How to sell to Heads of Operations at E-commerce companies
Heads of Operations in e-commerce are primarily measured on order fulfillment efficiency. They respond to outreach that demonstrates a clear understanding of their daily challenges, such as managing logistics disruptions or optimizing inventory turnover. Highlighting solutions that directly address these operational pain points will catch their attention and encourage engagement.
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
- logistics disruptions
- inventory turnover issues
- high product return rates
- seasonal staffing shortages
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent supply chain issues
Research e-commerce companies that have recently faced supply chain disruptions or delivery delays. Use news articles or industry reports to find specific examples. This context allows you to tailor your outreach to address their immediate concerns.
- 02
Target brands with high return rates
Filter your prospect list for e-commerce brands that report high product return rates. Use platforms like Shopify or industry forums to find this data. Brands facing this issue are likely looking for solutions to improve customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.
- 03
Highlight inventory management challenges
Craft your message around the complexities of inventory management, particularly for direct-to-consumer brands. Mention how fluctuations in demand can lead to stockouts or overstock situations. This specificity shows you understand their operational hurdles.
- 04
Address seasonal staffing issues
In your follow-up, reference the common pain of seasonal staffing shortages in e-commerce. Many operations heads are preparing for peak seasons and need reliable solutions to manage labor effectively. This creates urgency in your outreach.
- 05
Propose a solution for logistics optimization
In your final outreach, suggest a conversation around logistics optimization. Emphasize how improving delivery times can enhance customer satisfaction and reduce operational costs. This aligns with their goal of increasing efficiency and responsiveness.
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 order fulfillment
- Addressing your return rates
- Solutions for logistics challenges
Questions
- Why do heads of operations in e-commerce ignore cold outreach?
- Heads of Operations often receive numerous cold outreach messages that lack relevance to their specific challenges. If the email doesn't quickly address a pressing operational issue or demonstrate a clear understanding of their business, it risks being overlooked.
- What operational metrics are most important to e-commerce operations heads?
- E-commerce operations heads prioritize metrics such as order fulfillment speed, inventory turnover rates, and customer satisfaction scores. They focus on these metrics to ensure efficiency and responsiveness in their operations, which directly impact profitability.
- How can I demonstrate value to e-commerce operations heads?
- To demonstrate value, provide insights or solutions that directly address their pain points, such as reducing delivery times or improving inventory accuracy. Use specific examples or case studies that illustrate measurable outcomes relevant to their role.
- What common objections do e-commerce operations heads have?
- Common objections include concerns about implementation costs, the complexity of integrating new solutions, and skepticism about the promised ROI. Addressing these objections early in your outreach can help build trust and facilitate a productive conversation.
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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