At a glance:

• More than a third of surveyed commerce leaders say key tasks are partially automated but still require manual checks. Many workflows still depend on a human proof step before go-live, according to the 2026 commerce readiness index.  
• Another 29% said data is scattered and stockouts show up after orders, turning routine pricing and inventory updates into avoidable cleanup work.  
• 34% of commerce leaders said dashboards are available, but teams are still forced into manual exports to confirm what they’re seeing.  

Retailers and brands have spent years layering ecommerce automation into pricing, inventory, listings, and media. But many still stop for a manual proof step before go-live.  

The double-check has not gone away. It often comes just before a team is ready to act. A price looks right in one system but off in another. Inventory looks stable until the channel view suggests otherwise. The team stops to verify the basics before moving ahead. That pause turns automated work back into manual work. 

Ecommerce automation still needs a proof step  

In the 2026 commerce readiness index, 34% of commerce leaders said key tasks are partially automated but still require manual checks. Nearly half of executives said 26%-50% of workflows still depend on spreadsheets, and repetitive tasks like manual data entry, and approvals.  

Promotions punish messy handoffs  

Marketing campaign promotions don’t leave much room for hesitation. Price, inventory, product content, and media all move at once, yet teams are often working against slower decision cycles: more than half of retailers said they act on meaningful performance signals within 48 hours, while brands are more likely to take three to five business days.  

The readiness assessment helps explain why: 32% said signals are spread across tools and reports, while 29% said they have dashboards and alerts but unclear workflows. When product feeds, pricing, availability, and catalog updates refresh on different schedules, a promotion can look ready until something slips and the team has to stop to confirm what is actually true. Rithum’s retail media guide describes the same problem from the campaign side: by the time the dashboard reflects it, time and budget may already be gone. 

Scattered data turns ordinary work into manual work  

The trouble is often small at first. A price changes here but not there. Inventory moves, but not everywhere at once. Reporting can show that something changed without showing where it began. In the index, 29% of respondents said stockouts appear only after orders come in. Routine work turns into cleanup.  

Dashboards lose their authority when something shifts  

A dashboard can feel reliable until something starts moving faster than your reporting can explain. When a product moves faster than expected, a promotion performs differently across channels, or a price update appears in one system but not another, the dashboard can flag the issue without showing its cause. The team has to look elsewhere to confirm what changed.  

The readiness assessment points to the same problem: 34% said core dashboards are standardized, but edge cases and new channels still depend on manual exports they know are unreliable. Another 26% said the data they work from is incomplete, late, or manually tweaked, but they still use it because it is all they have. The gap is not only in dashboard coverage, but in confidence in the data underneath it. 

Rithum’s retail media guide points to what’s missing: product context alongside campaign performance. When teams can see which products absorbed the budget, what changed in price or availability, and which issues need attention first, reporting stays useful while teams are still deciding what to do.  

The window to act is getting tighter  

The gap becomes more expensive during peak shopping events. In the report, more than half of retailers said they act on meaningful performance signals within 48 hours, while brands are more likely to take three to five business days.  

Rithum’s Prime Days 2025 data shows how timing can be problematic. One brand held spend until conversion and AOV recovered, then pushed harder. Another brand pivoted mid-event toward back-to-school assortments, bundles, and sharper titles and keywords, finishing 15% above the prior year’s Prime Day. The advantage was a timely read on what had changed, while there was still room to respond.  

What teams should standardize now to achieve the benefits of ecommerce automation  

Instead of adding more ecommerce automation, retailers and brands should look at where to cut back on verification work. Start with the handoffs that break trust most often. Set clear source-of-truth rules for product data, pricing, and inventory so a routine channel change does not trigger a manual review. Exceptions should surface early, with enough context for teams to understand what changed without going back into spreadsheets.  

Where Rithum helps by providing automation tools for ecommerce  

Rithum helps cut down the verification work that piles up between systems by offering automation tools for ecommerce. Error tracking flags mismatches earlier. Automated tools and workflows reduce the same reconciliation loop playing out over and over. Connected commerce and media insights bring pricing, listings, inventory, fulfillment, and performance into a view teams can actually use.  

