Financial leadership built for e-commerce brands that are ready to scale.

Works out which SKUs and channels actually make money after ads, shipping and returns. Then fixes the cash planning, because inventory and marketplace payouts decide whether growth is survivable.

When revenue is growing but the bank balance is not, or when you cannot say which SKUs earn. Usually somewhere between ₹5 and ₹50 crore, and always before a funding round.

For most brands under ₹100 crore, yes. The work is specialised but not full-time. Once you run several marketplaces, exports and a large inventory operation, a full-time hire starts to earn its cost.

Your accountant reconciles what happened. A CFO decides what to sell, at what price, on which channel, and how much stock to hold. Different job, different output.

Yes. Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Nykaa and quick-commerce each settle differently and charge differently. Channel-level profitability is usually the first thing we rebuild.

Usually because growth came from channels or SKUs with thin contribution margin. Marketplace fees, discounts, returns and rising ad costs eat the difference. Blended numbers hide it until the P&L catches up.

Net revenue after discounts and returns, minus COGS, shipping, packaging, payment gateway, marketplace commission and ad spend attributable to that sale. What remains covers overhead. Most brands stop the calculation three lines too early.

Load every variable cost to the SKU, including returns and channel fees, then rank. In most catalogues a minority of SKUs carry the brand and a long tail quietly loses money on every order.

Each channel as its own P&L — own website, Amazon, Flipkart, quick commerce, offline. Commission structures, return rates and ad efficiency differ enough that a profitable brand can have a loss-making channel.

ROAS measures revenue per rupee of ad spend. Contribution margin measures what survives after every variable cost. A 3x ROAS can still lose money once COGS, shipping and returns are loaded. Optimise margin, not ROAS.

Measure payback per channel against contribution margin, not revenue. Include returns, which are a marketing cost in practice. Spend that looks efficient on ROAS often fails on contribution.

You pay for inventory upfront and for ads immediately, then wait weeks for marketplace settlement. The faster you grow, the wider that gap gets. Profitable brands run out of cash this way regularly.

Forecast weekly against settlement cycles. Map each channel's payout timing, inventory purchase commitments, ad spend and statutory dues. The problem is timing, and monthly forecasting hides it.

Tie purchase orders to demand forecast and cash availability, not to supplier discounts. Overbought stock is the most common cash mistake in D2C, and bulk pricing rarely compensates for months of blocked cash.

Settlement reports against your books, line by line, including commission, shipping deductions, return adjustments and penalties. Marketplace deductions go unnoticed for months in most brands we review.

Measure returns by SKU and channel first. High return rates usually concentrate in specific products, sizes or channels. Fixing listings, sizing information and packaging beats renegotiating courier rates.

Grow the channels with the best contribution margin and fastest settlement, fund inventory against confirmed demand, and forecast weekly. Scaling every channel at once is how well-funded brands stall.

Registration wherever you hold stock, correct treatment of marketplace collected tax, and reconciliation between marketplace reports, GST returns and books. Mismatches surface as notices months later.

Input credit mismatches on marketplace invoices, wrong place-of-supply on interstate orders, and returns not adjusted correctly. Each is fixable, and each becomes expensive if left for a year.

Planning and coordination. Filing stays with your CA or qualified filer. We manage the cash and reconciliation side so compliance does not create surprises.

Registration in each state where stock sits, e-way bill discipline, and stock transfer documentation between your own locations. Third-party fulfilment centres frequently trigger registrations brands miss.

Reconciled marketplace settlements, matched input credits and clean stock records. Most notices to D2C brands trace back to marketplace data not matching filed returns.

Contribution margin by SKU and channel, cohort retention, CAC payback, clean inventory accounting and honest return rates. Investors in consumer brands test unit economics before growth.

Contribution margin after all variable costs, repeat rate and cohort behaviour, CAC payback period, inventory turns and channel mix. Revenue growth alone no longer raises money in consumer.

Heavily. Overstated inventory, unrecognised dead stock or aggressive capitalisation all get discovered in diligence and reprice the deal. Clean it before you raise, not during.

Yes. Inventory funding, revenue-based finance and channel finance all exist for D2C, and each suits a different cash pattern. Presenting the working capital cycle accurately is what gets terms improved.

Cut the loss-making tail of the catalogue, shift mix toward high-contribution channels, fix return rates on the worst SKUs and reprice where margin is thin. These move numbers within a quarter.