Case Study Restoring Profitability Post-Acquisition for a Multi-Marketplace Brand
How we stabilized ROAS between 5.4 – 6.8 and recovered logistics losses for an acquired lifestyle brand.
<20%
ACoS controlled year-over-year
5.4–6.8
Stabilized ROAS range
The Client
A lifestyle brand adjusting to institutional ownership across multiple storefronts.
The client is a fast-growing B2C lifestyle brand originally built by an e-commerce entrepreneur. The brand operates across a multi-channel digital shelf, distributing its products through Amazon, eBay, Shopify, and several regional European marketplaces. The business has a strong customer base in both the UK and continental Europe, built on a unique product catalog and active customer engagement.
Following its initial growth phase, the brand was acquired by an e-commerce holding company (an aggregator) looking to scale operations, optimize supply chains, and leverage shared resources. This transition shifted the brand's primary focus from raw top-line growth to sustainable, institutional-grade profitability and operational efficiency.
However, the transition from founder-led operations to an aggregator portfolio introduced immediate structural challenges. The brand had to reconcile disparate sales databases, manage international shipping logistics, and optimize ad spending across multiple channels. This required a B2B partner with expertise in e-commerce PPC and supply chain operations.
The Challenge
A post-acquisition dip in margins and complex logistics barriers.
Following the acquisition, the brand’s financial performance experienced a sudden decline. The aggregator's initial attempt to scale sales led to increased ad spend across Amazon and eBay, which resulted in a higher ACoS and lower ROAS. Margins were squeezed, and net revenue began to drop.
Compounding these ad performance issues, the brand's supply chain suffered from Brexit-related logistics disruptions. Shipping products between the UK and continental Europe became subject to new custom audits, delays, and lost inventory. These logistics bottlenecks caused operational losses, stockouts, and processing delays that threatened the brand's organic search rankings. The holding company needed to stabilize advertising performance and recover supply chain losses to restore profitability.
4
Core sales channels managed (Shopify, Amazon, eBay, and international sites).
2021
The year Brexit customs regulations began affecting inventory transit.
Post-acquisition drop in net revenue and bottom-line margins.
Inefficient ad spend scaling, leading to higher ACoS and lower ROAS.
Brexit-related logistics disruptions causing lost inventory and operational losses.
The urgent need to stabilize performance across Shopify, Amazon, and eBay.
What our audit found
Identifying conversion leaks and unrecovered supply chain losses.
Our diagnostic began with an audit of the ad accounts and shipping records. In the ad accounts, we found that keyword bids were not adjusted for regional margins. The client was bidding the same amount for search terms in regions with high custom fees as they were in domestic markets. This resulted in high-volume, low-margin conversions that reduced profitability.
In the supply chain audit, we discovered that the brand had not tracked or claimed reimbursements for lost or damaged inventory at customs borders. Millions in inventory transit had been delayed, misrouted, or written off without submitting reimbursement claims to shipping carriers or Amazon's fulfillment network. The diagnostic confirmed that restoring profitability required both restructuring the PPC bidding and executing a recovery workflow for logistics losses.
PPC bidding did not account for regional margin differences.
Lack of reconciliation for lost or damaged inventory at customs.
Inconsistent conversion tracking across UK and European storefronts.
Aggregator ad campaign structures were overly complex, causing high bid overlap.
The Solution
How we turned it around.
Auditing ad spend and adjusting CPC bids.
We began by restructuring the PPC campaign structures on Amazon and eBay. We analyzed historical keyword performance to identify search terms driving high ACoS and low returns, adjusting CPC bids downward to protect margins.
We implemented a margin-adjusted bidding logic. Keyword bids were dynamically weighted based on the target country’s logistics costs, taxes, and custom duties. This ensured that campaigns in regions with higher shipping and custom fees ran on lower bids, preserving profitability. This ad audit helped stabilize search performance and reduced wasted media spend.
What we shipped
- Keyword bids optimized to reflect regional logistics and custom costs.