For retail media teams, product changes and campaign performance sit closer together, so it’s easier to spot what shifted, what needs attention, and where to act first. As a result there are fewer exports, less back-and-forth, and less time spent confirming what should already be clear.  

Download the full 2026 commerce readiness index to see where retailers and brands are still losing time, and what it takes to move faster without adding risk. Then take our readiness assessment to see where you stand in comparison.  

The post The hidden cost of ecommerce automation is verification work appeared first on Rithum.

Shoppers rarely start their online search with a perfect query. It’s usually an idea of something, like “I need a couch good for a small apartment,” or “storage that can fit underneath a bed.” And Generative AI is making it easier for shoppers to get trustworthy recommendations, from those questions. 

In the Gartner report, Use GenAI to enhance commerce search and discovery experiences, they write: “Generative AI (GenAI) offers customers the ability to search by asking natural language questions or queries of what they intend to buy.” GenAI turns a shopper’s question into a useful set of products and context. Then there’s agentic AI, which goes one step further and takes actions, like narrowing choices and moving a shopper toward checkout. That flow still starts with discovery, and this report focuses on the GenAI patterns that support it. 

With GenAI, results are accompanied with context alongside products with recommendations connected to the shopper’s question. With guided selling, a shopper’s questions narrow down options, so it is important to have the most accurate and up-to-date product catalog information to ensure your products are included in those responses. 

When selling across multiple channels, consistency gets harder to maintain. If a shopper is directed to a webpage only to find that the product doesn’t match or is out of stock, they move on to another option and someone else gets the sale. GenAI can help shoppers decide faster. 

Download the Gartner report to see the full examples, diagrams, and recommendations.  

Gartner, Use GenAI to Enhance Digital Commerce Search and Discovery Experiences, By Aditya Vasudevan, Mike Lowndes, 27 November 2024 

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved. 

The post When shoppers phrase their search as sentences, your product catalog has to be the answer  appeared first on Rithum.

Returns are no longer a background cost or occasional loss. They are influencing how consumers shop, what they expect from retailers and brands, and whether they come back. Our newly published 2025 Global Returns & Profit Impact Report offers a detailed look at where returns are happening, why they happen, and what retailers and brands can do to reduce the impact.  

Based on responses from more than 6,000 consumers worldwide, our report highlights the behaviors and expectations that are shaping the post-purchase experience—and what separates companies that manage returns well proactively compared with those still taking a reactive approach. 

Shoppers plan to return before they even check out 

The data from that survey suggests that returns are not just a post-purchase inconvenience—they are a core part of online shopping today. According to the consumer survey, 36% of shoppers admit to overbuying with the intention of returning part of the order. This behavior, also known as “bracketing,” is especially prevalent in apparel categories, such as shoes and clothes. It’s also an even stronger trend among shoppers under the age of 35, where 50% say they commonly buy more than they need (for example, multiple sizes and colors), knowing they will return part of the order. 

Bracketing is likely a strong factor behind why apparel and footwear dominate return volumes, with 68% of consumers saying they returned clothing or shoes in the past 12 months. Electronics also rank high among returned items, particularly in Europe, where more than half of German and UK consumers returned an electronic product last year.  

Poor product content is still driving returns 

One of the top reasons cited for returns is poor fit, mentioned by 61% of consumers surveyed. But returns are not only about sizing. A third of respondents said they returned products because the item didn’t match its online description or images. This mismatch highlights the need for retailers to go beyond generic content and ensure that each listing reflects the reality of the product. While consumers many not always say it directly, this lack of confidence often leads to bracketing. When shoppers aren’t sure how any item will look, feel or fit as expected, they buy extras to cover their bases. 

Customer reviews are also playing a larger role in the purchase decision, especially in apparel. Half of consumers say they rely heavily on reviews when buying clothing or shoes. This makes transparency not just a bonus, but a competitive requirement. Inaccurate listings, missing details, or outdated visuals aren’t just conversion risks, they lead directly to a cycle of poor reviews and costly returns. 

