With paid acquisition costs remaining high and margin pressure intensifying, sustainable growth increasingly depends on disciplined, organisation-wide experimentation. The most successful D2C brands at the eCommerce Forum are not just running more tests: they are building a culture where continuous optimisation is embedded across teams…
Moving beyond isolated A/B tests
Historically, CRO in DTC businesses often focused on tactical A/B testing: button colours, headline tweaks or checkout layouts. While incremental gains still matter, brands are now expanding experimentation to higher-impact areas such as pricing strategy, bundling, subscription models and post-purchase journeys.
Experimentation at scale means prioritising tests based on potential commercial impact, not ease of execution. Clear hypothesis frameworks and structured testing roadmaps help ensure efforts align with revenue and lifetime value (LTV) objectives.
Cross-functional ownership
One of the biggest barriers to scaling experimentation is siloed working. CRO insights often sit within the e-commerce or performance marketing team, disconnected from product, brand or customer service.
Leading D2C brands are establishing cross-functional optimisation squads, bringing together marketing, UX, merchandising and analytics. This ensures insights from customer feedback, returns data and support tickets inform website testing and vice versa.
When CRO becomes a shared KPI rather than a departmental metric, velocity and impact both increase.
Governance and testing velocity
As experimentation expands, governance becomes critical. Without clear guardrails, overlapping tests can distort data and undermine confidence in results. Best practice in 2026 includes:
- Centralised test calendars
- Clear ownership of experimentation frameworks
- Defined statistical thresholds
- Transparent reporting dashboards
High-performing D2C brands track not only uplift but also testing velocity, i.e. measuring how many meaningful experiments are launched and concluded each month.
Data maturity as the foundation
First-party data is increasingly central to effective CRO. Integrating behavioural data, CRM insights and purchase history enables more targeted testing and personalisation.
However, scale requires robust analytics infrastructure. Clean event tracking, reliable attribution and disciplined data interpretation are non-negotiable.
Culture over tools
While AI-driven testing platforms and personalisation engines are proliferating, technology alone does not create an experimentation culture. Leadership support, tolerance for failure and clear commercial alignment are essential.
D2C brands that treat optimisation as a continuous operating model (rather than a campaign tactic) are best positioned to protect margin and drive profitable growth.
CRO at scale is not about running more experiments. It is about embedding curiosity, discipline and data-led decision-making into the DNA of the business.
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