What Would You Do if growth at your eCommerce brand has stalled? – with Janis Thomas (episode 566)
What would you do as Head of eCommerce if growth has stalled and you’re tasked with massively improving operational efficiency?
In this special WWYD episode, eCommerce & Subscriptions expert Janis Thomas – also recently named in the Top 100 UK Marketing Influencers list – shares how to strip back, reset, and reignite growth.
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Dive in:
[04:42] Streamline and Audit for Growth
[07:19] Evolving Design and Business Practices
[12:31] Strategic Prioritization for Quick Impact
[15:46] Experimentation Drives Business Improvement
[19:18] Team Meetings: Encouraging Experiments
[22:28] Focus on Brand Consistency
[26:22] AI Design Needs Specificity
[28:17] Listen to Janis’ Top Tips!
Re-examine Your Business from the Ground Up
If your eCommerce growth has stalled, don’t just tweak a campaign or trial a new marketing channel. Janis recommends stepping back and taking a “blank sheet” approach. This involves reviewing your team, tech stack, costs, and processes. Many businesses scaled quickly during COVID and now might be left with unnecessary complexity and bloated expenses. Doing a painful but vital audit can shed what no longer serves you and create space for future growth. This is a big, sometimes uncomfortable process, but it’s essential for long-term success.
Prioritize Ruthlessly to Enable Fast Change
Janis stresses that you won’t regain growth just by optimizing around the edges—you need to focus on actions with the greatest impact. Start by identifying quick wins, like pausing low-performing channels, reducing unnecessary tech and software subscriptions, and automating repetitive tasks. This lets you free up both cash and staff time for experiments and true innovation. Time and money saved should immediately get reinvested into strategic priorities, not just absorbed back into old routines.
Inspire and Involve Your Team
Any big change can make teams nervous, especially if it sounds like cost-cutting or restructuring. Janis highlights how crucial it is to bring your team along for the journey by creating an inspiring vision of the future. Invite staff to contribute ideas, experiment, and take ownership of improvements. Regular team challenges and meetings can help everyone feel valued and on board. Clear, positive communication cuts down on fear and builds a culture of innovation.
Get Your Business DNA Right
Having strong company values, clear positioning, and detailed customer understanding is more important than ever. Janis urges brands to define what makes them unique before making structural changes or adopting new tools like AI. Your business “DNA” should guide everything, from marketing decisions to the way tech is used. Without a strong identity, using AI or automating processes can just create bland and ineffective results. Taking the time to clarify who you are ensures consistency, both internally and in the marketplace.
Leverage AI—But Don’t Skip the Foundations
AI offers huge potential, especially around marketing creative and content, but only if you feed it high-quality input. Janis warns that without structured product data, defined tone of voice, and examples of what “good” looks like, AI tools will deliver generic or off-brand results. Involve experienced staff and invest in building the right data foundations before fully diving in. AI should boost efficiency and spark creativity—not add confusion or dilute your brand. Used wisely, it can help you do more with less and experiment faster than ever.
eCommerce Book Top Tip
- Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam Grant
eCommerce Traffic Top Tip
- Stop obsessing over website traffic. Focus instead on communicating clearly with customers wherever they are
Tool Top Tip
- Janis highlights the power of well-structured AI prompts. Clearly define who you are, what you want, and give quality examples, because great inputs = great outputs.
Carbon Top Tip
- Janis says reducing waste in time, resources, and processes isn’t just efficient — it’s also the smartest way to cut an eCommerce brand’s carbon footprint.
Interview links
Related Episodes
- Grow from 7 figures to 8 figures in beauty with Janis Thomas from Look Fabulous Forever (episode 404)
- How to Get the Best Out of Your Website Agency with Sanya Ristic and Janis Thomas (episode 557)
- WWYD? Ian Leslie on Achieving Hockey Stick Growth in a $10–25M eCommerce Brand (episode 561)
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