Return policies are becoming make-or-break 

Return policies are shaping not just immediate buyer behavior, but long-term loyalty. According to the survey, 88% of consumers now expect free returns to be a standard feature, and 41% say they consider a retailer’s return policy before making a purchase. Nearly half (47%) said they’ve stopped shopping with a retailer because the return policy didn’t meet their expectations. 

This shift makes return policies a delicate balance. Offering free returns may cut into margins in the short term, while unclear or overly restrictive policies can damage trust and reduce repeat business. Retailers and brands are finding success by combining accessibility with just enough friction. One effective lever is time: 51% of global consumers consider a return window of 14 days or less to be reasonable. When positioned well, these types of limits can feel fair—especially when paired with fast, convenient return options and clear communication.

Localization matters as one size does not fit all 

Return behavior varies widely by region. In Europe, shorter return windows are more accepted: 57% of German consumers and 64% of French consumers believe 14 days or less is reasonable. In contrast, North American shoppers tend to expect longer windows and often treat the return period as an extension of the shopping process. 

Product category also influences return behavior across regions. In parts of Europe, it’s common for over 60% of apparel purchases to be refunded. Meanwhile, beauty and personal care products are more likely to be returned in North America, reflecting regional norms around trial and satisfaction guarantees. 

These patterns make clear that brands and retailers need region-specific policies and messaging. A policy that feels fair in one market may feel restrictive in another, and a uniform global return process risks alienating loyal shoppers. 

Turn returns into an advantage 

While return rates rise, margins are under pressure. Free shipping, free returns, restocking, and reverse logistics all eat into profit. But many of these costs are avoidable with the right tools and strategy. Our new report identifies key ways that returns are often a costly, but avoidable, downstream effect of poor upstream processes. With the right data and a proactive approach, retailers and brands can reduce return volume, recapture margin, and retain more loyal customers. 

The 2025 Global Returns & Profit Impact Report is a guide for doing exactly that. Download the full report to explore category-specific trends, country-level return insights, and steps you can take today to reduce costs and protect profit. 

Read the full report here. 

The post Introducing the 2025 Global Returns & Profit Impact Report appeared first on Rithum.

In 2023, ecommerce sales surpassed $1 trillion in the United States. But many retailers and brands aren’t feeling these historic gains in their revenue growth: a whopping 60% report ongoing profitability challenges. 

Why are sales up, but profits down?  

The short answer: Customer acquisition costs are rising, fulfillment is growing more complex, and returns continue to chip away at margins. The longer answer: Operational chaos behind the scenes—in the form of manual processes, disconnected systems, and reactive workarounds—makes those problems much, much harder to fix.  

Ecommerce sales grew 8.4% last year, even as retailers and brands faced higher fulfillment costs, tighter ad budgets, and changing shopper behavior. Growth is there to capture, but turning it into profit takes focus and working smarter with today’s new pace of commerce in mind. 

“Navigating the turbulent waters of online commerce has never been more challenging . . . The journey from attracting online traffic to converting sales is fraught with financial hurdles, making the quest for profitability a formidable challenge for today’s digital businesses.” – IDC, Evolution of Online Commerce 

Miniscule margins and manual mayhem 

Margins in ecommerce typically hover between 5–10%, well below traditional retail. These tight margins mean that every inefficiency, every oversold SKU, every listing error, and every delayed order hits your bottom line harder. Then there’s the added time spent fixing those issues, taking employees away from more valuable tasks.  

These challenges grow as you scale.According to new research by Coresight, 68% of retailers cite complicated, multi-source inventory management as a top profitability challenge. This is often what brings retailers and brands to talk to us at Rithum in the first place: their processes are breaking under the weight of promised potential as their speed of growth outpaces their support systems. And at the same time, consumers have rising expectations for speed and convenience from their digital shopping experiences. To meet the combined pressure of internal growth and consumer demands, you’ve likely stitched together manual workarounds and disconnected tools just to keep up. But what worked at $10M in sales falls apart at $50M. Instead of scaling smoothly, operations buckle under the complexity of managing dozens of channels, syncing data from multiple sources, and responding to returns, errors, and out-of-stocks in real time. As Coresight’s industry datamakes clear, operational complexity is now a bigger barrier to profitability than demand. 

