Diagnostic for Ecommerce Typical diagnostic: $3,500-$7,500

Show Me the Margin

Your Shopify dashboard says it was a great month. Your bank account says otherwise. This diagnostic connects revenue, ad spend, returns, fulfillment, and customer behavior so you can see what is actually making money and what only looks good before the real costs show up.

Book This Diagnostic Fixed fee. Usually completed in about two weeks. Best for ecommerce teams that need a sharper profit view before making bigger spend or merchandising decisions.

See profit, not just platform-reported performance

  • A clearer view of contribution margin by channel, product category, and customer segment
  • True CAC and blended performance with costs and returns in the picture
  • A prioritized list of the biggest profit leaks
  • A path into attribution, data unification, or ongoing analytics work

This is for you if...

  • Your growth reporting is revenue-rich but margin-blind
  • You cannot compare channels honestly because costs live in different systems
  • Marketing and merchandising decisions are still being made on gut feel
  • You need a fast profitability x-ray before changing spend, product focus, or lifecycle strategy

This isn't the right fit if...

  • You only want top-line revenue dashboards
  • Your business is still mostly spreadsheet-only with no usable source systems
  • You want a generic ecommerce strategy project with no metric or workflow focus

What you get

Profitability breakdown

True performance by channel, product category, and customer segment.

Leak analysis

Where returns, fulfillment, media spend, or lifecycle inefficiencies are quietly eating margin.

Decision guide

A short list of changes most likely to improve margin in the next planning cycle.

Implementation path

A next step into Revenue Analytics or broader data unification work if needed.

How It Works

1

Collect

We identify the systems holding revenue, ad spend, lifecycle, and cost data.

2

Connect

We line up the pieces well enough to compare revenue quality against actual margin.

3

Reveal

We show where the channel, product, or segment story changes once returns and costs are included.

4

Prioritize

You leave with a clearer understanding of what to scale, what to cut, and what needs a deeper implementation.

Get the framework we use to untangle ecommerce profitability

Not ready to book yet?

Get the framework we use to untangle ecommerce profitability

Revenue reporting tells you what came in. It does not tell you what you kept. This framework shows how we connect ad spend, returns, fulfillment costs, and customer behavior so you can see actual contribution margin instead of platform-reported performance.

  • How we separate real profit from revenue vanity across channels and product categories
  • The questions we ask before recommending a full data unification project versus a targeted fix
  • A practical way to frame margin visibility for leadership without requiring a finance overhaul
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Where this usually leads

DTC Ecommerce Brand

Cut wasted ad spend 35% with true channel-level ROAS

The ad platforms all claimed the conversions. We connected spend through Shopify to actual outcomes and the team reallocated budget from channels that only looked good on paper — cutting waste by 35%.

Read case study

Mid-Market Ecommerce SaaS

Warehouse-as-CDP replaced a $120K/year tool

The expensive CDP was a black box sitting on top of messy data. We moved to warehouse-native activation — better segmentation, direct control, and $120K/year back in the budget.

Read case study

Ready for the full engagement?

Need an ongoing margin system, not just a one-time view?

If this diagnostic shows the margin picture is worth operationalizing — automated SKU-level P&L, channel-mix optimization, real-time profitability dashboards — Data Activation turns the snapshot into a living system.

Explore Data Activation

Go Deeper

If your channel story changes once costs and returns are added, this is the broader analytics work behind that diagnostic.

See Revenue Analytics

Related Reading

Common questions before booking this diagnostic

Do we need perfect cost accounting for this to help?

No. We do need enough signal to connect revenue, spend, and the major cost drivers that are distorting the story. The goal is practical margin clarity, not academic perfection.

Is this only for ecommerce brands?

It is built primarily for ecommerce operators, but it also fits SaaS-adjacent ecommerce businesses with messy spend, return, fulfillment, and customer-value data that does not reconcile cleanly.

What kinds of leaks does this usually uncover?

Common examples include channels that look strong before returns are included, customer segments with weak repeat value, and merchandising or lifecycle decisions that boost revenue while quietly shrinking contribution margin.

What happens after the diagnostic?

If the core issue is broader reporting trust or channel measurement, the usual next step is a Revenue Analytics engagement to make margin and growth reporting usable on an ongoing basis.

If revenue looks healthy but profit feels blurry, start here

This diagnostic exists to answer the question every ecommerce operator eventually asks: are we actually making money on this?

Book a Discovery Call
Book a Discovery Call