More traffic will not help when the bottleneck is in the warehouse.

Find what caps the entire flow.

Fredrik introduces bottlenecks from The Goal and the theory of constraints. One part of a flow can get faster without increasing the final output. Parts simply pile up before the next constraint.

Applied to e-commerce, that is a useful question. Do we need more people visiting the site? Do visitors need better help to buy? Or do we need to address what happens after the first order so customers want to return?

Acquisition, conversion and retention are one way to organise the work. But only by connecting them to product, delivery and economics can we choose what to do first.

If a product lacks documentation an important audience asks for, the next ad variation may not be the biggest obstacle. If the product exists, sells and works but never arrives on time, the problem looks different.

Demand can exceed the company’s capacity.

In the conversation, I describe production and logistics challenges at Västerbottenssåpa at the time of recording. Demand for some products exceeds what the flow can produce, pack and ship.

We can increase marketing and get more orders. But if delivery capacity fails to keep up, the result is a growing queue. The team has to handle both production and the consequences of customers waiting.

We also discuss how the bottleneck can move. A new machine may solve one step while the stage before it still sets the limit. Or a missing packaging component prevents everything else being finished.

That is why an isolated capacity figure is insufficient. The flow all the way to the customer needs to work. In that situation, reducing or adjusting marketing can be part of taking responsibility for the customer experience.

Recruit for what the company actually lacks.

We move on to recruitment and choosing an agency for senior roles. An important point in the episode is that the business involves more than e-commerce. It also involves production, finance and retail.

The expertise therefore needs to match the area to develop. A strong network in one niche does not automatically mean the right network for every role. References also need to tell us something about the people who will actually do the work.

I describe calling people who used the supplier to ask how the assignment went and which consultant was involved. That is one way to move from similar sales promises to something more concrete.

Start with the expertise gap and ask for references for that particular assignment. I want to know who does the work and which similar problems that person has handled.

Your ad account is connected to other people’s security.

One of the more tangible segments concerns Fredrik’s account of a hijacked ad account. A partnership and access had been approved in connection with an external tool. Ads the company had not created were then discovered.

We do not present a complete technical investigation of the incident. But it makes one thing clear: partner access is also access to the company’s resources. A professional-looking workflow does not make every part risk-free.

In the conversation, we discuss two-step verification, limiting administrator numbers and not every employee needing access to every ad account. Those everyday routines need to be part of how the collaboration works.

We also discuss control over material and data. What can the company access? Who can launch ads? Which permissions does the specific task need? Those questions need understanding before a new system becomes an unquestioned part of the business.

A changed shipping cost does not stay in logistics.

In the episode’s news discussion, we consider how changing transport, purchasing and production costs can affect e-commerce. The specific news belongs to the time of recording. The operational question remains when the news has changed.

What does the next inbound delivery cost? Does the product have the same margin when the new cost takes effect? How much of the change can we absorb, and which decisions are needed on price or the range?

There is no general percentage that answers that for every brand. A cost increase in one part of the flow does not mean the entire product cost has risen equally. The calculation needs to show the connection.

The point is to look ahead before the effect hits cash flow. An old purchase cost can make today’s sales look good while the next batch becomes a different commercial proposition.

Which bottleneck should the next project address?

Write down which obstacle the next project should address before producing more content or building a dashboard.

That may require visiting production, reviewing the customer journey or asking a prospective customer a clearer question. It may also require us to stop spending time on something that does not yet constrain the business.

Choose one obstacle, give someone responsibility for the action and follow what happens to the flow. When the constraint moves, priorities can change too.