Need a more specific example? Let’s look at retail media networks. 

The RMN reality check

Retail media networks (RMNs)—where retailers offer technology infrastructure to sell advertising space to brands on their websites, apps, or in-store—has been dubbed by McKinsey as the next trillion-dollar market. So, it’s no wonder that 60% of retailers are investing heavily in building dedicated RMNs. With an expected ROI of 26%, these investments far surpass expectations for ROI in any other investment that retailers are banking on. 

But the Gold Rush to mine retail media advertising-driven revenue has also unearthed new chasms of inefficiency and mistrust: 65% of retailers say they don’t trust the accuracy of their own retail media reporting, citing this as one of their biggest challenges in driving profitability and attracting brand advertisers. This is a serious issue: retailers and the brands they hope to attract don’t trust the metrics driving their most ambitious monetization strategy.  

Building RMNs without a scalable plan or trust in the metrics produced is likely to erode the very margins that an investment in retail media was meant to boost. RMNs are already a steep hill to climb when built in-house: retailers face heavy upfront investments in tech, only to then compete with the market dominance of Amazon and Walmart (where nearly 2/3 of the U.S. retail media advertising dollars are spent). Lack of standardization is one of the biggest RMN challenges for over half of advertisers, according to an emarketer survey from just last January. And without transparent, standardized metrics, brands hesitate to invest in ad spending on smaller RMNs, and are left to rely on their own internal reporting (which can introduce an additional layer of uncertainty).  

Systemic challenges require systemic solutions 

RMNs are just one example of a broader pattern where retailers and brands face major operational strain but underinvest in solving it.  

For another example, let’s look at returns management. Despite being cited by 67% of retailers and 60% of brands as a top challenge, returns management remains chronically under-solutioned. Retailers rank it fourth in investment priority, while brands place it dead last, despite recognizing its growing operational cost. This gap between impact and investment highlights a major missed opportunity: streamlining returns could unlock significant margin gains, yet most ecommerce organizations have yet to treat it as a strategic priority. This is partly because returns are so daunting to tackle. But ignoring them as a revenue drain doesn’t fix the problem (we have a whole report on this coming out soon—stay tuned!). 

We’re all humans running these ecommerce sites, and it’s easy to focus on what seems smartest on paper. But by prioritizing growth at all costs, instead of looking at the factors chipping away at that very growth from the inside, you end up throwing good money after bad priorities. 

But the solution isn’t more tools . . . in this economy, no one is looking to add unnecessary overhead. Instead, it’s fewer, smarter ones based in unified automation that can target shifting pain points. 

“Third-party (3P) commerce unlocks the full potential of ecommerce promises, including efficiency, scalability, reach . . . and sustainable growth.” – IDC, Evolution of Online Commerce 

It’s tempting to view profitability challenges as operational tweaks. But these issues are systemic. And they require systemic solutions. A good place to start is to shift towards adopting technology that can help you break down silos and uncover some of those inefficiencies that are undermining profitability, whether it is gaps in inventory, returns management, content optimization, or other risks. 

Unifying operations helps align technology and business goals to focus on the true profit drains and revenue risks. Unification opportunities should be the first stop on your road to growth. By unifying operations, your entire ecommerce focus can move at one pace, so your systems don’t break even as you scale.  

Sources: 

• Coresight Research, Unlocking Success: The Pathway to Profitability, 2024 
• IDC, Evolution of Online Commerce: The Opportunity with 3P Marketplaces, 2024 
• McKinsey, The State of AI in 2024 
• McKinsey, Commerce media: The new force transforming advertising 
• EMarketer, Advertisers have reasons for taking retail media measurement into their own hands 

The post The $1 Trillion Paradox: Why Your Gains Are Eroding Your Profits (and What to Do About It)  appeared first on Rithum.

