Trusted by 700+ Shopify brands · $200M+ in revenue generated
Ecommerce Economics & Operations

Growth gets expensive when the numbers underneath it are wrong.

A lot of agencies can help you drive traffic, improve conversion, build emails, or launch a new offer. Far fewer can sit down with you and work through whether that offer actually makes sense once COGS, fulfillment, packaging, discounts, shipping, and margin are factored in.

Unit Economics Per-Order View
44%Kept per order
−57%Cost drag removed
4Levers reviewed
01

Marketing decides on a promotion

Built against traffic and revenue targets.

02

Ecommerce builds a bundle

Built against merchandising and AOV.

03

Operations gets a 3PL quote

Built against cost per order and handling.

04

Subscription adds a discount

Built against conversion and retention.

05

Shipping thresholds change

Built against cart size and shipping cost.

The Real Problem

We help you understand what you are actually making.

Revenue can look great while the business underneath it is getting less healthy.

That usually happens because decisions are being made in pieces. Everyone is solving the problem in front of them, but nobody is looking at how those decisions stack together. We help connect those pieces.

For some clients, that means reviewing COGS and landed cost to make sure pricing still works. For others, it means figuring out whether a bundle is actually profitable once extra picks, packaging, and shipping are added. In subscription, it may mean looking at the combined effect of an acquisition offer, ongoing subscriber discount, free shipping, save offers, and other incentives over time.

Our Point of View

This is practical work. We are looking at what you sell, what it costs to sell it, and whether the model supports the kind of growth you are trying to create.

What We Do

The business mechanics behind ecommerce growth.

Pricing, margin, bundle structure, subscription economics, 3PL costs, packaging, and operational setup. A less common capability for an agency, and one that comes from leaders who spent years working inside brands.

Pricing, Margin & COGS

Product cost, landed cost, gross and contribution margin, fulfillment, payment fees, and shipping subsidies, reviewed together.

Bundles, Multipacks & Offer Structure

Fixed bundles, build-your-own, variety packs, and starter kits, priced with picks, packaging, and shipping included.

Subscription Economics

Subscribe-and-save pricing, prepaid offers, load-up incentives, retention discounts, and subscriber LTV against one-time buyers.

3PL & Warehousing

Proposal reviews, pricing-structure comparisons, and the cost categories a quote leaves out before you sign.

3PL and Partner Referrals

Introductions to fulfillment partners, packaging resources, designers, and developers we already trust.

Packaging & Brand Consulting

Packaging structure, hierarchy, unboxing, pack size, and how each decision lands in fulfillment and cost.

Pricing & Margin

Work the financial side before the offer goes live.

We can help clients work through the financial side of ecommerce offers before they go live, or when existing pricing no longer feels right.

That can include reviewing product cost, landed cost, gross margin, contribution margin, fulfillment, payment fees, shipping subsidies, free shipping thresholds, promotional pricing, and how those numbers change across different products or order sizes.

We are also useful when a brand has grown quickly and pricing has been built up over time without anyone stepping back to look at the full picture.

Product cost
Landed cost
Gross margin
Contribution margin
Fulfillment cost
Payment fees
Shipping subsidies
Free shipping thresholds
Promotional pricing
Cost by order size

Sometimes the issue is not the retail price itself. It is everything stacked around it.

Starter Kit · 3-Pack
Example landed cost review
Retail price, 3-pack starter kit $87.00
Product + landed cost −$26.10
3PL pick & pack, 3 units −$8.40
Custom bundle packaging −$3.90
Free shipping over $75 −$9.20
Promotional discount, 15% −$13.05
Payment fees −$2.44
Contribution margin $23.91 · 27.5%
Example numbers. Every brand's cost stack looks different.
Fixed bundles
Set contents priced with fulfillment and packaging in view.
Build-your-own
Flexible contents that stay profitable at every combination.
Multipacks
Unit count against the extra picks the warehouse charges for.
Variety packs
Mixed SKUs, special packaging, and the handling they require.
Starter kits
Acquisition offers that still leave margin on the first order.
Shipping impact
How the finished package changes weight, size, and rate.
Bundles & Offer Structure

Bundles are where marketing and operations need to talk.

A bundle may make perfect sense from a merchandising standpoint, but the economics can change quickly depending on how many units are in the order, how the warehouse charges for additional picks, whether special packaging is required, and how the final package affects shipping cost.

We help clients think through those details when building fixed bundles, build-your-own offers, multipacks, variety packs, starter kits, or product combinations. The goal is to make sure the offer is attractive to the customer and still worth fulfilling.

Subscription Economics

Every incentive is reasonable.

The stack is what erodes margin.

We do a lot of work around subscription infrastructure, so we are also comfortable getting into the financial side of the program. Subscription economics get messy because brands layer incentives over time.

01

First-order discount

The offer that brings the subscriber in.

02

Ongoing discount

Every order after that one, forever.

03

Free shipping

Subsidised on a lower net price.

04

Gifts & rewards

Loyalty perks and subscriber exclusives.

05

Retention offers

Save offers issued at cancellation.

