Fractional E-commerce Consultant for Consumer Brands
Senior product and technical leadership without the full-time hire. I help DTC and consumer brands build the infrastructure to scale, whether you need someone to build it, manage your agencies, or fix what's broken.
You've probably seen a desire path before: a trail worn into the grass where people actually walk, ignoring the paved sidewalk nearby. It's what happens when the designed route doesn't match real behavior.
E-commerce is full of the same problem. Platforms, tools, and processes get built around assumptions. Customers do something else. The gap between the two is where money leaks, operations break, and teams burn out.
Desired Path exists to close that gap. As a fractional e-commerce consultant, I help consumer brands build infrastructure around how customers actually behave, not how a platform defaulted or how a flowchart assumed.
Part of closing that gap is making sure you're not building the wrong thing in the first place. Before jumping into implementation, I help you evaluate what to build, what to buy, and what to skip entirely. Too many brands waste months and budgets on custom solutions when an off-the-shelf tool would do, or lock themselves into the wrong platform because no one mapped their actual needs first. I've seen these mistakes enough times to help you avoid them.
My Approach
Who I Serve
Explore my range of services designed to help you move forward with confidence, wherever you're headed next.
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You've grown past the point where founders can manage everything, but you're not ready (or able) to hire a full technical team. I act as your fractional product leader, scoping, building, and maintaining systems directly.
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You're paying for outside help but the work isn't moving the needle. No one on your team can evaluate deliverables, translate business needs into technical requirements, or hold vendors accountable. I sit on your side of the table and help you manage your e-commerce agencies effectively.
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Support is overwhelmed, fulfillment is messy, international expansion feels daunting, or your subscription program has a churn problem. I've helped brands navigate these e-commerce scaling problems before.
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Maybe you have a developer or a marketing lead, but no one who's seen what good looks like across the full stack. I fill specific gaps without adding headcount, whether that's acting as a part-time CTO for Shopify strategy or auditing your technical debt.
What I Offer
Build the Foundation
Getting your technical infrastructure right from the start—choosing the right platforms, migrating cleanly, and setting up tracking and reporting you can actually use to make decisions.
Grow Revenue
Turning traffic into customers and customers into repeat buyers through SEO, lifecycle marketing, subscription optimization, and experimentation grounded in real user behavior.
Scale Operations
Building systems that handle complexity without adding headcount—fulfillment automation, inventory management, shipping and tax optimization, omnichannel integration, support infrastructure, and international expansion.
Solution Selection & Vendor Evaluation
Before you build or buy, making sure you're solving the right problem with the right tool. Requirements mapping, platform evaluation, build vs. buy analysis. Avoiding expensive mistakes before you commit.
E-commerce Platform Migration
Moving from Magento to Shopify. Migrating from WooCommerce to Shopify. BigCommerce to Shopify Plus migrations. Replatforming from custom or legacy systems. I handle clean transitions without losing data, customers, or momentum. Whether you need a Shopify migration consultant for a straightforward move or help navigating a complex Shopify Plus migration, I've done it before.
Subscription Platform Migration
Migrating from Recharge to Smartrr or other subscription platforms. Moving homegrown subscription setups to modern tools. I help you evaluate the right subscription platform for your business and execute the migration without disrupting your subscribers.
Custom Shopify Development
Theme work, custom sections, product pages, checkout modifications. Builds that match your brand without fighting your platform.
Tracking & Analytics
Tagging architecture, conversion tracking, attribution setup. Data that actually tells you what's working.
Reporting & Dashboards
Visibility into your business. Custom dashboards and reports you can use to make decisions, not just technically impressive spreadsheets.
Build the
Foundation
My Services
SEO & Site Performance
Technical SEO, site structure, page speed optimization. Being discoverable and not leaking the traffic you've earned. I can audit your Shopify store performance and fix what's holding you back.
Email, SMS & Push Marketing
Klaviyo flows, segmentation, lifecycle messaging. Retention systems built around real customer behavior, not platform defaults. I help you get more from your existing email and SMS investment.
Subscription Commerce Strategy
Platform selection, custom UI, retention flows, integrations. Reducing subscription churn on Shopify requires more than tweaking cancellation flows. I help you build subscriptions that customers actually want to keep.
User Research & Experimentation Surveys, unmoderated studies, A/B testing, on-site experimentation. Understanding what customers actually do and validating changes before committing.
Grow
Revenue
Order Routing & Fulfillment Automation
Logic that handles complexity. Routing orders to the right warehouse, automating handoffs, reducing manual work.
Inventory & Warehouse Integrations Connecting your systems so inventory is accurate and fulfillment runs smoothly.
Shipping, Tax & Duty Optimization Getting shipping rates, label generation, and tax/duty calculations right. Reducing costs, avoiding surprises at checkout, and keeping international shipments from getting stuck in customs.
Omnichannel & Retail Integration
Buy online pick up in store, big box distribution, retail POS sync. Connecting DTC and retail so they work together instead of competing.
Customer Support Infrastructure Helpdesk setup, workflow design, team scaling. Support operations that can handle growth without burning out your team.
International & Localization
Localizing storefronts, payments, fulfillment, and messaging for new markets. Expanding without recreating every problem you already solved.
Marketplace Integration
Connecting your brand to third-party marketplaces. Listing management, inventory sync, and operational workflows that don't create more problems than they solve.
Scale
Operations
About Me
I'm Brian Alenduff. I've spent over ten years as a product leader at consumer startups including Everlane, VSCO, Birdy Grey, and Backbone. I've helped scale teams from ten to hundreds of people and revenue from under $1M to hundreds of millions.
I've consulted for brands like Moinkbox, Anchorhead Coffee, and 2SL Design, and advised companies including YesPlz.ai and Gorgias. I've worked across apparel, consumer electronics, mobile apps, real estate, food and beverage, trading cards and collectibles, and marketplaces. I've built internal tools, launched international markets, migrated platforms, scaled support teams, and managed the messy operational work that sits between a brand's ambitions and its infrastructure.
I started Desired Path because I kept meeting founders and operators who were stuck. They were either trying to do everything themselves or paying agencies who didn't fully understand their business. They didn't need another vendor. They needed someone who could own problems end to end, the way an internal leader would.
That's what I do. I work as an embedded e-commerce consultant, typically on a retainer basis, with brands doing $1M+ in annual revenue. I'm not looking for quick projects. I'm looking for long-term relationships where I can help you build something that lasts.
I work with brands located anywhere.
Let’s Talk
If this sounds like a fit, I'd like to hear from you. Tell me a bit about your brand, where you're stuck, and what you're looking for. I'll follow up within a few days to schedule a conversation.