I read a recent piece by Mark Ritson about what he calls the “Great Stay”. Fewer marketers moving roles. Fewer new roles being created. Hiring slowing quietly rather than dramatically.
It did not feel dramatic. It felt structural… and sensible.
Budgets are tighter. Teams are leaner. Boards are asking harder questions. And a lot of marketing activity that once felt important is now being scrutinised.
When that happens, something interesting occurs. Fluff gets cut first. And what survives is what drives revenue. That is where optimisation becomes non-negotiable.
Optimisation Is Systematic Commercial Improvement, Not Minor Tinkering
When you talk about optimisation, some people picture button colour tests and small conversion tweaks. That is not what we are talking about. Optimisation is the structured improvement of the commercial levers that actually grow a business. It’s a marketing mindset applied to ecommerce. Being data-informed, not data-fixated. Knowing that on the other side of the data are real people with real needs and real hesitancies.
So, the optimisers job sits across;
- Traffic quality.
- Conversion rate.
- Average order value.
- Customer acquisition cost.
- Repeat purchase rate.
Each step of the customer journey.
Each element of marketing you are involved in there is the opportunity to optimise.
In a softer job market, that mindset becomes a differentiator.
What Ehrenberg‑Bass Data Shows: Growth Comes From More Buyers, Not ‘True Fans’
The Ehrenberg-Bass research into tiny brands is blunt.
Brands under 1 percent market share do not grow through superior loyalty. They grow through market penetration;
The good news is there’s no minimum advertising budget needed to be effective. Every single exposure with good creative and branding is sufficient to nudge buying propensities of people exposed. This means all brands can implement strategies that build Mental Availability. The only difference is that tiny brands will have far fewer executions and less freedom to make mistakes. So, knowing what to advertise is crucial.
When they grow, awareness jumps significantly.
Purchase frequency moves slightly.
Loyalty normalises afterwards.
Growth equals more buyers. Simple as that. That finding matters more than most ecommerce operators realise. In simple terms, it means you cannot optimise your way to scale by obsessing over a small group of “true fans”. Which does feel counter-intuitive as we’re taught to focus on community and retention in order to grow ‘properly’ However, you grow by:
- Reaching more category buyers
- Making it easier to buy
- Reducing friction
- Staying mentally and physically available
Optimisation is how you execute that.
The Marketer Who Survives: Commercial Operators With an Optimisation Mindset
If teams are shrinking, who stays?
Not the person who “runs Meta”.
Not the person who “does email”.
Not the person who manages reports.
The person who understands how the machine works. The operator who can say:
- If we increase traffic quality by 10 percent, this is the commercial impact. And they act on their plan.
- If we lift conversion from 2 to 2.25 percent, this is the revenue delta. And they act on their plan.
- If we push AOV from £50 to £55, this is the compounded effect over 12 months. Yep, you guessed it, they act on their plan.
That is not guesswork. It is structured optimisation.
And it compounds.
A small improvement across three levers can add six figures to a sub £1m ecommerce business without any heroic growth hacking.
You just need disciplined focus.
Where Most Ecommerce Brands Drift: Busy Activity Without Real Growth
Here is what stagnation looks like:
- Running ads without reviewing contribution margin.
- Increasing email frequency without measuring incremental revenue.
- Testing headlines with insufficient traffic to learn anything meaningful.
- Talking about community while penetration is flat.
It feels busy. It is not progressive. The tiny brand research shows that loyalty deficits shrink as penetration increases.
In other words, growth fixes loyalty. Not the other way round. So if your optimisation work is not tied to acquiring more buyers or converting more of the right traffic, it is not growth work. It is activity.
Optimisation as Commercial Thinking: Prioritising Profit Levers in Lean Ecommerce Teams
Optimisation is not channel specific.
It is commercial.
It asks:
- Where are we leaking profit?
- Which lever gives the biggest return on effort?
- What can we improve with the data we already have?
- What should we stop doing?
That last question is uncomfortable. It is also where margin is often hiding.
For operators running brands between £250k and £2.5m, this matters even more.
You do not have the luxury of wasted spend.
You do not have the luxury of bloated teams.
You do not have the luxury of vague strategy.
You have levers.
The Compounding Effect of Small Wins in Traffic, Conversion, and AOV
Let’s take the simple example I’ll continue using to hammer home the value of an optimisation growth mindset.
1,000 daily visitors.
2 percent conversion rate.
£50 AOV.
That is a £360k per year business.
Increase conversion slightly.
Increase traffic quality slightly.
Increase AOV slightly.
None of those improvements are dramatic on their own.
Together they can add over £100k in additional revenue.
That is optimisation.
Not theatre.
Not viral ambition.
Not chasing hacks.
Just structured commercial improvement.
Why Optimisation Skills Matter Now in a Tightening Marketing Job Market
If marketing roles are tightening, businesses will prioritise people who can:
- Connect activity to revenue.
- Explain trade-offs clearly.
- Improve outcomes systematically.
- Build frameworks rather than chase tactics.
Optimisation is not about perfection.
It is about progress that compounds.
And in a market where complacency is expensive, the optimiser becomes the safest person in the room.
Because when scrutiny rises, the numbers speak.
And optimisation gives you numbers that improve.
Written By:
