The offer letter goes out at a number the hiring manager genuinely believes is fair, sometimes even above the role's typical range. A few days later, the candidate calls to say they need to think about it, or worse, that their current employer came back with a counteroffer and they are leaning toward staying. The number was not the problem. The way the package was built and presented was.
This happens constantly in eCommerce leadership hiring, where strong candidates are usually employed, usually have something to lose by leaving, and are evaluating an offer as a whole financial picture rather than a single line on a page. A base salary that looks competitive in isolation can still lose a finalist candidate if the bonus structure feels generic, the equity story has no real numbers behind it, or there is nothing addressing what the candidate is walking away from at their current job.
Base Salary Sets the Floor. It Does Not Win the Search.
Base salary is the easiest part of an offer to benchmark and the easiest part for a candidate to compare against the market. Our eCommerce Salary Guide covers current base ranges across Director, VP, and other leadership roles, and that data is a useful starting point for setting the floor. But base alone rarely closes a senior eCommerce search, because the candidates worth fighting for are almost always comparing total compensation, not just the number at the top of the offer letter.
A strong base with a thin or vague bonus structure, no acknowledgment of what is being left behind at the current employer, and an equity grant explained in a single bullet point will consistently underperform a slightly lower base paired with a package that is structured well and explained clearly. The base number gets a candidate to consider the role. The full structure is what gets them to sign.
What a Competitive Package Actually Looks Like by Level
Bonus potential, and how often equity enters the conversation at all, both scale with seniority and P&L scope. The table below reflects what we are seeing accepted across current eCommerce leadership searches.
| Level | Typical Bonus Target | Equity |
|---|---|---|
| eCommerce Manager | 10% to 15% of base | Rare outside early-stage startups |
| Director of eCommerce | 15% to 25% of base | Common, seen across most verticals |
| VP of eCommerce | 20% to 35%+ of base | Common, often tied to growth-stage ownership |
These are starting points, not formulas. A Director with direct Amazon or marketplace P&L ownership often justifies bonus potential at the higher end of the range, because the outcome the bonus rewards is easy to measure and directly tied to their decisions.
Building a Bonus Structure That Actually Motivates
The bonus structures that land well with candidates almost always share two traits: the metrics are few and specific, and the candidate can see a clear line between their own decisions and the payout.
Tie the bonus to what the role can actually move
A bonus weighted heavily toward company-wide EBITDA or total company revenue feels disconnected to a candidate whose day-to-day work is channel growth, marketplace performance, or a specific P&L. Weighting the bonus toward metrics the role directly controls, channel revenue growth, contribution margin, retail media performance, or Amazon and marketplace contribution, makes the bonus feel earnable rather than theoretical.
Get specific about payout cadence
An annual bonus paid once a year, twelve months after the candidate has already given up whatever bonus structure they had at their old job, is a harder sell than the same dollar amount split into quarterly or semi-annual payouts. For candidates leaving a role with a near-term bonus or vesting date, cadence can matter as much as the total amount.
Use a signing bonus to bridge what is being left behind
This is the piece hiring managers skip most often, and it is usually the reason a strong candidate hesitates. If a candidate is walking away from an unvested annual bonus, unvested equity, or a retention payment tied to a date shortly after their likely start date, a signing bonus structured to roughly offset that gap removes the single biggest reason they would consider a counteroffer from their current employer.
A base-only pitch invites a candidate to compare your offer against every other base-only number they have seen, which is the comparison you are least likely to win. Presenting the full picture, base, bonus potential, equity if relevant, and any signing bonus, changes the comparison entirely.
Many eCommerce candidates have already been burned once by equity that turned out to be worth far less than implied. A vague mention of "equity included" does not help and can actually create skepticism. A specific vesting schedule, strike price or fair market value, and a realistic value scenario is what makes equity a credible part of the pitch instead of a distraction from it.
Asking a candidate to leave a vested bonus on the table, or unvested equity with a year left to cliff, without addressing it anywhere in the offer is one of the most common reasons a finalist quietly starts a conversation with their current employer instead of signing. A signing bonus or bridge payment that directly references this is one of the simplest ways to remove the opening for a counteroffer.
Equity: When It Is a Real Lever and When It Is a Distraction
Equity is a genuine selling point at venture-backed and private equity-backed DTC brands and growth-stage eCommerce companies that need a way to compete on total compensation against larger, better-resourced employers. But it is not confined to that group. A meaningful share of Director and VP-level offers we see across other ownership structures include some form of equity or long-term incentive as well, so it is worth checking before assuming it is off the table.
Where equity is genuinely rare is at larger, more established, or family-owned omnichannel retailers, where it is sometimes available but rarely a central part of the package. In that context, trying to lead with equity that is thin or symbolic tends to come across as filler rather than substance, and the stronger lever is usually a well-structured bonus and a thoughtful signing bonus instead.
The offers that get accepted without a counteroffer fight are rarely the highest base salary in the search. They are the ones where the full package was explained clearly enough that the candidate did not have to guess what it was actually worth.
Presenting the Offer So the Structure Does Not Get Lost
How an offer is presented matters almost as much as how it is built. A one-page offer letter with a base number, a bonus percentage, and a vesting schedule buried in a separate document forces the candidate to do the work of piecing together what the total package is actually worth, and busy candidates with competing demands on their attention often do not do that work carefully. Walking through the full package verbally, current total compensation against the new offer, side by side, gives the candidate a clear picture in the moment instead of leaving them to interpret a document alone later that night, which is exactly when second thoughts and counteroffer conversations tend to start.
It is also worth anchoring the offer at a real number the first time, rather than starting low to leave room to negotiate up. For senior eCommerce candidates who are already weighing a real opportunity cost against staying put, an offer that reads as a lowball starting point, even temporarily, can be enough to end the conversation before negotiation even begins.
Getting the Structure Right Before the Offer Goes Out
None of this needs to happen during the awkward stretch after a candidate has already gone quiet. The strongest version of this process happens before an offer is drafted, when there is still time to benchmark the base against our eCommerce Salary Guide, decide whether equity genuinely belongs in the conversation, and figure out what a candidate might realistically be leaving behind at their current job. Getting this wrong is not a minor miss either. For a sense of what a mishandled offer or a lost finalist actually costs in lost time and restarted search fees, see the true cost of a bad eCommerce hire, and for the other reasons strong candidates walk away even after the offer is right, see our post on why eCommerce candidates turn down offers.
A recruiter who works exclusively in eCommerce has usually seen how a dozen similar offers landed or fell apart in the same niche, which makes it easier to flag a structure that is unlikely to work before it ever reaches the candidate. If you are building an offer for a Director or VP-level eCommerce hire and want a real-market read before it goes out, reach out directly, or learn more about how we support offers through every stage of a search on our direct hire recruiting page.