Most ecommerce businesses are sitting on a goldmine of organic search potential they’re not capturing. I help retailers, marketplaces and DTC brands rank where their customers are searching — turning visibility into traffic, conversions and real revenue growth.
Retail & eCommerce SEO Consultant for Retailers, Marketplaces & DTC Brands
Meet Tom, Your eCommerce SEO Consultant
I’ve spent over 25 years working in SEO and digital marketing — including significant work helping retailers, marketplaces and DTC brands compete in one of the most technically demanding, high-competition categories in search. From fast-growing independent Shopify stores to multi-category retailers, I understand how shoppers search, how Google treats commercial content, and what it takes to rank consistently at scale.
I work independently, which means when you work with me, you work with me — not a junior account manager. Every strategy is built around your business, your customers, and your goals.
The UK eCommerce Market Right Now
Retail and ecommerce are one of the UK’s largest, most mature and most fiercely contested digital categories, and the brands winning visibility are winning the sale.
UK online retail sales reached £127.41 billion in 2024, up 3.4% from £123.3 billion in 2023, with continued growth through 2025 and 2026.
Online sales now account for roughly 28–30% of all UK retail spending up from around 20% in 2019, making the UK one of the most digitally mature retail markets in the world.
British shoppers spend an average of £3,715 per year online, with mobile commerce now accounting for over half of all transactions.
Competition has never been more intense. Ultra-low-cost factory-direct platforms have forced established retailers to match markdown cadence, while the market itself has matured to the point where growth increasingly comes from retaining existing customers rather than acquiring new ones.
The retailers winning right now are the ones treating technical SEO and search visibility as core revenue infrastructure, not a line item behind paid media.
Why eCommerce SEO Needs a Specialist Approach
Ecommerce is a different technical animal to almost any other category. It combines enormous scale, structural complexity, and a level of ongoing platform maintenance most other sectors simply don’t face.
Technical complexity at scale
Faceted navigation, pagination, duplicate content across variants, crawl budget waste across thousands of SKUs — ecommerce technical SEO is a different discipline to a typical brochure site, and mistakes compound fast across a large catalogue.
Platform and plugin debt
Fast-growing stores accumulate apps, plugins and customisations quickly. What starts as useful functionality often becomes a drag on site health, page speed and crawlability if it isn’t actively managed.
Intense, unforgiving competition
You’re competing with global marketplaces, ultra-low-cost factory-direct platforms, and every other retailer selling something similar — often on price alone. Winning organic visibility is one of the few durable ways to compete on something other than discounting.
Winning Visibility in AI Overviews & AI Search
Ecommerce is the one major category where the AI Overviews story doesn’t follow the usual pattern, and understanding why matters for where you invest.
Google has deliberately held back AI Overview coverage on commercial and transactional ecommerce queries, with coverage on this query type actually declining from around 27% to roughly 18–19% even as most other categories saw AI Overviews expand sharply. The reasoning is straightforward: Google protects the search results that carry paid ads and drive its core revenue, so purely commercial “buy X” queries are far less likely to be swallowed by an AI-generated summary than informational queries are.
That said, ecommerce isn’t immune: where AI Overviews do appear on ecommerce-adjacent queries — comparison content, “best X for Y” guides, buying advice — citation overlap with organic top-10 rankings has grown roughly 10.5 percentage points year-on-year, meaning strong organic rankings on informational/comparison content increasingly translate into AI citation too.
The practical implication: your product and category pages are still fighting the traditional SEO fight — rankings, technical performance, structured data — largely undisturbed by AI Overviews. Your content and buying-guide pages are where the AI visibility battle is actually happening.
eCommerce SEO Services That Drive Real Revenue
I deliver retail and ecommerce SEO in three clear ways, each designed to meet you where you are and get you where you want to be.
Strategic eCommerce SEO Consultation — £185
A focused 90-minute 1:1 session built around your ecommerce business. Share your current challenges, where you’re losing visibility, and what you’re trying to achieve. You’ll leave with a clear, prioritised action plan.