In 2025, brands and retailers that succeed will provide a consistent, dependable presence across every channel where consumers shop. This is especially true during the peak sales events, when high-quality product listings, accurate inventory and pricing, and compliance with the specific requirements of each marketplace are the only ways to stand out in a crowded field.  In 2024, we saw what worked (and what didn’t) for brands and retailers hoping to capture the momentum of peak sales events. This guide outlines what brands and retailers can expect during each major sales period, drawing on 2024’s results and how to plan your 2025 e-commerce strategy with a scalable approach.

Amazon Prime Day (July 8-11, 2025)

Amazon’s 2024 Prime Day was its biggest ever, with independent sellers moving over 200 million items¹. U.S. e-commerce spending during Prime Week surpassed $14.2 billion². In the UK and EMEA markets, Prime Day 2024 also set local records, with Amazon U.K. reporting the highest-ever customer participation³. 

Prime Day drives significant midyear revenue spikes and builds customer acquisition momentum across North America, Europe, and key APAC markets. Here are the results from July 2025’s Amazon Prime Day event.

How Rithum helps: 

• Orchestrates synchronized campaigns across Amazon and rival marketplaces. 
• Connects brands with a trusted supplier network. 
• Dynamically adjusts retail media advertising based on real-time product demand. 
• Uses AI (AI Magic Mapper) to automatically align products with marketplace categories. 

Back-to-School (July–September) 

Back-to-school spending in the US reached $38.8 billion⁴ in 2024, with over half of families beginning their shopping by early July. Globally, the back-to-school season drives strong demand in countries like Canada, the UK, Australia, and across EMEA, especially in the categories of electronics, apparel, and dorm essentials. 

Back-to-school season fuels steady Q3 revenue across multiple regions, requiring localized inventory and marketing strategies. 

How Rithum helps: 

• Rithum enables you to launch back-to-school storefronts and promotions across channels. 
• Uses forecasting tools to optimize inventory allocation regionally. 
• Links digital marketing and commerce efforts for a cohesive consumer experience. 

Labor Day Sales (Early September) 

Labor Day continues to be a major seasonal clearance event in the U.S., particularly across categories like apparel, home goods, and electronics. In 2024, consumers demonstrated even stronger price sensitivity during major discount periods. According to Adobe Analytics, price sensitivity—the extent to which shoppers adjust their purchasing behavior based on discounts—increased by 2.5% compared to the previous year⁵. This shift contributed to an additional $305 million in online spending across key sales events like Prime Day, Memorial Day, and Labor Day weekend.  

Although Labor Day is primarily a North American event, early September clearance promotions are now common across retail calendars in parts of EMEA and APAC, marking a seasonal shift in inventory. Retailers worldwide use the end of summer to clear seasonal stock and shift their focus to launching new products for the fourth quarter. 

How Rithum helps: 

• Automates clearance markdowns and promotional updates across marketplaces. 
• Helps Identify surplus inventory and supports targeted liquidation strategies. 
• Supports every customer’s delivery needs by choosing a customized approach to fulfillment and shipping. 

Amazon Prime Big Deal Days (October) 

Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days in October 2024 outperformed the previous year’s event⁶, driving early holiday shopping momentum. Participation expanded globally, with strong performances noted in Germany, Japan, and Canada. UK consumers were also increasingly engaged, drawn by earlier holiday promotions. 

October now represents an early holiday surge worldwide, allowing brands to secure early gift budgets before traditional Black Friday cycles. 

How Rithum helps: 

• Aligns holiday kickoff promotions across Amazon, DTC sites, and competing marketplaces. 
• Optimizes fall retail media spend based on early season consumer behavior. 
• Allows you to adjust inventory strategies based on real-time early holiday sales trends. 

Singles’ Day (November 11) 

Singles’ Day 2024 reaffirmed its position as the world’s largest shopping event, with sales across major Chinese e-commerce platforms reaching an estimated ¥1.44 trillion (approximately $199 billion), a 26.6% increase year-over-year⁷. While Alibaba and JD.com did not report total GMV, both saw strong performance: JD.com reported a 20% increase in shoppers, and 45 brands on Alibaba surpassed ¥1 billion ($138 million) in sales⁸. The event continues to create significant cross-border opportunity, with growing engagement across Hong Kong, Singapore, and Southeast Asia. 

