I spent around ten years as a CTO for software companies specialising in retail and audience analytics. This gave me first-hand experience of the challenges of retail data. Managing data flows, analysing competitors and improving product visibility are ongoing technical challenges for retailers. I recently discussed these issues with Christopher Caussin, CEO of SteerFox.
SteerFox works with e-commerce businesses generating between €5 million and €250 million in annual revenue. Its platform helps brands decide what to sell, where to sell it and when.
To achieve this, SteerFox combines the services of a search engine advertising (SEA) agency with its own software platform. It uses product catalogue data to automate advertising campaigns. This approach is particularly useful for retailers with large product catalogues. When thousands of products are involved, making decisions manually becomes difficult.
The goal is not simply to display more adverts. It is to improve product information and help retailers choose which products to promote.
Manage your product catalogue before investing in advertising
Successful e-commerce advertising starts with choosing the right products to promote. A large catalogue usually contains products with very different profit margins.
Align advertising campaigns with logistics
Christopher Caussin shared the example of Sono Vente, an established audio equipment retailer. By analysing its data, SteerFox found an interesting pattern. Some cables shipped quickly on Thursdays were often returned the following Monday.
Returns are a direct cost for e-commerce businesses. They affect the actual profit made on each sale. By including return rates in product analysis, retailers can avoid spending advertising budgets on products that generate little profit. This helps protect overall margins.
Use marketing budgets where they add value
The approach is similar to managing supermarket shelves. Popular products are placed at eye level, while lower-priced products are displayed further down. Online, the same principle applies to advertising. For example, paying to promote a product worth just €0.10 may not make financial sense. The cost of acquiring a customer could exceed the profit from the sale.
SteerFox analyses product catalogues to focus advertising budgets on products that create value. The same logic applies to technical brands such as Cimalp, one of SteerFox's clients. A pair of socks should not be promoted through the same channels as a specialist mountaineering jacket. Each product has a different role in the range. Advertising decisions should reflect that difference.
Managing multiple E-commerce advertising channels
Today, e-commerce brands need to reach customers across several platforms. SteerFox integrates with more than eight advertising channels to support different buying behaviours.
Adapt to different customer buying journeys
The digital advertising market is changing quickly. Meta now generates more advertising revenue than Google in some segments. TikTok attracts specific audiences, while Amazon plays a major role in product searches.
For retailers, managing these channels involves more than improving advert performance. They also need to understand customer behaviour. A low-cost everyday product may be purchased on impulse after someone sees it on social media.
A hiking product or technical device usually involves more research and a longer buying journey. SteerFox uses data to understand customer intent based on the channel they use. Brands can then adjust their messages, explain their expertise and choose the most relevant sales channels.
Keep up with advertising platform requirements
Advertising platforms are introducing increasingly detailed requirements for product data. For example, Google may require gender attributes for certain product categories to improve targeting.
Conversational AI systems from companies such as OpenAI also rely on structured product information to make relevant recommendations. Retailers must therefore keep improving the quality and detail of their product catalogues.
SteerFox's teams receive ongoing training to understand these changes. This helps them guide clients through new technical requirements and make better decisions about their product data.
Why data infrastructure matters for E-commerce performance
Automated advertising depends on reliable data. If the information entering a system is inaccurate, automation can repeat those mistakes across thousands of products.
Structure product data to improve results
Before launching a campaign, SteerFox brings together several types of product information. These include actual profit margins, stock replenishment capacity and the impact of seasonal discounts on sales volumes.
The data comes from e-commerce websites, marketplaces and physical shops. It is then organised into database tables that support the platform's decision-making systems.
Building this data foundation is essential. In our software engineering work, we regularly design complex web architectures for retail businesses. A well-structured database is always a starting point for building reliable software that performs well in production.
How automation is changing engineering and marketing roles
Advertising automation is changing how teams work. Manual campaign tasks are becoming less common. Instead, teams spend more time managing data, analysing performance and defining campaign rules.
Technical and marketing specialists now need to understand how advertising algorithms work. These systems change frequently, so continuous training is important. SteerFox faces this challenge, as do many other software companies.
Automation does not remove the need for expertise. It changes the skills businesses need. Professionals must understand new technologies and use that knowledge to guide retailers' decisions. To maintain this expertise without slowing product development, many technology leaders work with external engineering partners.
They may build dedicated external engineering teams or bring in product and data specialists for specific technologies. This helps B2B software companies maintain reliable development cycles while staying focused on their core business.
Ultimately, e-commerce advertising and product range management depend on the same foundation: data. By bringing together stock availability, margins and catalogue information, retailers can make better advertising decisions and gain more control over their profitability.
Company spotlight
→ Company: SteerFox
→ Leadership: Christopher Caussin, CEO.
→ Industry: Software / SaaS / Retail Media / Data Marketing / E-commerce
→ Why SteerFox stands out : SteerFox connects product range management with advertising investment. Rather than treating advertising as a separate activity, the company helps retailers organise their product data before launching campaigns. This means advertising budgets can be directed towards products that support overall profitability.
