If you’re a D2C founder doing under £10 million a year, here’s something you need to hear: stop overcomplicating your reporting.

These 11 metrics will tell you everything you need to know.

1. How much does it cost to acquire a customer?

Blended CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)

This is your starting point. Don’t obsess over platform-reported CPA – it’s often misleading, especially with channel overlap and tracking issues. Look at blended CAC instead: total marketing spend divided by new customers acquired in that period. That gives you a true, cross-channel view of what it actually costs to grow.

2. How quickly do you recover that cost?

CAC Payback Period

If you’re acquiring customers for £40, but they don’t pay that back for 9 months, you’ve got a cash flow problem. A short payback window – ideally within 30-60 days – means you’re building a sustainable machine. This is especially crucial if you’re bootstrapped or lightly funded.

3. Do your customers come back?

Repeat Purchase Rate & Time Between Orders

Knowing how many customers come back – and how quickly – is everything for forecasting growth. A solid repeat rate with a short interval between first and second orders is a healthy signal. It also means you can afford to be more aggressive on acquisition, because lifetime value will carry the load.

4. How profitable is each sale – really?

LTV (Customer Lifetime Value)

LTV tells you how much margin you can expect over the customer journey. Break it down by product, customer type, or category if possible. Understanding your contribution margin by segment helps you prioritise where to focus your budget. Not all customers are created equal.

5. Is your marketing spend pulling its weight?

ROMI (Return on Marketing Investment) or MER (Marketing Efficiency Ratio)

Whether you use ROMI or MER, what you’re really looking at is return on ad spend from a business-wide lens. MER is simple: total revenue divided by total marketing spend. It’s a great macro metric for founders who want to see the forest, not just the trees.

6. How fast are you turning inventory into cash?

Inventory Sell-Through Rate

There’s no point scaling up ad spend if you’re sitting on dead stock. A healthy sell-through rate means your products are moving at the pace you’re forecasting. If it’s lagging, you’re tying up capital that could be fuelling growth elsewhere.

7. How long can your business run before the cash runs out?

Cash Runway

Cash runway tells you how many days or months you’ve got left at current burn. It’s not the most glamorous metric, but it’s one of the most important. Especially in uncertain climates, knowing your runway buys you time to make smarter decisions.

8. What’s your financial forecast for the next 90-120 days?

Cash Burn Rate & Revenue Projection

These short-term projections are your early warning system. If you’re scaling fast, but your cash position doesn’t support that growth, you’ll need to adjust. Predict cash burn, and model conservative revenue scenarios to stay ahead of any squeeze.

9. What happens if things don’t go to plan?

Scenario Planning

Don’t just plan for growth – plan for turbulence. If your paid performance drops, or your top SKU goes out of stock, do you know how that affects cash flow and headcount? Running “what if” scenarios gives you confidence under pressure.

10. Are you holding too much product?

Inventory Overstock

Overstock kills cash flow. It’s often a result of over-forecasting based on optimistic growth plans. Review your overstock position monthly. If you’re holding more than 30-60 days’ worth of slower-moving items, it’s time to rethink your supply chain assumptions.

11. How do these numbers compare to last year or last quarter?

Period-Over-Period Comparison

Growth isn’t just about topline numbers. It’s about progress. Always track how your key metrics are trending over time – CAC, LTV, payback period, etc. Context gives meaning. Improvement over last quarter is the goal, even if you’re not hitting every target.

Rounding Up

If you’re doing under £10M in revenue, you don’t need a CFO-level dashboard. You need a simple, reliable report that answers these 11 questions. That’s it.