Getting More From Your E-Commerce

Running e-commerce in 2026 isn't hard. Running it profitably is a different story entirely. Most brands are leaving money on the table - not because they're not busy, but because they're optimising for the wrong things. After two decades of fine tuning and testing concepts, here's how we think about it.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

→ Optimise for profit margin, not just revenue

→ Be selective — promote the right products, not all of them

→ Integration, data integrity, and CRO are non-negotiable

Stop Chasing Revenue. Chase Profit.

This is the single biggest mindset shift in modern e-commerce strategy. Revenue is vanity; profit is sanity. When you're setting bid strategies in Google Ads, build them around return on ad spend tied to margin, not just sales volume. A $200 sale on a 10% margin product isn't the same as a $200 sale on a 40% margin product, and your campaigns shouldn't treat them the same.

Related to this: you don't need to promote everything in your catalogue. Identify the products that bring people in, convert well, and carry a strong margin. Focus your spend there. That said, don't overlook your loss leaders either - some lower-margin products drive high repeat purchase rates and pull customers into your ecosystem who go on to buy more profitable lines. Know the role each product plays, and budget accordingly.

Differentiation Is Your Moat

Google Shopping is, at its core, a price comparison engine. If you're promoting products that competitors also sell, at the same or higher price, with no point of difference, you're fighting a war you won't win. Differentiation through unique product ranges, bundles, packaging, or brand positioning is what gives you a reason to exist in that space.

Bundling and product packaging are particularly underutilised. Smart on-site bundling increases average cart value without requiring more traffic. It also creates a product offering that can't be directly compared on price. Pair this with brand activity running alongside your performance campaigns. Upper-funnel work builds consideration and meaningfully lifts conversion rates when people reach the bottom.

The Channels You're Probably Underusing

Your CRM and customer database are among your most valuable assets, and often the most neglected. Return purchases and re-engagement from existing customers come at a fraction of the cost of acquiring new ones. Email, SMS, and loyalty mechanics should be working hard alongside paid media campaigns.

If you have a physical retail presence, use it. Proximity builds credibility online, with local awareness and footprint increasing trust for new customers who find you digitally and know where they can go if they have any issues. Combine that with strong Google Reviews and genuine testimonials, and you're addressing one of the biggest barriers to online purchase: confidence in who they're buying from.

Get the Foundations Right

None of the above works without solid infrastructure underneath it.

• Tracking and data integrity come first. Duplicate revenue tracking, broken conversion tags, or misattributed sales will lead you to make expensive decisions based on fiction. Audit your setup. Use Shopify (or similar) as the source of truth, fully integrated with GA4, Google Merchant Centre, and Google Ads. Every platform should be talking to each other accurately.

• Product feed optimisation is where a lot of money is lost quietly. Product titles, descriptions, and categories need to be structured and keyword-rich for Shopping to serve them correctly. This isn't a set-and-forget task.

• CRO (conversion rate optimisation) deserves the same attention as media spend. You're paying to get people to your site; if the purchase journey is unclear, slow, or untrustworthy, that investment is wasted at the final hurdle. Trust signals, clean UX, and frictionless checkout and payment flows aren't optional extras.

  
  

Work the Data Harder

Manual campaign analysis doesn't cut it at scale anymore. AI-assisted reporting and optimisation surfaces insights far faster and more thoroughly than manual reviews ever could. Use it.

That said, don't abdicate human judgment entirely. Search query reports still need regular human review to identify wastage. Irrelevant terms burning budget that automated bidding won't always catch. Seasonality also matters more than most account managers acknowledge. Review performance over both short and long time horizons; some high-value products are infrequent purchases but significant revenue events when they do occur.

Use promotions tactically, not constantly. Strategically timed offers keep your brand fresh and can shift stagnant inventory without training customers to only buy on sale.

The Future Is Already Here

Shopping behaviour is evolving fast. Increasingly, customers are completing purchases without ever leaving Google or publisher environments. That means your SEO / AEO and content strategy needs to be structured for AI-native search and on-platform commerce, not just your own website. Brands that optimise their product data, schema, and content for AI discovery now are building an advantage that will compound.

This also applies to Amazon. The same principles: margin focus, feed quality, reviews, differentiation, and data integration translate directly.

E-commerce success in 2026 isn't about being everywhere. It's about being precise, profitable, and prepared for where shopping is heading next.