Ecommerce strategy & direct channel

Frameworks to design, govern and scale a profitable direct-to-consumer channel in service businesses.

15 articles

All (92)Ecommerce strategy & direct channel (15)Airline ecommerce (26)Hotel ecommerce (16)CRO, data & personalisation (15)Technology & vendor selection (8)Financial services (12)

How to organise a high-performing ecommerce team

High performance depends more on ownership, decision rights and cadence than on a perfect organisation chart. Two teams can share the same org chart and still be unable to ship anything together.

18 May 20263 min

Ecommerce strategy & direct channel

How to build a business case for direct-channel transformation

A defensible business case shows current economics, the counterfactual and a range of outcomes rather than one optimistic number. A single number invites a single objection; a range survives the room.

1 May 20263 min

Ecommerce strategy & direct channel

Build vs buy: how to decide which ecommerce technology to develop

The decision should be made capability by capability and through architecture, not as an ideological choice between proprietary software and a vendor. Treating build vs buy as a single company-wide decision is how most platform regrets start.

3 Apr 20263 min

Ecommerce strategy & direct channel

When does a business need a Fractional CDO?

A Fractional CDO provides temporary leadership and executive judgement; the role should not become a consultant without authority or a task manager. The arrangement only works when the mandate includes real decision rights, not just a seat in the room.

9 Mar 20263 min

Ecommerce strategy & direct channel

How to select a strategic ecommerce consultancy

Selecting a consultancy requires evaluating how the team thinks and makes decisions, not only which slides it will deliver. A great deck and a workable plan are not the same deliverable.

11 Feb 20263 min

Abstract illustration of ascending steps with the final one highlighted, representing the construction of an investment case.

Ecommerce strategy & direct channel

The direct channel business case to present to the board

The board does not approve a channel strategy: it approves a capital allocation with declared risk. A case that only promises to grow the direct channel without saying at whose expense reads as a preference, not an investment.

10 Feb 20263 min

Ecommerce strategy & direct channel

Ecommerce consultant vs digital agency: what each business needs

The right choice depends on the problem, the level of uncertainty and internal capability, not on vendor size. The wrong hire here costs more in redone work than the fee ever saved.

15 Jan 20263 min

Abstract illustration of ascending steps representing the phases of a digital transformation diagnosis.

Ecommerce strategy & direct channel

What a CDO should measure in their first 90 days

The first ninety days are not for fixing the channel, but for learning what is being measured wrongly. A diagnosis built on inherited metrics will confirm exactly the priorities the previous team already held.

23 Dec 20253 min

Ecommerce strategy & direct channel

How to build a 12-month ecommerce roadmap

A useful roadmap sequences bets and decisions over time; it does not pretend that everything fits into twelve months. What makes it useful is the order of the bets, not the length of the list.

22 Dec 20253 min

Ecommerce strategy & direct channel

The channel is not the product: when distribution is the key

In the service industry, the temptation to treat the digital channel as the product itself is common. But the channel is just a vehicle — and confusing the two leads to strategic misalignment.

26 Nov 20253 min

Ecommerce strategy & direct channel

The essential KPIs for a service ecommerce business

The right KPI connects customer behaviour, unit economics and the capacity to deliver the service. A metric worth tracking should survive contact with the P&L, not just look good on a dashboard.

24 Nov 20253 min

Ecommerce strategy & direct channel

How to audit a direct sales channel step by step

A good audit reconstructs the economics and the complete customer journey rather than producing a list of issues. What matters is whether the findings change a decision, not how many issues the audit surfaces.

28 Oct 20253 min