How Rithum helps: 

• Integrates cross-border marketplace listings with fulfillment visibility. 
• Optimizes localized retail media campaigns for consumer expectations. 

Black Friday (November 28) 

Black Friday 2024 delivered $10.8 billion in U.S. online sales⁹, up eight percent year-over-year, with nearly 58% of sales completed via mobile devices. Globally, Black Friday also showed strong results: the UK saw a 5% increase in online sales compared to 2023, and key markets in EMEA and APAC launched localized Black Friday promotions to capture demand. 

Black Friday has become a truly worldwide phenomenon, setting expectations for deep discounts and seamless omnichannel shopping experiences everywhere. 

How Rithum helps: 

• Adjust pricing, promotions, and inventory availability across all channels. 
• Allows you to adjust advertising budgets based on live product performance. 
• Our centralized dashboard provides brands and retailers with a view of operations to track and synchronize fulfillment, inventory and orders across multiple channels. 

Cyber Monday (December 1) 

Cyber Monday 2024 set a record with $13.3 billion in U.S. online sales¹⁰. Globally, Cyber Monday continues to grow as an e-commerce-specific event, with EMEA and LATAM markets increasingly adopting the model, often extending into Cyber Week promotions. 

Peak online traffic during Cyber Monday requires exceptional coordination across channels and fulfillment networks worldwide. 

How Rithum helps: 

• Advanced targeting capabilities enhance ad relevance and boost engagement and conversion rates. 
• Synchronizes promotions to extend Cyber 5 opportunities. 
• Supports real-time site and fulfillment monitoring during order

The post Preparing for 2025’s Peak Sales Events: A Strategic Guide for Brands and Retailers appeared first on Rithum.

What do we mean by fragmented channels?

One of the biggest roadblocks to growth I’ve seen is when selling channels and systems become disconnected, requiring duplicate efforts and manual work to keep each channel updated. Instead of a unified omnichannel platform, you might be juggling separate inventories, overhauling product content, and adjusting pricing strategies to remain profitable. This fragmentation simply slows everything down, often without you realizing it.

In this recent report from Coresight, retailers cited complicated and multiple sources of inventory as the top challenge in both product delivery (68%) and returns management (84%). “Limited real-time information” also ranked in the top five issues, cited by 69% of retailers and 70% of brands for returns. (Real-time information is typically easiest to access when you have centralized inventory data.)

The industry knows that disconnected systems are creating blind spots. But it’s tough to find a fix when these gaps don’t show up as line items on a budget. Instead, they’re often masked by top-line growth, and don’t surface until profits plateau (or worse, dive off a cliff).

In my experience, here are five of the most common hidden costs that brands run into when expanding to new channels—and some tips on how to solve them before they erode profitability.

Hidden Cost 1: Overselling and Stockouts

A consumer searches for your product on Amazon and clicks your listing . . . only to be met with “unavailable.”

These moments don’t just hurt the bottom line—they damage customer loyalty and your standing on marketplaces.  Without centralized inventory management, even basic fulfillment becomes a liability. And when inventory isn’t synced across channels, it leads to costly mistakes: Retailers lose a staggering $1.8 trillion globally each year due to inventory distortion, with out-of-stock issues accounting for more than half of that.¹

You might see the cost there, but the harder hitting hidden impact is what happens next: When faced with a stockout, fewer than half of consumers will make a substitute purchase, and nearly a third will buy the item elsewhere.² One day out of stock can tank your product’s rank by over 28% on Amazon, and after 3+ days of being out of stock, rank can fall by 83%. These hits take months to recover from.³

Hidden Cost 2: Manual Processes That Drain Resources

If your team is still juggling listings, pricing, and orders with manual tools and workarounds, then you’re paying an invisible tax on growth.

