Retail Performance Metrics

When growth on Amazon stalls after a certain scale, it is either a traffic problem or a conversion problem. If you are struggling to grow profitably on Amazon, just go back to basics, log into Brand Analytics, and look at 3 metrics to diagnose the problem 1.      Search Term Impression Share for High Volume Generic Searches : Amazon is a search led platform and in most categories upto 75% of searches are generic keywords( no wonder they are fast catching up with Google search in revenue). The biggest lever to grow is to have a high impression share( mix of organic and ads) on high volume generic keywords. If your impression share on high volume KWs don’t grow, overall growth is difficult. 2.      Branded Search Volumes for both Own Brand and Competition: This is often a function of activities done outside the platform. If branded search volumes don’t grow, the reliance on Ads driven glance views won’t come down and profitable growth will be difficult. Similarly if competition branded searches go up, you will find it extremely difficult to hold on to your market share 3.      Conversion Rates for all High Volume Keywords: Look at the conversion trends. If you are not able to maintain/improve conversions with increasing search term impressions share( provided it is increasing), you need to go back to the product pricing proposition. Maybe a competitor with a better proposition is taking market share. Maybe you have hit the ceiling of growth with the current product proposition and further growth will only come if you can introduce new propositions to appeal to a broader TG I am amazed at how much data Amazon shares so that businesses can diagnose problems correctly and take decisions. And equally amazed at how few leaders go deep, open the portals and read the reports that are available. If you are not doing it, start it today P.S. It doesn’t matter how busy I am, most Sundays I will open brand analytics, Amazon Pi and the ads platform and look at the metrics from the source itself. This is how one of the sample reports look like.

Google Ads just ended the "black box" era of Performance Max. 📦 This week, Google rolled out Channel Performance Reporting for PMax campaigns. Until now, PMax has been a blended-metric campaign. We had to analyze performance as a whole, making it difficult to isolate which assets were working on which channels. We can now see metrics like cost, conversions, and conversion value broken down by the specific channel: YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail, and Maps. Why This Matters: This new data allows us to be surgical. 🎯 The biggest win is for creative strategy. We can now definitively see: - Video vs. Static Performance: Is our video asset driving conversions on YouTube, or is it ineffectively spending budget on the Display network? - Asset Allocation: We can now analyze if creative built for YouTube is outperforming creative built for Display and refine our asset mix accordingly. - Strategic Budgeting: If we see Search is driving 90% of the conversions, we can now have a data-backed discussion about creative resourcing and budget, rather than relying on blended CPAs. This transparency is a major development. It moves PMax from a "trust the algorithm" campaign to a strategically manageable one. We're already analyzing this new report for all our clients to refine holiday creative.

As a CFO, can you report profitability in ways that actually make the Board lean in? Let me share one metric that never fails to spark conversation — Customer or Channel Profitability. Imagine I’m buying a pair of glasses from Lenskart through two different channels: Channel 1: Online Purchase I visit the Lenskart website or app, browse through frames using filters, optionally try them on virtually, select the one I like, upload my prescription, choose a lens package (blue-cut, photochromic, etc.), and proceed to checkout. Payment is made digitally, and within a few days, the glasses are delivered to my doorstep. Channel 2: In-store Purchase I walk into a nearby Lenskart store, get my eyes tested by an optometrist, try on multiple frames with the help of staff, finalize my lens and prescription details, and make the payment. The glasses are then custom-made and either delivered to my home or collected from the store. While the product is the same, the cost of operations — store infrastructure, staff time, equipment — is significantly higher than the online channel. So, if I see from the cost standpoint: The product is the same. Even the material and production costs are the same. But from a profitability standpoint, the two experiences are radically different. Why? Because of operational costs. In-store transactions include: [1] Retail infrastructure costs [2] Salaries of store executives [3] Equipment & maintenance [4] Utility overheads [5] Inventory handling costs In contrast, online sales operate with leaner overheads — primarily driven by technology infrastructure and a centralized development team managing the backend. Same revenue. Very different profitability. And here's the catch — you can’t charge the customer differently just because they chose a different channel. That’s why channel-level profitability analytics is a critical tool in the CFO’s reporting arsenal. It helps uncover insights like: [1] Which channels drive true profitability [2] Where operational inefficiencies lie [3] Which customer segments are sustainable to serve Boards don’t just want toplines and bottomlines anymore — they want clarity/focus on where the real value is being created. This is Sankalp, signing off for Week 28/52 of Value Accounting – Part 6.1: Customer and Channel/Market Profitability Analytics (PA). Next week, we’ll dive deeper into the underlying system structures required to build a robust profitability analytics framework. #linkedin #finance #accountingandaccountants #startups

