
Unit economics and honest diagnosis
We rebuild your contribution margin from real numbers: landed product cost, actual shipping paid, payment processing, fulfillment labor, returns rate, and discount leakage. Then we look at cohort retention and channel-level contribution. This is the least exciting step and the one that most often changes the plan, because a brand with thin margin does not have a marketing problem no matter how it feels.
- 02
Positioning and offer
Who the customer actually is, what alternative they are really choosing between, and what claim you can defend. From that we set price, bundle structure, and the offer architecture. Positioning work that does not end in a price and a bundle is decoration, so we push it all the way to those decisions.
- 03
Commerce stack and measurement
Storefront and checkout built or rebuilt for conversion and speed, subscription and post-purchase flows configured, and analytics wired so server-side events, store data, and financials reconcile. Accessibility is part of this build, not a later project. You end with one dashboard whose numbers you can defend.
- 04
Operations and supply
Inventory planning against real lead times and sell-through, supplier terms and second-source options, shipping rate and packaging optimization, a returns process with a known cost, and where volume justifies it, custom tooling over your fulfillment provider's API. We have built exactly that kind of interface for logistics operations before.
- 05
Acquisition, retention, and scale discipline
Paid tested against contribution margin rather than platform ROAS, creative iterated on a real cadence, email and lifecycle flows built for the actual purchase interval, and organic and content work where the category supports it. Scale decisions get made against measured payback, with a stated stop condition before spend increases.
What you receive
Reconciled unit economics model
Contribution margin by product and channel built from actual costs, with the working-capital cycle made explicit.
Positioning, pricing, and offer structure
A defensible position expressed as concrete price points, bundles, and offer architecture rather than a brand deck.
Commerce stack build or rebuild
Storefront, checkout, subscription, and post-purchase flows implemented for conversion, speed, and accessibility.
One trustworthy analytics view
Server-side event tracking and reporting that reconciles to your financials, with cohort retention and channel contribution.
Operations playbook
Inventory planning model, supplier terms and alternates, shipping and packaging configuration, and a costed returns process.
Acquisition and retention program
Channel plan with contribution-margin targets, creative testing cadence, and lifecycle email flows mapped to your purchase interval.
Who this is for
Brands between 500,000 and 10 million in revenue
Past product-market fit, where the constraint has shifted from demand to operations, margin, and measurement.
Founders launching a first consumer brand
With a product and capital but no operating system, who would rather build the measurement before spending on acquisition.
Operating companies adding a DTC channel
Wholesale or service businesses selling direct for the first time, where the existing operation does not translate cleanly.
Frequently asked questions
Related services
Start with the numbers.
Send your revenue, margin, and channel mix. You will get an honest read on where the constraint actually is before anyone talks about spend.
Start a conversation