The thing is, you probably know this: the inefficiencies of manual work are no secret. But if you’re like the e-comm professionals surveyed by Coresight, you’re not investing in automation and operational systems to fix it:

“Despite identifying returns, product content, and delivery as the top three profitability challenges, brands and retailers continue to overinvest in areas like marketing and marketplace expansion, while underinvesting in automation and systems that address these core operational pain points.” – Coresight report

Manual inefficiencies are widespread and costly, with 60% of brands and retailers reporting a known impact. Returns especially hit hard, with 83% of brands citing lack of automation as a major concern (we have a whole report on the impact of returns coming out soon—stay tuned for that!).⁴

The growth investment is understandable, of course. It’s a competitive world out there, especially now. But the overfocus on scaling without the scaffolding of connected automation will drain more resources the more you grow. Automation and operational systems would not only have a direct impact on margin in your current state, but enable faster growth, if only they became a priority. And the stakes are high: it can cost $50 to $150 to manually process just one purchase order. Multiply that by thousands of SKUs, and the resource drain is staggering.⁵ (Want to read more about the impact of manual processes? Check out this Trotec case study, where they achieved a 20% increase in GMV after implementing new automations.)

Hidden Cost 3: Inconsistent Product Listings That Undermine Consumer Trust

Your product listings are the digital shelf, which make them the most important online real estate you own. Discrepancies in product descriptions, titles, and images can lead to mismatched expectations. And those mismatches lead to returns.

Returns cost US online businesses more than $800B annually, and poor product data is one of the biggest avoidable returns drivers.⁶ Product content isn’t just a conversion tool—it’s a profitability lever. But 67% of brands say they still struggle with product content optimization, especially when listings must meet different standards across fragmented, disconnected marketplaces. According to Coresight, this is the single biggest challenge brands face in building sustainable growth and profitability.

Hidden Cost 4: Lack of Visibility into Channel Profitability (and Beyond)

Top-line revenue is only part of scalability. The true test is whether your channels are delivering profit (not just volume). If reporting is fragmented or incomplete, brands often can’t see which channels are profitable (and which are quietly bleeding).

You can’t fix what you can’t see. Eighty percent of brands told Coresight they lack the insights needed to identify their most profitable channels. This lack of visibility makes it all too easy to invest in underperforming platforms or pull back from high-profitability ones without realizing it. This misalignment can sneak into more granular decisions as well. A push for two-day shipping might help the commercial team hit revenue goals, but it can strain logistics costs. Without item-level cost visibility, commercial teams could say this was a great decision—then end up hurting profitability. More granular operational insights help at every level, and often more than you might think.

Hidden Cost 5. Lost Agility in a Fast-Moving Market

Speed and strategy are key to scaling. But brands that can’t react quickly to shifts in demand, pricing, or fulfillment lose more than time—they lose market share. Coresight found that across product assortment and content management, the inability to respond to change was cited by over 60% of respondents as a key roadblock to profitability.

New marketplaces launch and gain traction fast. Trends spike and fade overnight. Winning means moving quickly. When launching a promotion means updating listings across five different systems—or when a supplier issue takes days to reach the e-commerce team—disjointed operations turn growth liabilities. In a fragmented setup, rolling out new products or adjusting assortments is often a slow, manual process. If a new trend arises (e.g. a sudden spike in demand for a certain style or gadget), a fragmented operation may take weeks to get the product listed everywhere, by which time more nimble competitors have already captured the sales. One analysis noted that retailers with disjointed channels often waste 15–20 hours a month reconciling product data across systems​.⁷

Those delays are essentially lost revenue. Speed and coordination are table stakes in today’s digital world. And the best way to move fast is to have connected visibility and data.

The Strategic Shift: From Fragmented to Connected Commerce

The most successful brands aren’t scaling with fragmented, brute force. They’re scaling with intelligence. Unified commerce platforms empower these brands to:

• Sync inventory across all channels in real-time
• Standardize product data to build trust and boost conversions
• Automate order routing and listing updates
• Generate cross-channel reports that show true profitability

Growing fast while fragmented will hurt you in the long run (and probably the short run, too). But scaling smarter will enable growth across channels without growing pains.

Want to see what unified commerce looks like in action? Talk to one of our Rithum experts to learn how to simplify and scale multichannel selling.

