E-commerce Command Center

Commerce decision brief — illustrative supplied periods

Definition gate: assumes net revenue and cost scope are consistent and periods comparable; verify before trend conclusions. Orders may include different cohorts or returns timing.

Revenue: $10,000 → $12,000, +20%. Orders: 200 → 240, +20%. AOV under supplied definition remains $50 in both.

Contribution before ads: A $4,000; B $4,000. After stated ads: A $2,000; B $1,500, down $500 or 25%. After-ad contribution rates: 20% → 12.5%. These exclude unreported fixed overhead and other missing costs, so are not final operating profit.

Signal: higher revenue did not produce higher contribution. Variable cost per order: $30 → $33.33; ads per order: $10 → $10.42. These ratios do not establish customer acquisition cost without acquisition/attribution definitions.

Cause hypotheses: product mix, fulfillment, discounts, return timing or cost allocation could matter; none is verified. Do not blame ads or a SKU without segment evidence.

Priority: reconcile cost definitions and period comparability, then decompose by product/channel and cost component. Proposed owners: finance with commerce operations, pending actual responsibility. Hold scaling decisions until complete economics and stock/fulfillment constraints are understood.

Validation: reconcile source totals, obtain cost/return detail and traffic context, separate attributed from incremental results and test changes with defined contribution guardrails.

Execution notes: no store accessed, campaign changed, forecast generated or action implemented. No guaranteed improvement.