- Consolidation of ad groups to reduce keyword bidding overlap.
- Focus ad spend on high-margin products during high-traffic shopping cycles.
Multi-marketplace trend analysis.
To improve performance visibility, we built a centralized reporting dashboard. This tool pulled daily sales, ad spend, ACoS, and ROAS data from Amazon Seller Central, eBay Partner Network, and Shopify Analytics.
This consolidated dashboard allowed us to track performance trends across channels in real time. We used these insights to identify which products were converting best on specific platforms and adjusted inventory and marketing budgets accordingly. This data-driven approach replaced manual reporting and gave the management team a clear view of multi-marketplace profitability.
What we shipped
- Centralized reporting dashboard tracking Amazon, eBay, and Shopify metrics.
- Daily monitoring of blended sales, ACoS, and ROAS trends.
- Automated data collection to replace manual reporting methods.
Logistics recovery and reimbursement workflows.
To address operational losses, we designed a structured workflow to audit shipping records and reclaim capital. We tracked shipping manifests against warehouse receiving logs to identify instances of lost, damaged, or delayed inventory at customs borders.
We then prepared and submitted reimbursement claims to logistics carriers and Amazon's fulfillment network. We established a structured workflow to track these disputes through to resolution. This audit and reclaim process helped recover capital from lost shipments, mitigating the financial impact of post-Brexit logistics disruptions.
What we shipped
- Forensic audit of cross-border shipping manifests and receiving logs.
- Reimbursement claims submitted to carriers for lost and damaged inventory.
- Structured process implemented to monitor and resolve logistics claims.
Team upskilling and continuous optimization.
To ensure the optimizations were sustainable, we designed and ran an upskilling program for the holding company's brand managers. We conducted workshops on margin-based bidding, negative keyword optimization, and logistics reconciliation.
We provided the client's team with standardized playbooks, bid templates, and recovery checklists. This training transitioned the daily management of campaigns and logistics recovery to the client's team. This upskilling ensured the client had the internal skills to maintain target ACoS and ROAS metrics.
What we shipped
- Operational training workshops conducted for brand management teams.
- Standardized playbooks and checklists provided for daily campaign audits.
- Handover of bidding structures and tracking dashboards to the client.
The Numbers
Outcomes we can talk about.
The implementation of margin-adjusted bidding and structured logistics recovery stabilized the brand's performance metrics. By reallocating ad spend based on regional margins, the brand's ACoS was maintained below 20% year-over-year.
Advertising return on investment stabilized, with ROAS remaining between 5.4 and 6.8 across all e-commerce channels. This stabilization protected the brand's cash flow during a complex post-acquisition transition.
While the data set for logistics recovery was primarily operational, we focused our quantitative tracking on ad efficiency and channel returns, maintaining a tight focus on ACoS and ROAS. This helped recover capital from delayed and lost inventory, offsetting operational losses. The combination of ad optimization and logistics recovery restored the brand's profitability, providing a stable foundation for growth.
<20%
ACoS controlled year-over-year
5.4–6.8
Stabilized ROAS range
What We Built
What's Next
Expanding logistics automation and brand catalog reach.
With the brand's advertising and logistics stabilized, the next step is automating the inventory reconciliation pipeline. We are testing software integrations to flag shipping discrepancies and auto-generate carrier claims in real time.
We are also planning to expand the brand's product catalog onto additional European marketplaces, such as Allegro and Cdiscount. Using our established margin-adjusted bidding model, the client can scale their geographic reach while maintaining target profitability.
Frequently Asked Questions
About This Project
The questions teams usually ask when they want to run a similar engagement.
The drop was caused by inefficient ad spend scaling across Amazon and eBay, which raised ACoS and lowered ROAS, alongside operational losses from Brexit customs delays.
The Real Numbers
Need real numbers? Let's talk.
We kept the names off the page. The story is real, the outcomes are real, and we're always happy to walk a serious team through the rest of it.
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