Every week I talk to store owners who have already paid two or three “experts”. The pattern is the same: a polished presentation, generic advice, not a single number that moved. The problem is not that bad consultants exist. It is that we choose them with the wrong criteria.
These are the five that matter, based on 15+ years in Greek e-commerce, on both sides of the table.
1. Has he worked with your channel?
In Greece, e-commerce is not just Google and Meta. For most online stores, Skroutz is the first or second sales channel. A consultant who has never grown merchants inside the platform does not know what “you lost your listing position because a competitor changed price at 11 pm” means.
Ask: “How many stores do you have on Skroutz right now? What share of their revenue comes from there?” A vague answer means he has not done it.
2. Does he talk about profit or revenue?
Revenue is the easy part. Anyone can grow sales if you pour enough money into ads. The hard part is knowing which product, in which channel, to which customer leaves a profit after ads, shipping, returns and commissions.
Ask: “Show me how you calculate profitability by channel for one of your clients.” If there is no table to show, he works by feel.
3. How many clients stay after the first year?
The one number that cannot be faked in a pitch. If a consultant or agency keeps its clients, it produces something. If they churn every six months, it sells well and delivers little.
Ask: “What share of the clients who started 12 months ago are still with you?” At UpCommerce it is 85%. I am not saying it to impress — I am saying it because it is the number you should demand from everyone.
4. What budget has he actually managed?
The difference between €2,000 and €50,000 a month in ad spend is not quantitative. It is a different job: different tools, different mistakes, different risk. A consultant who has only seen small budgets will advise you correctly up to a point and wrongly after it.
Ask: “What is the largest monthly budget you have managed, and what went wrong?” The second half is the important one. Anyone who says “nothing” has not done it.
5. Does he know your category?
A fashion store, a pharmacy and an auto-parts store have different return rates, different seasonality, a different role for Skroutz. “General best practice” works 60% of the time and hurts you the other 40%.
Ask: “What was the last store in my category you worked with? What was different about it?”
Seven questions before you sign
- Who exactly will work on my account — you or a team?
- What will I have in my hands after the first month? (A document, a table, a decision — not “a strategy”.)
- How do we measure whether it worked? Which number, when?
- What happens if it did not work?
- Do you have an interest in the tools or platforms you will recommend?
- How many clients do you have at the same time?
- Can I talk to two of your clients?
Four red flags
- A growth percentage promised before seeing your numbers. Nobody knows what your store will do before seeing the P&L, the channels and the returns.
- Talks only about traffic. Traffic is a cost. Profit is a result.
- Does not ask about shipping and returns. In Greece, half of the profitability problem hides there.
- The first deliverable is a 60-page audit with no priorities. That gives you work, not a decision.
Consultant or agency?
Different markets. A consultant tells you what to do and why — usually one person with their own track record. An agency executes — runs the campaigns, the feed, the reports, with a team. If you do not know where you are losing money, start with a consultant. If you know and you lack hands, go to an agency. If the same person sells you both on the same invoice, ask who will do what.
How I work
I do ecommerce consulting for Greek online stores. I do not take on execution — UpCommerce’s team does that, separately. My job is to find where your store makes money and where it leaks it, and to give you decisions with a number next to them. More about who I am: John Kiskipelis.
If you want to talk, book 30 minutes.