In-Depth eCommerce SEO Audit — from £950
A comprehensive audit of your ecommerce website covering technical performance, site health, product/category content quality, structured data, and competitor landscape. Every audit is tailored to ecommerce sector dynamics — not a generic template.
Bespoke eCommerce SEO Strategy — from £1,750/month
Ongoing strategic SEO consultancy built around your retail brand. From technical foundations and content strategy to authority building and performance reporting — I become part of your team, focused entirely on sustainable, scalable growth.
How I Build eCommerce SEO Strategies That Work
Every successful ecommerce SEO strategy follows a clear, proven process — no guesswork, no generic templates. Here’s how I turn that process into consistent, measurable growth.
1.
Audit
Everything starts with understanding your business, your audience, your competitors, your current performance, and where the biggest opportunities lie. I audit your site from the ground up before building anything.
2.
Insight
I dig into ecommerce-specific keyword research, customer search intent mapping, competitor gap analysis, and technical health auditing to identify exactly where you can win and what it will take.
3.
Roadmap
I build a clear, prioritised strategy covering technical SEO, product/category content, and off-page authority. Everything is tied to business outcomes — traffic, conversions, or revenue — not vanity metrics.
4.
Optimise
I work hands-on to implement changes and optimise your site, guide your team, or coordinate directly with your developers. Nothing sits in a strategy document gathering dust unread.
5.
Refine
SEO is never set and forget. I continuously track performance, adapt the strategy as the competition and algorithms shift, and report clearly on what’s working, what isn’t, and what’s next.
Who I Work With
I work with retail and ecommerce businesses that are serious about organic growth. If you’re tired of being invisible in search while competing purely on price, this is built for you.
Independent & Multi-Category Retailers
For established retailers selling across multiple categories, I build technical SEO and content strategies that scale — competing for high-value terms like “heavy cotton T shirt” and “non-alcoholic Guinness” while managing the complexity that comes with a large, varied catalogue.
Marketplaces & Aggregators
For marketplace and aggregator platforms, I focus on the technical architecture and structured data needed to compete at genuine scale — crawl budget management, faceted navigation, and category-level authority building.
DTC & Subscription Brands
For direct-to-consumer and subscription-led brands, I build content and technical strategies that support both acquisition and retention — competing for terms like “t shirt subscription box” and “custom stanley cup” while building the brand authority DTC growth depends on.
Omnichannel Retailers
For retailers with both physical and online presence, I combine local SEO for bricks-and-mortar locations with the technical and content strategy needed to compete online — making sure neither channel undermines the other.
Niche & Fast-Growing Category Brands
For brands competing in fast-moving, high-growth niches — where new competitors appear weekly — I focus on rapid technical remediation and landing page optimisation to build a durable lead before the category gets crowded (see the Dry Drinker case study below).
You’re ready to work together if:
- You want to grow organic traffic and reduce dependence on paid channels
- You’ve had poor results from generic SEO agencies that don’t understand ecommerce technical complexity
- You’re launching a new site, migrating platforms, or recovering from a traffic drop
- You want a senior consultant, not a junior account manager
Dry Drinker Case Study
The challenge: Dry Drinker’s Shopify store had grown fast, layering on customisations, apps and plugins over time, but that growth had come at a cost. Site health scores and user experience had degraded significantly, while a fast-moving no/low alcohol market kept adding new competitors on a near-weekly basis. Standing still wasn’t an option.
What I did: I ran a comprehensive technical audit that uncovered thousands of system-generated issues accumulated across the site’s history. I worked through these systematically, taking the site health score into the high 90s, and optimised key landing pages to convert that technical foundation into real search visibility.
