Context

A regional leader in multibrand sports and lifestyle retail with online operations across multiple CEE markets had hit a familiar wall: revenue was growing in line with category, but margin was eroding, paid media was creeping toward 15% of online sales, and the trading team was running on instinct rather than weekly rhythm. The business needed a way to grow profitably, not just grow.

What we led

• Rebuilt the weekly trading governance from scratch — a single forum where commercial, performance, CRM, and content owners aligned on the next seven days against a shared P&L view, not a dashboard each.
• Introduced a margin-first trading scorecard that flagged products and categories pulling spend without contributing variable profit — and put a stop on auto-renewal of those campaigns.
• Created a quarterly category bet plan, with explicit go/no-go criteria tied to category mix targets and contribution margin, rather than the usual revenue-only push.
• Coached the regional trade team to run the cadence themselves; left the business with a recurring system, not a deck.

Outcome (Q4 2024 → Q4 2025; Q1 2025 → Q1 2026, like-for-like)

• Online revenue grew ~80% year on year in both comparable quarters.
• Gross margin improved by roughly +2.5 percentage points in Q4 and ~+1 percentage point in Q1, against a category backdrop of margin compression.
• Cost of sale on paid media reduced by roughly 6% relative — meaningful at this revenue base.

Context

A regional leader in multibrand sports and lifestyle retail with online operations across multiple CEE markets had hit a familiar wall: revenue was growing in line with category, but margin was eroding, paid media was creeping toward 15% of online sales, and the trading team was running on instinct rather than weekly rhythm. The business needed a way to grow profitably, not just grow.

What we led

• Rebuilt the weekly trading governance from scratch — a single forum where commercial, performance, CRM, and content owners aligned on the next seven days against a shared P&L view, not a dashboard each.
• Introduced a margin-first trading scorecard that flagged products and categories pulling spend without contributing variable profit — and put a stop on auto-renewal of those campaigns.
• Created a quarterly category bet plan, with explicit go/no-go criteria tied to category mix targets and contribution margin, rather than the usual revenue-only push.
• Coached the regional trade team to run the cadence themselves; left the business with a recurring system, not a deck.

Outcome (Q4 2024 → Q4 2025; Q1 2025 → Q1 2026, like-for-like)

• Online revenue grew ~80% year on year in both comparable quarters.
• Gross margin improved by roughly +2.5 percentage points in Q4 and ~+1 percentage point in Q1, against a category backdrop of margin compression.
• Cost of sale on paid media reduced by roughly 6% relative — meaningful at this revenue base.