Predictable Growth in E-Commerce is no Longer a Fantasy — an Exclusive Interview with Kim Romanov

Written by: Henry Van Niekerk

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According to estimates by the consulting agency Research Nester, the global e-commerce market was valued at $37.2 trillion in 2025 and is projected to reach $44.3 trillion in 2026, eventually growing to $215.2 trillion by 2035. For retailers, this means intensifying competition and a higher cost of marketing mistakes: companies are increasingly forced to search for more predictable models of scaling.

Performance marketing expert in e-commerce Kim Romanov, who has developed promotion strategies for numerous companies, has introduced an approach that reduces uncertainty in e-commerce through managed scaling. He applies this methodology in his own brand of tools designed for DIY enthusiasts.

Within two years, the company he founded reached $13.5 million in revenue and stood out in the market by positioning utilitarian products within a gift-oriented purchasing scenario. In this exclusive interview, the expert explains how this was achieved.

Kim, how has your experience in developing marketing strategies for other brands been reflected in your own business?

The approaches I am now implementing in my own company represent the culmination of 15 years of experience in e-commerce marketing. Since 2010, I ran a small retail business in Ukraine, where part of the sales were conducted through online marketplaces. In 2018, I focused on developing my own marketing firm, Romanov Agency, and in 2024, already in the United States, I decided to launch a new trading company. In this business, I apply the approaches I developed over many years of work.

I spent a long time studying the market, analyzing user demand and discussions on forums. My trading company specializes in selling tools for home use. The tools and DIY category is both highly competitive and extensive, while demand in this segment is largely seasonal. According to estimates by Research Nester, the power tools market may grow from $36.7 billion in 2025 to $85.1 billion by 2035.

What were the first steps you took? How did you build a product assortment that matched product–market requirements?

I began by searching for in-demand products that are not widely available in stores but can create a strong “wow” effect in advertising. Of course, high product quality and a margin of at least 15–20% were among the key priorities.

From the very beginning, I also understood that it was necessary to create an offering that competitors did not have. Research conducted both by me personally and by members of my team showed that tools have clear potential as gifts. This became a key insight, and we positioned the store’s products not as purely utilitarian items, but as presents that can be given to parents, friends, or spouses.

Over time, this positioning turned out to be effective: within two years, the company’s revenue exceeded $13.5 million. Under the “tool as a gift” concept, the highest demand occurs in the fourth quarter — the period when, starting with Black Friday, people begin purchasing gifts for Christmas.

Beyond the positioning concept, you built a foundation that allows the business to scale. What principles underpin this system?

My experience shows that for effective e-commerce development, it is important to first establish a solid foundation and only then plan actions aimed at increasing traffic and sales. Building this base was exactly what my team and I focused on during the company’s first year. We conducted tests, evaluated seasonality, analyzed search queries, and created high-quality landing pages tailored to different advertising formats. We also planned and structured advertising campaigns in advance, carefully developing creatives and offers that later formed the basis of our advertising materials.

It was precisely this systematic work that created the foundation for the company’s growth. In the fall of 2024, ahead of Black Friday, we developed our strategy and began actively launching advertising campaigns. As a result, in November and December alone, we generated $3.6 million in revenue.

How did you achieve such high efficiency in customer acquisition?

I am a proponent of performance marketing — an approach to online promotion focused on measurable results and driven by data. However, for the system to work predictably, it is important to define target metrics in advance and continuously ensure that all activities remain within these parameters. At the same time, my key benchmark is contribution margin: growth should generate marginal contribution, not just revenue.

We defined our target metrics taking into account seasonality and demand dynamics. In practice, this meant that during peak periods the team launched campaigns within predetermined efficiency thresholds; on certain days, the budget could reach up to $100,000.

Our primary acquisition channel is targeted advertising, which generates the majority of our sales. In addition, we use contextual advertising on Google and Bing. When running campaigns of this scale, it is necessary to continuously analyze a wide range of metrics. For this reason, under my leadership we developed an internal custom dashboard based on our own data, which provides ongoing monitoring of key marketing indicators and helps manage the budget in real time.

With so many marketing strategies and approaches available, how did you choose the direction you ultimately decided to follow? How did you select your analytics tools?

In reality, there are many strategies, but the foundation of our business is performance marketing. We constantly test different tools, but always evaluate them through the lens of our unit economics. This approach has allowed us to identify the product positions that are truly in demand among customers. I always make decisions based on actual data and carefully evaluate the results; even if a particular step does not deliver the expected outcome, that information is still preserved so we can avoid similar scenarios in the future. Given the nature of our business, we actively rely on paid advertising traffic, and our choice of analytics tools was shaped accordingly. At the same time, we are now actively developing organic traffic, which will also influence the selection of tools we use going forward.

In your assessment, how predictable are the results delivered by the strategy you implemented? Can everything be determined in advance based on analytics data, or are there still surprises?

We have developed a strong understanding of our seasonality, and the strategy implemented under my leadership delivers fairly predictable results. We know which products our customers want to see in the assortment at different times of the year and which advertising messages will resonate. In general, testing hypotheses has become a continuous process for us, and the market rarely brings any major surprises. Our performance-driven approach involves constant monitoring, shutting down ineffective tools, relaunching them when necessary, and continuously optimizing operations to maintain profitability.

Looking ahead, I plan to expand beyond the United States and launch sales in European countries. This is still a market we have not fully explored — seasonality differs there, and it may require different messaging and approaches to building advertising campaigns.

Your approach requires regularly revising priorities and key metrics. How do you reduce uncertainty under such conditions?

Target metrics, of course, change as the business scales. When the goal is to generate $1 million in revenue, certain approaches and tools are used; if the target is $5 million, different ones are required. For example, the company is currently preparing for its next stage of scaling, and I am considering running part of our sales through Amazon to help offset seasonality. At the early stage, entering a marketplace would not have been justified. Accordingly, many performance indicators will change, and my team and I are now modeling different scenarios to ensure that growth remains predictable.

I always say: when a company grows, staying within the same boundaries as yesterday is a mistake. When a business enters a new stage, revising key metrics together with developing new strategic approaches, on the contrary, reduces uncertainty and provides momentum to move forward.