During my four years at Amazon Ads, one thing brands could never get enough of was benchmark data. March 2026 just delivered a massive efficiency breakthrough: Google ROI surged +291% (from 4.23 to 16.55) while Walmart Connect Onsite Display ROI exploded by +166%. I can’t wait to see what the Q1 numbers look like. Retail media continues to drive significant results, but performance is concentrated in a few top channels. The gap between these high-efficiency channels and where most teams are still allocating budget is widening. Here's what the data is actually telling you: Retail media has become the primary growth driver. In CPG and Food & Beverage, Amazon Search and Instacart conversion growth is running +30% to +100%+ YoY. Walmart Search is up +59%. This reflects a true structural shift, not outliers. Reallocating budget is answer. Several channels in this benchmark show the same pattern: spend up, clicks up, conversions flat or down. This indicates low ROI despite higher engagement.. The brands winning right now are moving budget toward proven efficiency breakout channels, not simply adding investment across the board. Last year’s channel mix is already wrong. If you're still running the same allocation you built in 2025, the data says you're behind. Google (16.55 ROI), Walmart Onsite Display (19.34 ROI), and MSN (10.50 ROI) are pulling away. Low-ROI, high-click-volume channels are pulling in the opposite direction. Three things worth acting on now: Scale what's working. Double down on Google and ADSP. Google’s 291% ROI surge shows massive intent momentum, while ADSP CPCs improved by 55%, proving offsite efficiency is scaling. Cut the false growth. Social media is currently the False Growth trap, as CPCs dropped 20%, but ROI remained flat at 0.43. It's efficiency without effectiveness. Capitalize on the Local explosion. Local channel ROI grew from 1.73 to 90.07 this month. If your brand has a physical footprint, the window to move efficiently is now. Join Josh Dreller (Skai) and Kelly Gerrard (Marshall Associates) on April 23 for an in-depth look at Q1 digital advertising performance, featuring our exclusive data on retail media, paid search, social, and GenAI-powered marketing.

It’s fascinating to see two very different retail narratives playing out right now in the Australian market and the common thread tying them together is how promotional activity and channel strategy impact profitability. On the one hand, Adore Beauty Group is demonstrating that a disciplined, omnichannel strategy can drive not just sales but improving margins and profit performance. After accelerating its omni-channel model, blending online strength with physical store expansion, retail media and personalised loyalty, the business reported record EBITDA and improved gross margin, with plans to scale physical stores meaningfully over the next few years. On the other hand, Adairs Retail Group shows the risk of leaning too heavily on prolonged discounting and promotional activity. While the company is on track for solid top-line growth, margin pressure from extended promotions has dented gross profitability, even as leadership works to recalibrate pricing and promotional cadence. This pattern isn’t unique to these two names. What’s interesting about Adore’s results is that their physical retail rollout is outperforming the core online business, which highlights a broader trend we’re seeing across brands like Billini, LSKD, Proud Poppy Clothing and Arms Of Eve - where well-executed store networks are proving not just additive but strategically critical. These retail footprints can capture customers and margin in ways that pure online channels alone struggle to sustain. The contrast here speaks to a broader lesson in retail today: discounting may drive short-term revenue, but it comes at a real cost to margin and long-term profitability. Meanwhile, strategies that thoughtfully balance channel expansion, inventory discipline, loyalty and customer experience appear to unlock stronger financial performance. It’s still early days in this cycle, but these case studies are already offering valuable real-world evidence for any brand thinking about how to balance promotional activity with sustainable profit growth. 

"My Google Ads return 4x. Why would outbound do better?" It's an objection I hear often on sales calls, and it comes from comparing channels on one number when they differ on three. 1️⃣ Where the channel catches the buyer. Google Ads catches people who already decided to buy. They felt the pain, searched, compared three vendors, clicked. The founder that asked me this sells a 50K service. Purchases that size involve 3 to 4 stakeholders and take months of internal discussion. Outbound starts the conversation during those months, long before the click he's paying for. 2️⃣ Time Every channel has two speeds: 1. time to first signal and 2. time to real ROI. - Cold email gets replies in 2 weeks and pays back in months 4 to 8 on average. - Google pays back fast but only harvests existing demand. - SEO takes 6 to 12 months and then grows. I asked him how long Google Ads took to reach a profitable 10K a month. It wasn't six weeks either. 3️⃣ Whether competitors can copy it: Any Google Ads setup can be copied in an afternoon. Keywords are an auction, the highest bidder gets the same clicks. Same for the new inventory everyone's excited about, ChatGPT ads included. On the other hand: audiences, signals and messaging built on your own closed-won data can't be seen from the outside. This is the least discussed difference of the three. I put the full comparison in the graphic: 7 channels, where each one catches the buyer, both speeds, and how copyable it is. AEO and ChatGPT ads are in there too, since every budget conversation in 2026 certainly includes them. My advice: run more than one channel, try to match channel to ICP and don't measure them all on the fastest one's timing.

A DTC brand launching on Amazon will often spend 40–50% of revenue on ads in the opening months. That’s usually the part founders underestimate. The DTC mindset is conditioned around CAC targets. But when you launch on Amazon, the first questions are completely different: - How many branded searches already exist for my brand? - How much revenue will branded demand actually drive? - How much will branded sales lower my TACOS and CAC? - What should I realistically expect in the first 6–12 months? - What percentage of sales should I be reinvesting into ads early on? - What KPIs actually matter at launch? Because in the beginning, Amazon isn’t really judging your brand. It’s judging signals. The KPIs to measure early are: - Organic ranking - Review growth - Product-market fit - Conversion rate - Sales Velocity If you’re a premium brand without meaningful branded demand, Amazon can become an uphill battle very quickly. Why? Because early ad spend isn’t just customer acquisition. It’s visibility infrastructure. You’re paying to: - generate initial velocity - teach the algorithm where you belong - build keyword relevance - earn reviews - establish conversion history - create organic ranking Without branded searches or strong product-market fit, you’re relying heavily on cold category traffic — which is expensive competing against "cheap knockoffs." That’s why many premium brands launch spending 20-50% of revenue on ads initially and with branded searches. Over time, if the product resonates and branded demand grows, that number starts coming down: - maybe 30% mid-year - maybe closer to 20% by year-end But the brands that succeed usually understand this before launch, not after they realize Amazon doesn’t behave like Meta or Shopify.

Last month I was in a Q3 planning conversation with a CPG brand. Their retail media split: Amazon 58%. Walmart 22%. Kroger 12%. Everyone else 8%. When I asked how they decided the allocation, the answer was honest: "That’s roughly what we did last year." New data from Keen Decision Systems tells a different story. Kroger’s profit ROI on retail media: $2.35. Instacart’s: $1.85. Both outperform Amazon, Walmart, and Target on return. The market is catching up. Kroger retail media investment grew 54.2% year over year, the steepest rise of any network. Target was next at 23.4%. Walmart at 23.1%. Kroger Precision Marketing profit grew over 20% in Q1 alone. Here is what is driving the gap. Amazon built the retail media category. $56B+ in annual ad revenue. Massive scale. But scale is not efficiency, and reach is not return. Grocery retailers like Kroger have something Amazon is still building toward: closed-loop purchase data tied to loyalty programs reaching 60M+ households. When a brand runs a Kroger media campaign, they can see which households bought, how often, and whether the spend drove incremental volume or just pulled forward existing demand. That measurement clarity is worth more than reach when every marketing dollar is under a microscope. The tension is real. You cannot ignore Amazon (20.8% CPG share, still growing). But defaulting 60% of your budget to a single platform because "that’s where the volume is" may be the most expensive habit in retail media. The brand teams gaining ground treat retail media like a portfolio: optimize per-platform ROI, not just impressions per dollar. How does your team decide retail media allocation across platforms today? #RetailMedia #CPG #Ecommerce #DigitalCommerce #RetailStrategy #AmazonAds

My client got into Target. 1,200 stores. Dream distribution. Six months later, they almost went bankrupt. Here's what happened: Pre-Target: □ Amazon: $480K/year □ Shopify: $120K/year □ Total: $600K 38% margin. Profitable. Post-Target: □ Amazon: $290K/year (down 40%) □ Shopify: $110K/year (flat) □ Target: $780K/year □ Total: $1.18M Revenue doubled. Margin dropped to 11%. Why? Target demanded: → 50% wholesale discount → $40K in slotting fees → Free freight → Co-op marketing budget Plus: Their Amazon sales tanked because Target listed the product at $34.99. Customers saw it cheaper in-store. Stopped buying on Amazon. Amazon algorithm saw the velocity drop. Organic rank plummeted. They were working 70 hours/week to make less money than before. We pulled out of Target after 8 months. New strategy? Amazon = primary revenue Shopify = high-margin DTC TikTok Shop = acquisition channel Target = hard pass 18 months later: □ Amazon: $640K □ Shopify: $280K □ TikTok traffic driving both 35% margin. 40 hours/week. Retail distribution sounds impressive. But it can destroy your entire business model if you don't understand the math. Before you chase retail partnerships, model it: Take your current margin, subtract 50% wholesale discount, add freight costs, add slotting fees. If you're not making 15%+ after all that, it's not worth it. No matter how good it looks on a pitch deck.

DMart vs Reliance Retail: Two Giants but Two Completely Different Games 🐯Everyone talks about who’s bigger. But in retail, the better question is always, “Which model will deliver stronger returns over the next decade?” 🛍️ Lets dive into the numbers: 🛍️DMart - 365 stores - ₹2,536 crore annual profit - Almost ₹7 crore profit per store - High ROI and strong sales density - It operates large-format stores that drive bigger baskets and better efficiency 🛒Reliance Retail - 19,000+ stores - ₹11,100 crore annual profit - Around ₹0.6 crore profit per store - It has scale advantage but dilution in per-store returns - It operates both large stores and thousands of small-format outlets The retail landscape is getting tougher. and this is how? 🛍️DMart is facing rising wage costs, tighter margins, and competition from quick-commerce. 🛒Reliance Retail is expanding aggressively, but the heavy capex and low margin formats are raising questions about long-term returns as e-commerce becomes aggressive. Here are a few more angles investors should know. 🚩Margins: DMart’s EBITDA margin has reduced to 7.6% while Reliance’s margins are higher at 8.6% but spread across many low-margin formats. 🚩SSSG (Same-Store Sales Growth) Both DMart and Reliance SSSG shows steady growth at 8.4% 🚩Working Capital Discipline: DMart is very efficient with inventory and supplier payments; Reliance’s recent cash flow benefit partly came from higher payables. 🚩Digital Strength: DMart Ready is still small; Reliance has AJIO, JioMart, and omni-channel, but complexity in these formats is weighing on profitability. 🚩Real Estate: DMart mostly owns stores, which boosts long-term ROI; Reliance uses a mix of owned, leased, and franchise formats. 🚩Category Mix: DMart focuses mainly on staples, which are stable but low margin; Reliance operates across fashion, electronics, beauty, and grocery, offering higher margins but higher risk. Bottomline 🛍️DMart is capital-efficient, has slower expansion, and stronger unit economics. 🛒Reliance Retail is capital-heavy, rapid expansion, diversified formats but lower ROI per outlet. As investors, the question isn’t “Who has more stores?” ✅It’s “Whose capex, ROI per store, and competitive edge will perform better in the era of e-commerce? 🛍️🛒 Image Credit. Respective Owner LinkedIn LinkedIn News India LinkedIn Guide to Creating