E-Commerce Brand: $127K Recovered in 30 Days

Industry: E-Commerce | Revenue: $6.1M | Timeline: 28 Days

"Revenue had grown 45% in 18 months. Net margin had shrunk by a third. The founder knew something was wrong -- just not where to look."

Revenue had grown from $4.2M to $6.1M over 18 months. Net margin had dropped from 18% to 11%. The founder knew something was wrong but could not identify the source. Despite strong top-line growth, the business was becoming less profitable with every dollar of new revenue.

Software Stack: $8,600 per Month Recoverable

The company was paying for 38 SaaS tools at $14,200 per month. After mapping every tool against active usage and overlapping functionality, we consolidated to 14 tools for $5,600 per month. Tools eliminated included three separate analytics platforms, two email tools running simultaneously, and a project management tool no one had logged into in 8 months.

Ad Spend: $31,000 per Month Recoverable

Meta campaigns showed a blended ROAS of 3.1x. But when we ran contribution margin by campaign -- revenue minus COGS, minus ad spend, minus fulfillment cost -- 6 ad sets were generating negative contribution. Those campaigns were consuming $41K per month and producing $31K in contribution-negative revenue. We shut them off and reallocated the budget to the top 4 performing ad sets.

Fulfillment Cost Allocation: $22,000 per Month Recoverable

The company was applying a flat fulfillment rate across all SKUs. When we mapped fulfillment cost per SKU, three product lines were being sold at near-zero contribution after actual fulfillment costs. Pricing was adjusted on two lines; the third was discontinued.

"No headcount was reduced. No customer-facing changes were made. The savings came entirely from costs that were never supposed to be there."

--- Results are from a real client engagement. Specific identifying details have been changed to protect client confidentiality.