Unpacking 2025 Ecommerce Finance & Marketing Insights
Finaloop teamed up with Triple Whale and several distinguished guests for an insider look at Q1 2025 financial trends and marketing performance across hundreds of DTC brands.
Key Financial Performance: Margins, CAC, & Top-Line Growth
Rafi Ganz, Finaloop's Head of Partnerships, opened the session, revealing an uptick in gross profit margins among Finaloop clients, rising from 51% to 54% year over year. The improvement, he said, was likely a product of stronger supply chain efficiency and improved decision-making on the part of the ecom brand managers. At the same time, he also noted a drop in contribution margin - from 32% to 25% - largely due to rising customer acquisition costs.
Profitability Shifts: Gross Margin vs. Contribution Margin
Rafi noted, marketing is becoming less efficient, but total contribution dollars are still up 16% due to solid top-line growth.
The Power of Real-Time Data & Financial Discipline
Matt Putra, founder of EightX, noted the importance of real-time data. He said Finaloop brands are outperforming partly because they can make quicker, more informed financial decisions.
Jordan West, Founder of Social Commerce Club, emphasized that the most successful brands are the ones that pay attention to their numbers daily. From his experience running outdoor brands and advising new ones, he’s found that visibility and discipline around cash flow and margins drive real results.
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Industry Insights: Performance Across Ecommerce Verticals
The conversation then moved to the apparel industry, which continues to struggle, with flat to negative year-over-year growth, while health and beauty saw margins above 20% and strong revenue gains.
Jordan explained the challenges facing apparel brands - rising costs, commoditization, and fierce competition from overseas. He also shared his skepticism about TikTok Shop for most apparel brands but noted its strong potential for footwear.
Tariff Impacts on Margins & Strategic Responses
When tariffs came into effect in April 2025, the expected margin hit hadn’t fully materialized yet. Rafi showed that gross margins actually rose to 59% as brands raised prices and pulled back on discounts in anticipation of tariff impacts. Matt described how one brand turned this challenge into a company-wide opportunity, creating a “tariff challenge” to crowdsource cost-saving and revenue-driving ideas across their team.
Q1 2025 Digital Marketing Benchmarks & Strategies
Tamanna from Triple Whale rounded out the session with data from their Q1 advertising benchmark report.
Meta Ad Performance: Costs, CTRs, & Customer Acquisition
Meta continues to dominate ad spend, but costs are rising fast, and CTRs are falling. New customer acquisition is getting harder, while returning customers now account for a larger share of revenue.
She also stressed the need for constant creative testing, smarter platform diversification, and personalized customer experiences.
Optimizing Ad Channels: Creative, Diversification, & TikTok Shop
Both she and Jordan highlighted TikTok as an emerging opportunity for efficient top-of-funnel growth—particularly when creators and whitelisted content are used strategically across channels. The clear message: in a high-cost, fast-moving market, agility, data, and execution are everything.
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