CEO Strategic Leadership Series
Consumer Products Sector
E-commerce is no longer the growth engine it once was. Traffic is expensive, conversions are inconsistent, returns are high, logistics are inflated, and digital advertising costs have risen sharply across Canada and the US. Many consumer brands are now operating online at a net loss — but still measuring success with vanity metrics like impressions, followers, and ROAS snapshots.
The underlying issue is economic distortion. During the pandemic, brands overbuilt digital capacity based on inflated demand signals. Today, acquisition costs have normalized to a harsh reality: competing for online attention is prohibitively expensive unless a brand has strong organic pull or a hyper-precise audience model.
Meanwhile, return rates — especially in apparel, beauty, and home goods — continue to erode margins. Generous refund policies have conditioned consumers to treat direct-to-consumer (D2C) purchases as risk-free rentals. Shipping and warehousing costs are rising. Fraudulent returns are increasing.
E-commerce remains essential, but the old playbook is dead. The new e-commerce strategy must focus on profitability, not raw scale. That means:
• Reducing SKU duplication
• Introducing paid returns or segmented return tiers
• Zero-based analysis of last-mile costs
• Loyalty tied to contribution margin, not volume
• Channel-mix modeling that shifts low-margin SKUs back to retail
• Smarter bundling to increase AOV while decreasing fulfillment ratios
Digital commerce must become an intentionally engineered profit engine — not a top-line mirage.
How Arcus Can Help
Arcus rebuilds e-commerce profitability models, designs contribution-margin–based channel strategies, and restructures D2C operations for efficiency.
Next step: Request an Arcus E-Commerce Profitability Fix™ diagnostic to identify the exact drivers of digital value leakage.
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Arcus offers clients a unique combination of fact-based industry knowledge and superior functional expertise. Our consultants have an average of over 22 years experience, twice the industry average. Find out more about our growth, change management and operations services.
At Arcus we believe that a strategy is only as good as the results it delivers. Strategic outcomes are most predictable and effective when companies develop a portfolio of initiatives that are aligned with core competencies and aligned activities enable the company to offer a superior value proposition.
Please contact Arcus for case studies and to discuss how we can help you.
Service coverage
The variety, breadth, and depth of the projects where Arcus can be a resource are made unique by each client’s specific needs. By providing a very small sample of projects we’ve completed, we can help you understand how and when to use our services. Visit the links below to find out more about a specific problem or opportunity you would like to address.
Below is a sample of the range of services that Arcus has provided to clients.
- A survey of 2,350 consumers and 1,320 business leaders for feedback on sustainability trends
- Architecting a multi-year change strategy for a Fortune 500 company
- Mentoring a CEO on organizational change
- Excellence transformation of a leading B2B services company
- Creating a new sales deployment model for a healthcare company
- Developing a position evaluation and compensation model for a professional medical association
- Improving services to customer segments by deepening their understanding of customer attitudes
“Arcus manages to consistently deliver tangible results on market research and strategy projects. They combine deep business expertise, powerful research capabilities, and innovative thinking to deliver substantial value.”
– Vice President, Nikon
Data Dashboards
- Empower your decision-making with comprehensive, trusted data.
- Gain actionable insights with access to real-time Canadian consumer, business and sector spending and location data.
- Inform economic policy, investments, sales deployment and strategic plans by looking at trends across different industries and regions in Canada.
- Influence your businesses’ future growth plans by understanding consumer behaviour
Media Coverage
Arcus has been quoted extensively in media on a range of topics and can offer research studies, insights and ideas. Here are some examples from the Globe and Mail, BNN, CTV, Global TV and others.
- Klarna on the evolution of digital payment tech – BNN
- Canada’s retail sector round up – BNN
- Buy now, pay later will become a $950M industry in Canada – BNN
- Nordstrom countdown to opening begins – Toronto Star
- No lineups outside stores in five years – BNN
- Black Friday retail, marketing, and cross-border shopping trends – BNN
- Does global expansion need a local flavour? – Globe and Mail
- Art of the Pitch – Protect company’s interests when approaching giants – Globe and Mail
- Off-the-shelf technology or a custom design? – Globe and Mail