Hire Head of DTC — own the channel you control

A head of ecommerce typically owns all digital channels; a head of DTC owns the brand-owned direct channel specifically — with its brand, subscription, and community dimensions. Brands with meaningful wholesale or marketplace revenue often need the DTC specialist.

Only if handled badly. Assortment differentiation, launch windows, and MAP discipline let DTC grow while retail partners keep their role. Managing that tension is core to the role.

It depends on repurchase behavior. Consumables and routines are natural fits; considered purchases need a different repeat model — replenishment reminders, bundles, or membership. The head of DTC should prove the economics before committing.

Contribution margin by cohort, repeat purchase rate, subscription penetration, and owned-audience growth — not just top-line revenue, which can hide unprofitable growth.

Yes, with deliberate assortment and pricing strategy. Many brands run both: Amazon for reach and convenience, DTC for margin, story, and customer data. The head of DTC designs that split.

I work on a monthly retainer sized to the scope, typically a fixed two- to four-days-a-week engagement rather than an hourly rate. That usually lands well below the fully loaded cost of a senior permanent hire once you count salary, equity, bonus and recruiter fees. For a defined project, such as a 90-day audit and turnaround, I can scope a fixed fee instead. I give you a clear figure after the first call, not a vague day rate.

The audit and the corrected economics land inside the first two to three weeks, and that alone usually changes spending decisions straight away. Funnel and lifecycle fixes start compounding over the first quarter. Structural retention gains and a healthier payback curve are a two- to three-quarter story because repurchase cycles take real calendar time to play out. I am honest about this upfront rather than promising an overnight transformation that no credible operator can deliver.

If your channel is already large and complex enough to need daily hands-on trading, hire full-time and let me help you recruit them. If you are earlier, or you need senior judgement without a senior salary, fractional is the sharper choice: you get the seniority applied to the decisions that matter and avoid overpaying for presence. Many clients hire me fractionally first, then I define and fill the permanent seat once the channel justifies it.

Usually, yes. I am not there to tear things down for the sake of it. Often the agency is competent but pointed at the wrong metric, so I reset the brief, the targets and the reporting we hold them to, and the relationship improves. Where a partner genuinely cannot deliver, I will say so plainly and manage the transition. When you hire a head of DTC through me you get leadership of the whole operation, not a turf war.

Platform pixels claim credit for sales that would have happened anyway, so I treat their ROAS as directional at best. I lean on geo holdout tests, planned scale-up and scale-down experiments, and occasional channel pauses to watch what the baseline does. Alongside that I run a blended source of truth, usually Triple Whale or Northbeam, reconciled against GA4 and the real bank numbers. The decision metric is blended CAC against contribution, never a single platform's self-reported figure.

Most of my DTC work is on Shopify and Shopify Plus because that is where the brand-owned channel usually lives, and I know the ecosystem (Klaviyo, Recharge, Skio, Gorgias, Okendo and the rest) intimately. I have also worked across headless builds and other commerce platforms. The platform matters far less than whether the stack is validated against your actual order volume and catalogue, which is one of the first things I check when you hire a head of DTC for the channel.