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E-commerce

Strategic finance for US e-commerce companies across DTC, marketplace, subscription, and cross-border.

From emerging DTC brands building their first contribution-margin model, to scaling marketplace sellers managing CAC payback against rising platform fees, to mid-market e-commerce operating across multiple countries and revenue streams — we provide the cash flow management, FP&A, modeling, valuation, and reporting that online economics demand. Built for the marketing-before-revenue lag, return drain, payment-fee leakage, and cross-border tax complexity.

The US e-commerce market by the numbers.

$1.23 trillion
US retail e-commerce sales in 2025 — 16.4% of all retail
5.4 %
year-over-year growth in US retail e-commerce in 2025
24.5 %
of online sales revenue was lost to returns in 2024, versus 8.72% in store
$362 billion
value of US online returns in 2024 — reverse logistics is a structural cost
Common Finance Gaps in E-commerce

Five problems we are usually called in to fix.

Each gap below maps to a specific EasePro service — links go to the relevant service page.

01

The asset-light fallacy: marketing spend before revenue

Digital ad spend, inventory deposits, and onboarding cost land before sales materialise. Customer payments settle on a delay from payment gateways. Refunds require immediate cash outflow. The income statement looks healthy while the cash position quietly tightens — and growth makes the gap wider, not narrower.

→ Cash Flow Management Services

Cash Flow Management Services
02

Profit per order invisible after all the deductions

Platform referral fees, FBA or 3PL fulfillment, outbound and return shipping, payment processing (2.9% + 30 cents), discount allocation, and expected return rate all reduce what reaches the bank account. Without a contribution-margin model by SKU and channel, the platform ROAS dashboard says the campaign wins while cash says otherwise.

→ Financial Modeling

Financial Modeling
03

Returns reversing revenue faster than systems can track

Online return rates run materially higher than physical retail. Each return reverses the sale, layers in outbound and return shipping, adds processing labor, and risks inventory write-off if the item comes back damaged or unsellable. Without a returns reserve model, monthly profit is overstated and cash forecasts are too optimistic.

→ FP&A & Financial Planning

FP&A & Financial Planning
04

Payment processing fees, chargebacks, and fraud risk

Card processing fees compound on every transaction. Chargebacks reverse cash after the goods have shipped, add chargeback fees, and at high rates can suspend the merchant account entirely. Payment fraud adds inventory loss on top. Without a fee audit and a chargeback-tracking discipline, the leakage stays invisible inside cost of revenue.

→ Cash Flow Management Services

Cash Flow Management Services
05

Cross-border and multi-jurisdiction tax complexity

US sales tax nexus rules trigger at state thresholds (commonly $100,000 or 200 transactions). International sales add VAT, duties, customs documentation, and country-specific filing. Marketplace facilitator rules confuse who collects what. Surprise liability commonly surfaces only after thresholds have already been crossed for several months.

→ Investor Reporting

Investor Reporting
Frequently Asked Questions

Questions e-commerce founders and CFOs ask us.

What does a fractional CFO do for an e-commerce company?
A fractional CFO for an e-commerce company handles the financial work that an in-house finance team would do — but on a part-time, scope-flexible basis. For e-commerce specifically, this means cash flow management against the marketing-spend-before-revenue lag, contribution margin by SKU and channel after platform fees, payment processing, shipping, and returns, customer acquisition economics (CAC payback by cohort), revenue recognition for subscriptions, bundles, and loyalty programs, cross-border tax compliance (sales tax nexus, VAT, duties), and investor and board reporting on e-commerce-native metrics. The work is delivered by experienced finance professionals trained in-house at EasePro.
Why is e-commerce cash flow harder than it looks?
E-commerce is often described as asset-light, but it carries significant working capital demands. Cash is paid upfront for inventory, especially with overseas suppliers. Digital ad spend lands before sales materialise — the company funds growth weeks before revenue arrives. Payment gateways settle on a delay. Returns and refunds require immediate cash outflow, sometimes before the returned goods are recoverable or supplier credit is received. The result: a profitable income statement can sit alongside a stressed cash position. Active 13-week cash forecasting, working capital discipline, and contribution-margin visibility are the controls that keep the gap manageable.
How do you measure true profit per order in e-commerce?
Order-level profit requires allocating everything that reduces the cash received — platform referral fees, FBA or 3PL fulfillment, outbound shipping, payment processing fees (commonly 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction), expected return rate and return shipping, refund processing labor, customer service cost, ad spend attributable to the order, and discount or promotion costs — against the gross margin on the SKU. Without this, the platform ROAS dashboard says the campaign is winning while the bank account says otherwise. We build contribution-margin models that compute true profit per order by SKU, channel, and acquisition cohort — so growth decisions are made on the number that actually clears the account.
How should an e-commerce company handle cross-border tax compliance?
Cross-border e-commerce creates compliance obligations across many jurisdictions simultaneously. In the US, every state with sales tax has economic nexus thresholds (commonly $100,000 in sales or 200 transactions). International sales add VAT, GST, duties, customs documentation, and country-specific filing requirements. Marketplace facilitator rules, product taxability differences, and the timing mismatch between collection and remittance create further risk. We build a nexus and tax-jurisdiction tracker that monitors sales and transactions against thresholds, separates marketplace-collected from owned-channel tax, reconciles tax collected to tax payable, and maintains a monthly filing calendar — turning surprise liabilities into managed compliance.
How do you handle revenue recognition for subscriptions, bundles, and loyalty programs?
E-commerce revenue rarely matches the simple sale-of-goods pattern. Subscription revenue must be recognised ratably over the subscription term even when cash is collected upfront. Bundled offerings (hardware plus service contract, product plus warranty, product plus content) require revenue to be allocated to each performance obligation and recognised as it is delivered. Loyalty points awarded carry a separate performance obligation, requiring a portion of initial sale revenue to be deferred until points are redeemed or expire. Generous return policies can require revenue to be constrained until the return period lapses or returns can be reliably estimated. We design revenue policies and accounting workflows that handle these correctly under standard frameworks — so reported revenue reflects what has actually been earned.
Do you work with e-commerce companies at any size, or only larger ones?
We work with US e-commerce companies across the size spectrum — from emerging DTC brands at $500K–$5M GMV building their first contribution margin model and 13-week cash forecast, through scaling e-commerce at $5M–$50M GMV needing CAC-payback discipline and cross-border tax tracking, through mid-market e-commerce at $50M+ GMV needing multi-channel P&L, subscription revenue recognition, and audit-ready investor reporting. Engagement scope adjusts to size, channel mix, and product complexity; the standard does not.