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Fractional Leadership

Director-level E-Commerce leadership, without the full-time hire

I have held the Director of E-Commerce seat in-house: owned the P&L, hired the team, fired the agencies, and shipped through two acquisitions. Fractional leadership gives you that experience for the days per week your business actually needs, at a fraction of a senior hire.

The Problem

The gap between "we have people doing E-Commerce" and "someone owns E-Commerce"

Mid-market brands hit a ceiling where the channel is too big for a marketing manager to run on the side, but the business cannot justify or attract a proven E-Commerce director. Agencies fill the execution gap and quietly own your strategy; IT and marketing stop translating for each other; vendors quote what the market will bear because nobody in the room has priced this work before.

What is missing is not more hands. It is someone who has owned the number: who knows what good looks like across platform, acquisition, retention, and operations, and who can direct all of it without needing anything explained twice.

That is the seat I take. I sit on your side of the table with your team, your agencies, and your vendors, accountable to your revenue instead of anyone’s billable hours.

How I Work

What the seat covers

  1. 1

    Own the roadmap

    A prioritized E-Commerce plan tied to revenue, not activity. Clear calls on what to build, buy, fix, and stop doing.

  2. 2

    Bridge IT and commerce

    System integrations, ERP decisions, and technical tradeoffs translated in both directions. I started in network engineering; the technical depth is real, not managerial.

  3. 3

    Manage vendors and agencies

    Scoping, selection, negotiation, and accountability for platforms, partners, and agencies, from someone who knows what the work should cost.

  4. 4

    Build the team

    Hiring plans, role definitions, and processes so the channel eventually runs without me. The goal is to make myself unnecessary, documented and trained.

Proof

The proof point: an E-Commerce operation built from early stage to a national channel, then run across a multi-brand storefront portfolio after acquisition.

Specialty Retail / Omnichannel

Ryan’s Pet Supplies: 500% online revenue growth in four years

Ryan’s Pet Supplies had strong regional brand recognition and a primarily catalog-based operation. I built the E-Commerce operation from early-stage to mature and turned it into a national online business, then led multi-storefront Shopify Plus management after the parent company acquisition.

What I did: built the E-Commerce operation end to end, implemented Klaviyo for lifecycle marketing, optimized the full purchase funnel, ran the SEO strategy, and managed the multi-brand storefront portfolio post-acquisition.

500%
Online Revenue Growth (4 years)
145%
Email Revenue Increase
180%
Organic Traffic Growth
20%
Cart Abandonment Reduction
All case studies →

FAQ

Questions buyers actually ask

What does a fractional E-Commerce director actually do?

Everything a full-time director does, scaled to part-time: own the channel strategy and roadmap, run the P&L conversation, manage agencies and vendors, bridge IT and marketing, and build the internal team. The difference is you pay for the leadership your stage needs instead of a full-time executive package.

How is this different from hiring an agency?

An agency executes channels and, structurally, wants to keep executing them. A fractional director sits on your side of the table: setting strategy, deciding which agencies and tools deserve your budget, and holding them accountable. I have hired and fired agencies from the client seat; that experience is the product.

How much time does a fractional engagement involve?

It scales with the business: from a standing weekly cadence of leadership, reviews, and vendor management up to effectively running the channel through a transition like a replatform or an acquisition. We size it in discovery and adjust as the business changes.

When does fractional make sense instead of a full-time hire?

When the channel matters enough to need real leadership but not yet enough to attract and keep a proven director, or when you need senior coverage through a specific transition: a migration, an acquisition, a leadership gap, or a turnaround. The fractional period is also a clean way to define the eventual full-time role and hire into it.

Can you work with our existing team and agencies?

Yes, and that is usually the point. The team keeps executing; what changes is that someone with operating experience is setting direction, unblocking decisions, and making sure every vendor and agency earns its retainer.

Need someone to own the channel?

Tell me where E-Commerce sits in your organization today. I will tell you honestly whether fractional leadership fits or whether you should just make the hire.

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