Fractional CFO for Ecommerce Brands
Ecommerce businesses fail solvent-on-paper more than any other model we work with. Revenue grows, the bank account does not, and the inventory is where the money went.
The Financial Challenges Ecommerce & DTC Brands Face
Growth that consumes cash faster than it makes it
Every additional unit of growth needs inventory bought before the revenue arrives. Scaling a profitable brand can drain a business dry, and the P&L will look excellent the whole way down.
Margin that disappears between gross and net
Platform fees, payment processing, fulfilment, storage, returns, chargebacks and discounting sit between the gross margin you quote and the contribution margin you actually keep. Most brands cannot state the second number by SKU.
Blended CAC hiding unprofitable channels
A healthy blended acquisition cost routinely conceals one channel subsidising another. Without channel-level contribution after fulfilment, you cannot tell which spend to cut.
Returns treated as a cost of doing business
Returns are a margin line, a cash line and an operations problem at once. Brands that do not model them by SKU and channel systematically overstate profitability.
How We Help
True contribution margin by SKU and channel
After platform fees, processing, freight, fulfilment, storage and returns — the number that tells you what is actually worth selling.
Inventory and cash conversion planning
Order quantities and timing modelled against the cash you will actually have, not the revenue you hope to book.
CAC payback and cohort economics
How long each channel takes to return its acquisition cost, and which cohorts repeat well enough to justify paying more.
Seasonal cash runway
Peak season needs inventory bought in the trough. We model the gap and plan the financing before it becomes urgent.
Marketplace and DTC profitability compared
Amazon, Shopify, wholesale and retail carry different economics. Same brand, different businesses — reported separately.
Lender and investor reporting
The metrics an ecommerce lender or investor expects, prepared before you need them rather than during diligence.
What we watch in an ecommerce business
Contribution margin after everything
Not gross margin. After fees, processing, freight, fulfilment, storage and returns — the number that survives contact with reality.
Cash conversion cycle
Days from paying your supplier to collecting from your customer. In a growing brand this is the number that decides whether growth funds itself or drains you.
CAC payback by channel
Months to recover acquisition cost. A channel that pays back in two months and one that takes eleven should not share a budget decision.
Inventory turns and dead stock
What is moving, what is trapped, and what is quietly financing itself on your balance sheet at full cost.
Services
Fractional CFO
Senior finance leadership part-time, with controller support underneath it.
Fractional CMO
Marketing strategy and demand generation held to the same standard as the numbers.
Exit Planning
Clean books, a defensible story and control of the narrative before diligence starts.
72-Hour Cash Flow
A fast, honest read on your cash position when the answer cannot wait.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a fractional CFO do for an ecommerce business?
Answers the questions the platform dashboards cannot: true contribution margin after every fee and return, how much cash the next inventory buy needs and when, which acquisition channels pay back and how quickly, and what the business looks like through a peak season. Plus the standard CFO work — forecasting, pricing, capital strategy and exit readiness.
Why is my ecommerce business profitable but always out of cash?
Almost always inventory. Growth requires buying stock before the revenue lands, so the faster you grow the wider the gap. Add supplier terms, freight timing and a peak season, and a genuinely profitable brand can run out of money. The fix is modelling the cash conversion cycle deliberately rather than discovering it.
Do you work with Amazon sellers as well as Shopify brands?
Yes, and we report them separately. Marketplace and DTC have different fee structures, different margin profiles, different data and different working capital demands. Blending them into one P&L hides which one is actually carrying the business.
How do you handle inventory accounting?
Properly costed, so gross margin means something. That covers landed cost including freight and duty, obsolescence and shrink, and the balance-sheet effect of holding stock. Inventory is usually the largest asset and the most commonly mis-stated line in an ecommerce book.
At what size does a fractional CFO make sense for a DTC brand?
Usually somewhere past a couple of million in revenue, or earlier if inventory is complex, you have taken on debt, or you are raising. Below that a strong bookkeeper plus a good operator often covers it. We will tell you honestly if you are not there yet.
Ready to talk about your ecommerce business?
A conversation, not a pitch. If we are not the right fit we will tell you.
Start the conversation