If there was one theme that echoed through the halls of the 2025 Digital Shelf Summit (DSS), it was this: Ecommerce is no longer just a channel, it’s the connective tissue of modern commerce.
Among the standout sessions was a mainstage conversation between Ash McMullen, head of ecommerce at Advantice Health, and Jay Stone, now CFO at Malk Organics.
From building a cross-departmental model to inventing a shared language, McMullen and Stone pulled back the curtain on what it takes to embed ecommerce thinking into an organization’s DNA.
Explore their insights in a behind-the-scenes look at how a finance exec and an ecommerce lead found common ground.
For many consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, especially those rooted in traditional brick-and-mortar retail, ecommerce still feels like an afterthought. It’s bolted onto the side of the business rather than embedded into its foundation.
As McMullen explained during her session at DSS, ecommerce isn’t often included in the early stages of strategic planning. Instead, it’s something leaders scramble to accommodate after decisions have already been made.
That siloed approach causes friction across teams:
The end result is everyone speaking a different language, and ecommerce teams are stuck acting as translators. Omnichannel success demands a more connected strategy.
“We’re all vying for placement on the digital shelf now, and that requires a new kind of cross-functional collaboration,” McMullen says.
Ideally, this collaboration occurs during the planning cycles for budget, product, and marketing. Ecommerce shouldn’t be fighting for a seat at the table. It is the table.
Above everything else, bringing ecommerce to the center of business strategy is about people.
Here’s how McMullen and Stone went from the classic finance versus marketing debate to true cross-functional collaboration.
One of the biggest roadblocks to alignment is mismatched motivations. Finance teams are wired to protect the bottom line, while marketing teams want growth. That natural tension isn’t a bad thing, per se, but if it’s left unchecked, it can negatively impact decision-making.
McMullen and Stone faced that classic push-pull dynamic when they started working together. Marketing wanted more budget to test and scale digital tactics, and finance wanted proof that those investments would pay off.
Rather than fighting it out, they paused and asked a simple but powerful question: What does “good” look like for both sides?
Their answer was, perhaps unsurprisingly, profitable growth, predictable performance, and the ability to act quickly and confidently.
That mindset shift laid the foundation for everything that came next.
Instead of approaching decisions from opposite ends of the spectrum, they committed to building a shared understanding — and a shared model — to guide their choices.
Enter the “Jash” model (Yes, they named it after themselves).
This was essentially a collaborative planning framework built from scratch, with inputs from marketing, ecommerce, and finance.
On one side, there was marketing data (traffic, CPC, conversion rates), and on the other, things like financial outputs (sales, margins, and profitability).
They spent hours mapping out assumptions, identifying knowns and unknowns, and testing how performance metrics on the digital shelf translated into business outcomes in the P&Ls.
The power of this joint model was in the shared ownership. Both teams trusted the numbers because they built the logic together. And because the model was rooted in real historical data, they could use it to project future performance, track weekly results, and make smarter decisions on the fly.
This approach also unlocked new ways of responding to challenges.
When a competitor began siphoning share on Amazon, the instinct from finance might’ve been to cut spend and protect margins. But with the model in place, McMullen and Stone were able to quantify the impact, make a case for increased investment, and align the leadership team around a proactive strategy, which ultimately helped them claw back lost ground.
One of the biggest lessons McMullen and Stone shared is that metrics are only powerful if people understand them.
Marketing and ecommerce teams live and breathe acronyms like CPC, ROAS, total advertising cost of sale, and conversion rate. But to the finance team (and especially to the board), those don’t mean much unless they tie back to cash flow, operating margins, and business health.
So McMullen learned to speak in finance terms, and Stone got familiar with marketing key performance indicators (KPIs). They created a shared “language.”
Instead of just saying, “Our ROAS is improving,” they’d frame it as, “We’re spending more efficiently, which is driving higher-margin growth.”
Instead of asking for more budget for Amazon ads, they’d explain how increased traffic (a top-of-funnel metric) was leading to stronger conversions and a healthier long-term customer base.
“The breakthrough moment was when we realized traffic was our leading indicator,” McMullen says. ”If traffic’s up and conversion is flat or rising, we’re winning. And when finance starts asking, ‘How do we drive more traffic?’, you know you’ve won.”
Once the “Jash” model was up and running, it became clear that this framework could do more than just unite two departments. It had the potential to connect the dots across the entire organization.
One of the biggest benefits of Advantice’s unified model was better forecasting. The team could predict revenue, but on a more granular level, they could also forecast unit consumption. That level of detail allowed the supply chain team to more accurately anticipate demand, reduce excess inventory, and feel more confident in production planning.
In many private equity-backed businesses like Advantice, lean teams and limited headcount are the norm. The last thing supply chain leaders want is unexpected SKU proliferation or bloated inventory from inaccurate forecasts. The model provided the clarity needed to prevent those issues and significantly reduced the operational anxiety that often comes with omnichannel expansion.
It also opened the door to smarter conversations about product differentiation across channels. By understanding where and how products were performing in ecommerce versus brick-and-mortar, the team could begin building channel-specific strategies.
With ecommerce insights now woven into financial planning and supply chain forecasting, the next logical step was bringing that perspective into product development.
The Advantice team started involving ecommerce earlier in the innovation process.
Instead of creating products in a vacuum and then figuring out how to market them online, they could now reverse-engineer the process. What messaging works on the digital shelf? What claims resonate with online shoppers? What product formats or price points are better suited to Amazon versus Target?
This change encouraged the company to build for differentiation from the beginning. Rather than one-size-fits-all innovation, R&D teams could design SKUs that served specific retailers and shopper journeys.
Before the “Jash” model, it was tricky to justify why certain SKUs appeared on Amazon or why investment in upper-funnel media mattered beyond the ecommerce channel.
But now, with the model as a shared source of truth, sales leaders could have more strategic, transparent conversations with retail buyers.
They could speak to channel-specific performance, explain the rationale for different product assortments, and build retailer trust by showing how Advantice was working to avoid channel conflict.
So, how do you take the lessons from Advantice Health and apply them to your own business?
McMullen and Stone didn’t magically align their teams overnight. It took intentional conversations, a willingness to learn each other’s language, and a lot of time with a whiteboard.
If you’re looking to bring ecommerce into the heart of your omnichannel strategy, here’s where to start:
Ecommerce is no longer just a department sitting on the sidelines, waiting to be looped in after a product is developed or a campaign is launched. It’s a core business driver, and one that touches every part of the organization.
What the Advantice Health team showed is that real omnichannel success starts with alignment. Not just at the executive level, but deep in the day-to-day work: shared models, shared goals, shared language.
It means translating ecommerce metrics into finance-friendly terms, inviting supply chain into conversations about product launches, and equipping sales teams with the context to tell smarter, more differentiated retailer stories.
Leaders who can bridge those gaps and build trust across departments won’t just keep up with change. They’ll lead it.