1. https://www.retailtouchpoints.com/features/industry-insights/ihl-study-inventory-distortion-will-cost-retailers-1-77-trillion-in-2023
2. https://hbr.org/2004/05/stock-outs-cause-walkouts
3. https://dataweave.com/blog/amazon-stock-out-impact-on-ecommerce
4. https://coresight.com/research/unlocking-success-the-pathway-to-profitability-for-us-brands-and-retailers/
5. https://www.ascendsoftware.com/blog/the-average-cost-of-processing-a-purchase-order-a-detailed-analysis
6. https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/nrf-and-happy-returns-report-2024-retail-returns-total-890-billion
7. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/unmasking-hidden-complexities-channel-expansion-brandon-pemberton-lzdjc/

The post The 5 Hidden Costs of Fragmented E-commerce Channels appeared first on Rithum.

What is 3P commerce?

Third-party commerce is different for retailers compared with brands. For retailers, 3P commerce helps them access unowned inventory. This is a business model where brands sell products directly to consumers through a retailer’s storefront, typically through a dropship or marketplace approach. This model shifts inventory risk away from retailers, who instead act as facilitators between brands and consumers. For brands, 3P commerce helps them extend their owned inventory to unowned channels. This allows brands to reach more consumers through a multichannel selling strategy.

Marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart have led the way, allowing brands to reach more consumers without the need for extensive inventory management. Consumers shopped on Amazon and Walmart marketplaces 30% more in 2023 compared with 2022, according to 1Worldsync.

What is 1P commerce?

First-party (1P) commerce is where retailers purchase products directly from brands or manufacturers and then sell those products to consumers. In this model, the retailer owns the inventory and is responsible for managing it. This traditional approach has been the foundation of retail for decades, but challenges include inventory risks and scalability.

Rithum offers a hybrid model enabling brands and retailers to combine elements of both 3P and 1P models. This allows brands and retailers to leverage their strengths while mitigating risks.

Differences between 3P and 1P commerce

Depending on your needs, there are benefits to both 3P and 1P commerce models.

Inventory ownership

• 3P commerce: Brands retain ownership of the inventory; retailer facilitates the sale.
• 1P commerce: Retailers purchase and own the inventory.

Risk and investment

• 3P commerce: Reduced financial risks for retailers because they do not hold the inventory.
• 1P commerce: Higher inventory risks and capital investment for retailers.

Scalability

• 3P commerce: Offers immense scalability, allowing brands to reach wider audiences without the limitations of physical inventory management.
• 1P commerce: Scalability can be challenging due to inventory and warehousing constraints.

Flexibility

• 3P commerce: More flexibility allows sellers to adapt quickly to market changes and consumer demands.
• 1P commerce: Less flexible because the retailer is often in possession of inventory.

3P commerce popularity is growing

Over the last two decades, 3P commerce has outpaced traditional 1P models, becoming the leading ecommerce approach for sellers of all sizes. Sellers’ margins are tightening.

According to Alix Partners, margins have been squeezed by 60% over the last decade. 3P commerce offers a sustainable and profitable strategy for businesses.

Amazon’s 3P business has grown twice as fast as its 1P commerce since the launch of its marketplace in 2000, according to Statista. This shift continues as consumer behavior continues to change, with more shoppers preferring the convenience and additional choices provided when shopping through marketplaces.

Challenges and solutions in 3P commerce

While 3P commerce continues to grow, managing a multichannel selling strategy can be complex and costly to sellers. Rithum offers an automated solution and a platform that supports over 40,000 global brands, retailers, and suppliers. Our unified commerce network streamlines complex technologies, offering expansive reach across multiple marketplaces while significantly reducing time-to-market. Brands and retailers can quickly expand product assortment, boost customer engagement and loyalty, and attract new customers.

By simplifying and optimizing technology, Rithum empowers brands and retailers to sell and expand with the risks associated with traditional inventory management. Our solutions enable quick adaptation to changing market conditions, supporting dynamic changes in business models without the long lead times typically associated with such shifts.

Learn how Rithum for Brands suite of tools can help your business grow profitably. Schedule a personal demo today.

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