How to sell to CTOs at E-commerce companies in Germany
CTOs in e-commerce companies in Germany focus on system uptime and performance metrics. They are driven by the need to ensure their online stores remain operational, especially during peak sales periods. Understanding their tech stack and recent platform migrations can make them more receptive to outreach, as it shows you recognize the complexities they manage daily.
Written and maintained by the SoloRiff team, who build outbound software and run outbound with it. The figures below are our own: we measured 578 e-commerce company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- system downtime during sales
- integration issues with platforms
- performance bottlenecks
- budget constraints for new tech
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent platform migrations
Use tools like BuiltWith or SimilarTech to find e-commerce companies that have recently migrated their online stores to platforms like Shopify. This indicates they are likely dealing with integration challenges and may be open to solutions that streamline their tech stack.
- 02
Segment by peak sales events
Filter your list to include companies that have upcoming sales events, such as Black Friday or holiday sales. CTOs are particularly focused on ensuring system reliability during these times, making them more likely to respond to offers that improve performance.
- 03
Craft messaging around system reliability
When reaching out, emphasize your understanding of their need for system uptime and performance. Mention specific technologies they use, such as cloud services or payment gateways, to show that you are informed about their infrastructure and its challenges.
- 04
Anticipate objections related to budget
Prepare to address budget concerns by highlighting cost-saving benefits of your solution. CTOs may resist new spending, so be ready to present how your offering can reduce operational costs or enhance revenue, especially during high-traffic periods.
- 05
Follow up post-peak sales
Schedule follow-ups after significant sales events to discuss how their systems performed. This timing shows you are attentive to their business cycle and can provide insights or solutions for any issues they encountered during peak traffic.
Can e-commerce companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 578 e-commerce companies, sampled evenly across company sizes, to see how many authenticate their own email. It matters in both directions: a domain that does not authenticate is a domain whose team is used to mail going missing — and if your own domain is in the gap, yours is the mail going missing.
Publishes a DMARC policy of quarantine or reject — the domain actually asks receivers to act on failures.
The gap is the finding: 19.6% of 1–10-person companies against 67.5% of the largest — 48 points apart. Small companies are where the unauthenticated domains are, and small companies are who most cold outreach is aimed at.
Where does your domain sit?
Same three lookups, run live against your domain. Nothing is stored and nothing is emailed to you.
How this was measured
Company domains were sampled within employee-count bands, then queried over public DNS for SPF (TXT at the apex), DMARC (TXT at _dmarc.) and MX. One domain per company, deduplicated. Anyone can reproduce any single row of this with dig.
DKIM is deliberately absent. A DKIM key lives under a selector that cannot be enumerated from outside the domain, so a company with flawless DKIM under a name we did not guess would be counted as having none. That would measure our guess list, not the industry.
Domains with no MX record are excluded rather than counted as failures — parked and redirect-only domains would otherwise drag every figure down and make the result an artefact of the sample.
Sampled within bands, so this describes the population of companies, not of employees: a 10-person company counts once, as does a 10,000-person one. Each band is at least 60 domains; bands below that are not published. Figures are percentages of the sample, not of the whole industry, and we publish no company names — only counts.
Measured 2026-09-03. Re-measured monthly.
The full census across every industry — sortable, with sample sizes, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.
Subject lines that fit
- Improving uptime for your e-commerce
- Solutions for peak sales performance
- Streamlining your online store's tech
Questions
- Why do CTOs in e-commerce ignore cold outreach?
- CTOs often receive numerous pitches and may ignore cold outreach due to a lack of personalization or relevance. If the message does not clearly address their specific challenges, such as system performance during peak sales, it is likely to be overlooked.
- What are common tech challenges faced by e-commerce CTOs?
- E-commerce CTOs frequently deal with issues like system downtime, integration of various technologies, and ensuring website performance during high-traffic events. These challenges require constant attention and can lead to customer dissatisfaction if not managed effectively.
- How can I get the attention of a CTO in e-commerce?
- To engage a CTO, focus on their specific pain points, such as system reliability and performance. Providing insights or solutions that directly relate to their current tech stack and recent changes in their operations can help capture their interest.
- What metrics do e-commerce CTOs prioritize?
- E-commerce CTOs prioritize metrics like system uptime, page load speeds, and customer conversion rates. They are focused on ensuring their platforms can handle traffic spikes and deliver a seamless experience, especially during critical sales periods.
Or have it run itself
SoloRiff does every step above on its own — finds the companies, finds the people, writes each of them individually, and handles the replies. Drop your URL and watch it work before you sign up for anything.
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