06

Prepaid & load-up

Deeper discounts for volume up front.

Each one can be reasonable on its own while the total stack starts to erode margin. We help clients work through that.

Our Point of View

We can also work alongside the subscription strategy itself so the offer and the economics are being developed together rather than one after the other. That includes subscribe-and-save pricing, prepaid subscriptions, subscriber bundles, load-up offers, retention discounts, and how subscriber LTV compares with one-time purchase customers.

3PL & Warehousing

The headline price rarely

tells the whole story.

A 3PL proposal may look straightforward until you start adding per-unit charges, additional SKU fees, storage, receiving, kitting, inserts, returns, packaging, cold-chain requirements, oversized shipping, or other handling costs.

What the Proposal Shows

The quoted rate

Per-order pick and pack The headline rate everyone compares.
Storage by pallet or bin Quoted before real inventory levels.
Standard packaging Assumes nothing custom or oversized.
A shipping table Rates that move with weight and size.
A monthly minimum Easy to clear, easy to overlook.
An implementation fee One line for a long onboarding.
What We Review With You

The rest of the cost

Per-unit and additional SKU fees What each extra unit and SKU actually costs.
Receiving, storage, and kitting The work before an order is ever picked.
Inserts, returns, and reships Recurring costs that rarely make the quote.
Cold chain and oversized handling Special requirements priced separately.
Packaging and special handling Custom boxes, inserts, and fragile SKUs.
What is missing entirely The questions to answer before signing.
Our Point of View

We can review proposals with clients, compare pricing structures, and help identify what is missing or what needs to be clarified before an agreement is signed. This is particularly useful when a brand is moving from self-fulfillment to a 3PL, changing fulfillment partners, launching a product with different handling requirements, or supporting B2B, retail, Amazon, and DTC at the same time.

3PL and Partner Referrals

A network we have already vetted.

Over time, we have built a network of fulfillment partners, packaging resources, designers, developers, and other specialists we trust. When a client needs support outside our core scope, we can often help make the right introduction instead of sending them off to start from scratch.

That includes:

  • 3PL and fulfillment referrals
  • Packaging and branding specialists
  • Designers and developers
  • Retail, Amazon, and B2B support
  • Other operational and creative partners
Packaging & Brand Consulting

Where brand, ecommerce, and operations overlap.

Packaging decisions often sit right at the intersection of brand, ecommerce, and operations, so we also provide light consulting in this area.

We can help clients think through:

  • Packaging structure
  • Hierarchy and messaging
  • Unboxing experience
  • Shipping considerations
  • Pack size
  • Fulfillment and cost impact
Our Point of View

For deeper packaging design or brand work, we have relationships with experienced specialists who have worked on major consumer brands, including projects for companies such as Procter & Gamble. That gives clients access to a much stronger bench without us pretending every specialty needs to live in-house.

Why Ultra

Built by operators who have owned the numbers.

This capability is a direct result of having people on the team who have actually been responsible for the operational side of a brand. One of our senior leaders spent more than 10 years working in-brand, including in operations and project management roles, so there is a real understanding of how decisions made in marketing or ecommerce play out later in production, fulfillment, inventory, and margin.

Our Point of View

We are not trying to be your fractional CFO or run your supply chain. We are here to help make sure the ecommerce decisions we are involved in make sense financially and operationally before they are rolled out.

When Clients Usually

Pull Us Into This Work

This tends to come up when a brand is launching a new product, repricing, introducing bundles, building a subscription program, changing discount structure, moving to a new 3PL, reviewing fulfillment costs, changing packaging, expanding into retail or Amazon, or trying to understand why revenue growth is not translating into better margins. It also comes up naturally during CRO, Shopify, subscription, and lifecycle work because those projects often uncover operational or financial issues that affect the strategy.

Rather than ignore those issues because they sit outside a typical agency scope, we can help work through them.

Launching a new product
Repricing
Introducing bundles
Building a subscription program
Changing discount structure
Moving to a new 3PL
Reviewing fulfillment costs
Changing packaging
Expanding into retail or Amazon
Revenue up, margin flat
Economics & Operations FAQs

Questions, answered.

The agency, our partnerships, and what makes us different.

Yes. We can work through COGS, landed cost, fulfillment, shipping, discounts, payment fees, and other inputs that affect ecommerce margin.

Yes. We can help evaluate bundle economics, subscribe-and-save discounts, prepaid offers, load-up offers, free shipping, retention incentives, and other structures where multiple costs need to be considered together.

Yes. We can help compare pricing structures, flag missing cost categories, and identify questions that should be answered before you commit.

Yes. If there is a good fit within our network, we can make introductions to 3PLs and other operational partners.

We provide light packaging and brand consulting where it overlaps with ecommerce and operations. For larger packaging or branding projects, we can bring in experienced specialists from our network.

Start Here

Better growth decisions start with better economics.

The strongest ecommerce strategy is one that works for the customer and for the business. UMG helps clients connect those two sides so pricing, offers, subscriptions, packaging, and fulfillment decisions support growth instead of quietly working against it.

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