The key to 2026: reducing costs in e-commerce

Lecture on the topic:

The key to 2026: reducing costs in e-commerce

Speakers:

Robert Zajonz - POWERGAP

Description:

Rising marketing expenses, increasing technical and bureaucratic complexity, declining margins and, at the same time, growing customer expectations are posing major challenges for many e-commerce companies. Reducing costs in 2026 is therefore no longer a short-term cost-cutting measure, but a core strategic task. The aim is to become more efficient without jeopardising sales, quality or growth.

A key mistake in cost reduction is to view individual cost items in isolation. Cuts in the wrong place – such as in marketing – often worsen the overall system and lead to lower margins in the long term instead of real savings. It is therefore crucial to look at the bigger picture.

For many companies, marketing is the largest cost factor in e-commerce. The most effective lever here is not so much cheaper traffic, but rather creating more value from existing traffic. Conversion optimisation, clean tracking and the reduction of wastage are crucial here.

Manual processes are another often underestimated cost driver. Duplicate data maintenance, manual price or inventory adjustments, and Excel lists as interfaces cause time consumption, errors, and unnecessary costs. Automation, centralised data storage, and targeted training can accelerate, scale, and improve the quality of processes.

Historically grown system landscapes also cause high costs due to interfaces, maintenance and dependencies on many service providers. Consolidated, centralised solutions reduce complexity and long-term expenses. In addition, logistics and returns offer great savings potential: better data and information quality reduces returns, relieves customer service and reduces costs.

Reducing costs in e-commerce therefore does not mean doing without, but working more intelligently – with optimised processes, better data and sensibly used software.