Archive
Every insight we've published
The full index of our notes on ecommerce growth — where demand comes from, why conversion stalls, what retention is really worth, and how to decide what to fix first. 39 published notes, newest first.
October 2026
AI discovery and search3 min readHomeware Ecommerce Strategy: Broad Discovery vs. Niche Authority
Homeware retailers face a strategic choice: compete on the breadth of their catalogue or the depth of their brand. We compare the two growth models and outline the hybrid approach most businesses need.
Retention and customer value4 min readFirst-Party Data for Ecommerce: Beyond Email Capture
An email address is an identifier, not an insight. An effective first-party data strategy uses it as a key to progressively learn what a customer wants, when they want it, and their household needs. This understanding drives relevant merchandising and builds long-term value, something a simple email capture form cannot do alone. Most retailers are missing this opportunity.
Conversion Experience6 min readMade to Measure Blinds Ecommerce: Unbeatable vs DotcomBlinds
A comparison of how two leading UK made-to-measure blinds retailers, Unbeatable Blinds and DotcomBlinds, use samples, guides and guarantees to build customer confidence and drive conversion. We analyse their strategies through the lens of our UK Home & Interiors Benchmark.
Prioritisation and capability6 min readThe Four Ecommerce Growth Archetypes in UK Home & Interiors
Standard ecommerce maturity models are too generic to be useful. Based on our benchmark of 75 UK home retailers, we've identified four distinct growth archetypes. Understanding which one you are is the key to prioritising the right work, for the right reasons, with the right team.
Conversion and Journey4 min readA UK Ecommerce Measurement Guide for Home Brands
For home brands selling blinds, curtains or furniture, measurement support is a critical commercial asset. Our benchmark of 75 UK retailers shows that getting it right lifts conversion and cuts service costs. Getting it wrong guarantees journey leakage. Here’s the data and what to do.
AI Discovery & Search3 min readLighting Ecommerce Strategy: Broad Appeal vs. Deep Authority
We compare two primary lighting ecommerce strategies—Pooky’s broad, accessible model and Original BTC’s deep, heritage-led approach—to help you decide which is right for your business.
AI Discovery and Search4 min readEcommerce Demand Generation Strategy: A Benchmark
Demand capture is harvesting existing interest. Demand creation is making your brand the one people think of first, before they search. Our benchmark of 75 UK retailers shows most are excellent at capture (scoring 87.3/100) but are unprepared for a future where creation matters more, especially with the rise of AI discovery (scoring just 40.1/100).
Conversion and Journey7 min readCurtains Ecommerce Strategy: Terrys Fabrics vs Curtains 2go
Buying made-to-measure curtains online is a high-stakes, low-confidence purchase. We compare two leading UK specialists, Terrys Fabrics and Curtains 2go, to analyse two very different, and very successful, ecommerce strategies for building buyer confidence and driving conversion.
AI Discovery4 min readAI Search Strategy Ecommerce: Why It Is Not SEO 2.0
Is generative AI the next frontier for SEO? Our analysis of 75 leading UK home and interiors retailers suggests not. High performance in traditional search does not translate to visibility in AI answers. Success requires a new strategy, treating your business as a citable entity in a new distribution channel.
Conversion & Journey6 min readEcommerce Purchase Reassurance: 5 UK Home Brand Examples
Reassurance isn't just about footer links and policy pages. We analyse five specialist UK home and furniture brands that turn guarantees, finance, and delivery into a core part of their acquisition proposition, actively reducing purchase risk to win customers.
September 2026
AI discovery and search3 min readInteriors Ecommerce Strategy: Deep Authority vs. Broad Discovery
Interiors retailers face a choice: build deep, citable authority in a niche, or achieve broad discovery with a large catalogue. We compare the two models to determine the right ecommerce strategy for growth in an AI-driven market.
Conversion & Journey4 min readEcommerce Growth Strategy: When to Stop CRO & Find a New Bottleneck
Your conversion experience is likely already excellent. Our study of 75 major UK retailers shows an average score of 92.6/100, making it a solved problem for many. Chasing marginal gains here offers diminishing returns. A better ecommerce growth strategy focuses on weaker areas like customer discovery or retention, which represent bigger, more valuable bottlenecks to solve.
Conversion & Journey7 min readJane Clayton vs Just Fabrics: A Fabric Ecommerce Strategy Teardown
A detailed comparison of two leading UK fabric retailers. We analyse how Jane Clayton's authority-led model and Just Fabrics' accessible approach tackle the core challenge of selling a tactile product online.
Retention and customer value4 min readAn Ecommerce CRM Strategy for Home Retailers: The Real Question
Most home retail brands focus their ecommerce CRM strategy on email frequency and campaign revenue. We argue this is a mistake. The real question is whether your business is organised to maximise customer lifetime value across different categories and long purchase cycles. Here is our position, based on our work with UK retailers.
Conversion and Journey5 min readWhat Ecommerce Trust Signals Actually Drive Sales?
For high-value ecommerce, trust isn’t about generic security badges. It’s built with operational promises that directly reduce customer anxiety. We use our UK benchmark data to show which signals—from guarantees to delivery clarity—protect conversion and drive growth.
Conversion and Journey4 min readEcommerce Discount Strategy: A UK Benchmark for Home Brands
The benchmark for a healthy ecommerce discount strategy is a Commercial Proposition score of 82.2/100. Persistent discounting erodes margins by training customers to wait for sales. We explain our benchmark, derived from 75 UK home retailers, and the steps to reduce promotion dependency.
Conversion and journey4 min readA Blinds Ecommerce Strategy: Authority vs Frictionless
The best ecommerce strategy for a blinds retailer is a deliberate choice between two models: deep authority or a frictionless experience. We compare the approaches.