The results: Comparing the first six months of the engagement:
133% increase in website clicks
138% increase in website impressions
52% increase in top (#1) keyword rankings in the UK
98% increase in worldwide keyword rankings
“I’ve worked with Tom and Bit Quirky across several projects and he’s one of the sharpest marketing minds I’ve come across. Knows SEO inside out, understands how to drive real results, and doesn’t waste time with jargon or fluff. He’s strategic, commercially minded, and not afraid to get stuck into the detail when it matters. Also just a good bloke to work with. Highly recommended.”
”"Bit Quirky delivered a full advanced SEO audit for us and it uncovered a lot of issues which needed resolving ASAP. Tom stepped in and fixed the majority within two days and he honestly changed the way we looked at our website, highlighting just how hard it can actually work when looked after. Highly recommended."
— Head of eCommerce
Retail & eCommerce SEO Services: Frequently Asked Questions
What is SEO in the retail and ecommerce industry?
SEO in the retail and ecommerce industry is the process of optimising online stores — retailers, marketplaces, DTC brands — to rank higher in search engines and attract more organic visitors. It covers technical performance, product and category content strategy, structured data, keyword targeting, and authority building, all shaped around how shoppers search and buy.
Why is SEO important for ecommerce businesses?
The vast majority of online shoppers begin their journey with a search engine, and organic search remains one of the few acquisition channels that doesn’t cost more with every additional sale. If your business isn’t visible at the moment of intent, you’re handing that sale to a competitor — often one with a lower price and a worse product, but better search visibility. Strong SEO builds long-term visibility that compounds over time and reduces dependence on increasingly expensive paid channels.
What makes ecommerce SEO different from general SEO?
Ecommerce combines technical complexity most other categories don’t face — faceted navigation, large-scale duplicate content risk, crawl budget management across thousands of pages — with intensely competitive, often price-driven search results. Ecommerce SEO requires genuine technical expertise alongside content strategy, not a generic approach built for a five-page brochure site.
How is AI search changing ecommerce SEO?
Unusually for ecommerce, Google has actually pulled back AI Overview coverage on commercial, transactional queries to protect the paid search results that fund its business — so your core product and category pages are still fighting a largely traditional SEO battle. The bigger AI shift is happening in comparison and buying-guide content, where AI citation is growing, and in agentic commerce platforms like ChatGPT and Amazon’s AI shopping tools, which are becoming genuine new discovery channels in their own right.
What is local SEO for ecommerce businesses?
For ecommerce businesses with physical locations or regional operations, local SEO helps you appear in location-specific searches alongside your core online visibility. It includes optimising Google Business Profiles for any physical locations, building local citations, and making sure your online and offline presence support rather than compete with each other.
How long does ecommerce SEO take to show results?
Meaningful results typically become visible within 3–6 months, with more significant gains building over 6–12 months as technical fixes take effect and content earns authority. Quick wins from resolving major technical issues can appear sooner, as seen in the Dry Drinker case study above. Ecommerce SEO is a long-term investment — the businesses that commit to it consistently are the ones that dominate their category.
Do you work with ecommerce businesses outside the UK?
Yes. While based in the UK, I work with retail and ecommerce clients globally, including brands with international shipping and multi-region ecommerce operations.
Do I need an ecommerce SEO agency or an ecommerce SEO consultant?
For most ecommerce businesses, the choice comes down to what you actually need. An ecommerce SEO agency typically offers a broader team and a wider range of services, but you’ll often find yourself working with junior account managers rather than the senior strategist you were sold. A specialist ecommerce SEO consultant brings deep, sector-specific technical expertise directly — no handoffs, no dilution. You work with the same person from strategy through to execution, someone who understands the technical complexity of ecommerce platforms and what it takes to compete in a genuinely unforgiving vertical. If you want hands-on, senior-level ecommerce SEO expertise focused entirely on your business, a consultant is usually the smarter choice.
Ready to Grow Your Retail Business Through SEO?
Whether you need a one-off audit, a strategic consultation, or an ongoing SEO partner who understands ecommerce, let’s have a conversation.
Limited availability each month — I only take on clients I can genuinely impact.