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What does an ecommerce consultant do?

People type “ecommerce consultant” when they want help and the brief is still a job title. An ecommerce consultant frames one commercial number, investigates where it leaks, builds the change, and measures whether it moved.

Ecommerce consultant vs agency vs fractional: who owns the P&L? compares the hire models. Ecommerce consultant UK: how to buy the help is the buy when the trading is British. This page stays on the first month. What the work is. What a useful brief contains. What the team should still be able to check after the month.

Four steps in a row labelled frame, investigate, build, and measure, with measure marked as the last step.

What the first month is for

A useful month has four steps, in this order.

  1. Frame one number.
  2. Investigate where it leaks.
  3. Build the change in the stack you already have.
  4. Measure it, and leave the check with the team.

Skip one and the month is only a meeting. A workshop with no number. A build with no leak. A result only the consultant can explain.

Fashion and beauty change which number is worth framing. They do not change the order. A drop-led fashion brand often needs contribution on the hero after returns and markdown. A beauty brand on replenishment often needs whether the first order on a serum becomes a second. The month still ends on a check.

Frame one number

The number has to be one you can hold someone to. Write it in a sentence. Name the product, or the first SKU, and the costs that move with it.

Revenue, ROAS, and conversion will still be in the room. They are loud. The month needs a last word underneath them. Ecommerce contribution margin is that line when the trading looks fine and the order does not.

A linen shirt can be the number if returns in the running sizes are in the sentence. A foundation can be the number if the second order is in the sentence. If the sentence needs three dashboard tiles, it is not framed yet.

Investigate where it leaks

Investigation is a read of orders, sessions, and the path between them. Mix. The page. The offer. The join between the ads account and the store.

A fashion PDP can convert and still lose the month in the size curve. A beauty PDP can look expensive on a platform tile and still be the healthiest unit because the shade comes back. The read says which of those you are in.

Stop if you cannot name the leak. A build on an unnamed leak spends the month on a project. The number will still be where it was.

Build the change

The build is the part a document cannot do. A change to the first product, the path from the ad to the size or the shade, or the join that produces the number without a person assembling it.

It sits in the stack you already run. The store, the sheet, the ads account, the tool you already pay for. The route is whatever reaches the number you framed.

A new platform can be the right build. It is a poor default. Name the change first. Then see whether the stack you have can carry it.

Leave a check the team can run

Measure means the same definition as week one. Same grain. Same product. A person on the team can open it without the consultant in the room.

If the only person who can explain the result is the person you hired, the month did not finish. The team still cannot open the number without them. The working close is a change that is live, and a number the team will still see next Monday.

TwoKai starts with the outcome. One number, a change in the stack you have, and a check the team can run. Then we engineer the route.

How to brief the first 30 days

Write three lines before you hire.

  • The number, in one sentence.
  • The work you will keep off the month. A rebrand, a replatform, a new media plan.
  • What done looks like on day 30. A change that is live, and a check someone on the team can run.

If you cannot write the three lines, you are early for a retainer. You want a short investigation that produces them. The investigation is which number is actually broken. This page cannot see your orders.

What's missing

This article can tell you what an ecommerce consultant should do in the first month, and how to brief those 30 days. It cannot tell you which number is broken in your mix, your returns, or your stack. That call is the work.

Related: Ecommerce consultant vs agency vs fractional: who owns the P&L? · Ecommerce consultant UK: how to buy the help · Ecommerce contribution margin · Explore an opportunity with TwoKai

If you want that investigation led as one commercial piece of work, Explore an opportunity with TwoKai.