AI Discovery4 min readAI Search Ecommerce: The New UK Visibility Benchmark
Generative AI doesn't rank results; it synthesises answers. This concentrates visibility around a small set of trusted brands, creating a new challenge for ecommerce discovery. We benchmarked 75 UK home brands to find the average AI Discovery score. The number is low, and the reasons matter for your growth.
Conversion & Journey3 min readEcommerce Samples & Swatches: A UK Benchmark for Home Brands
In home and interiors ecommerce, decision-support tools like samples and swatches are a core part of your commercial proposition. We benchmark the UK's top 75 retailers to show what 'good' looks like and what to fix if you're falling behind.
Conversion and Journey8 min read5 Ecommerce Value Proposition Examples from UK Home Brands
We analyse five specialist UK home brands to show how guarantees, delivery, finance, and service build a compelling commercial proposition. See what Arlo & Jacob, Furl, Fishpools, Rose & Grey, and Unbeatable Blinds do to reduce customer uncertainty.
Conversion and Journey3 min readFunctional Proof vs. Value Story: Choosing a Furniture Ecommerce Strategy
A furniture ecommerce strategy for specialist brands boils down to one choice: building confidence through functional proof or through a value-based story. We analyse the two paths and how to choose the right one for your business.
Organic Discovery3 min readEcommerce Discoverability: The Home & Interiors Benchmark
Our study of 75 UK home and interiors retailers found an average Organic Discovery score of 87.3 out of 100. Yet, many specialist brands with strong products score much lower, making them 'hidden performers'. This suggests their growth challenge is not the website, but how customers find them in the first place—a distribution problem that the rise of AI search will amplify.
AI discovery and search4 min readEcommerce Product Discovery: The New Decision Advantage
For years, ecommerce advantage was about a better checkout or faster website. That game is over. As execution converges, the next source of profitable growth is 'decision advantage' — being discovered, understood, and trusted before a buyer has even decided what they need.
Conversion & Journey3 min readSofa Ecommerce Strategy: D2C vs. The Stockist Model
For sofa brands, the central strategic decision is between selling direct-to-consumer (D2C) or through a stockist network. We compare the two models on their commercial trade-offs to clarify which is right for your business.
Retention and Customer Value4 min readEcommerce Retention Strategy: Are Home Brands Over-investing?
Our benchmark of 75 UK home retailers reveals a critical gap between acquisition maturity and retention capability. We argue this is an organisational and economic issue, not a technology one, and it is costing brands their most profitable growth.
AI Discovery4 min readAI Search Visibility: Why Home & Interiors Brands May Vanish
AI-powered search results favour a tiny number of authoritative sources. For specialist home and interiors brands, this isn't a traffic problem—it's an existential risk to being considered at all. Our latest benchmark data reveals a critical capability gap.
Conversion & Journey4 min readFurniture Ecommerce Strategy: Why 'Good' Is No Longer Enough
Our benchmark of 75 UK home and interiors brands shows user experience is now table stakes. With average Conversion Experience scores at 92.6/100, an effective furniture ecommerce strategy must focus beyond the website to find a durable source of growth.
Prioritisation and Capability4 min readFractional Growth Lead vs Agency: Which Is Right For Your Business?
You know you need outside help to accelerate growth. But should you hire a fractional lead to own the strategy, or an agency to execute the tactics? Here's how we advise our clients to decide.
Prioritisation and capability4 min readHome Interiors Ecommerce Strategy: Where Advantage is Moving
Ecommerce competence has converged. Our 75-brand study shows the new competitive battleground for home and interiors is upstream, in discovery and decision support, not just checkout optimisation.
Acquisition Economics4 min readCAC Payback Period: How to Calculate It & What It Means
Your CAC Payback Period tells you how long it takes to earn back the cost of acquiring a new customer. Get the calculation wrong, and you risk running out of cash. We explain how to calculate it using the only metric that matters: contribution margin.
August 2026
Conversion and Journey4 min readWhat is a good ecommerce conversion rate in the UK?
A single 'average' conversion rate is a commercially misleading metric. We share our observed benchmarks for UK businesses, broken down by category and AOV.
Market analysis12 min readThe state of UK ecommerce growth investment, 2026
Established UK ecommerce businesses are not short of growth investment — they are short of conviction about where it should go. A senior read on where the money is sitting, what changed, and what the best-run businesses are doing differently.
Measurement5 min readThe four numbers that tell you growth is stalling
Most ecommerce reporting is too detailed to make a decision with. Four numbers, read together, tell you whether the business is genuinely growing or simply spending more to stand still.
Retention4 min readRetention is a merchandising problem before it's an email problem
When repeat rate slips, the CRM roadmap gets the blame. Usually the range, the second purchase and the reason to return were never designed in the first place.
Operating model5 min readWhat a good 90-day growth plan actually looks like
Most 90-day plans are a list of everything, ordered by who asked loudest. A usable one names one constraint, a handful of decisions, and what the business will stop doing.
Prioritisation4 min readMore traffic isn't always the answer
When growth slows, most ecommerce teams reach for more demand. Often the constraint sits further down the system — and more traffic simply makes it more expensive.
Home & interiors5 min readConsidered purchases break the standard ecommerce playbook
Home, interiors and furniture brands are handed tactics built for £30 impulse buys. Long consideration windows, high basket values and offline overlap change almost every decision.
July 2026
Operating model4 min readMost ecommerce teams don't have an activity problem
They have a prioritisation problem. Plenty is happening across channels and agencies — very little of it is sequenced against the same commercial constraint.
Discovery5 min readAI discovery is a distribution change, not a content tactic
Assistants and AI answer surfaces sit between your brand and the buyer. That changes what needs to be machine-readable — and it is closer to merchandising than to blogging.