Transformation · Growth · Digital Commerce
Turning complexity
into commercial growth.
I help businesses unlock profitability, build new revenue engines and transform how customers, commerce, technology, people and operations work together — from board-level strategy through to the detail of implementation.
Most executives optimise existing businesses. Arfan Sabir has spent his career building new ones.
Impact at scale
Numbers that came from building, not from reporting.
£0 → £70m
New international digital commerce business built from zero.
£320m → £1.2bn
Global digital commerce scaled across brand and trade channels.
$980m
Revenue moved into digital channels.
65+ markets
International transformation footprint.
26 countries
Global commerce platform rollout and migration.
120+
Enterprise transformation capability built and led.
Where I usually get called in
The problems that bring people to the table.
There is now an overwhelming choice of AI, marketing, trading, ecommerce, CRM, data, social, marketplace and technology tools. The value is not in the tools. It is in architecting the right combination of business model, people, processes, platforms and partners — and then running it.
01Growth has stalled
02Profitability needs unlocking
03Ecommerce needs scaling
04Transformation is moving too slowly
05Digital investment is not creating enough commercial value
06Customer journeys are fragmented
07Functions operate in silos
08International expansion needs accelerating
09A new revenue stream needs building
10Customer acquisition is becoming inefficient
11Technology architecture has become too complex
12AI creates more noise than clarity
13Leadership is overwhelmed by vendors, platforms and tools
14Strategy exists but execution is weak
How I can help
Strategy that survives contact with the operating model.
Commercial Transformation
Find where value is being lost and build a practical route to growth and profitability — with a plan people can actually run.
New Revenue Engines
Design and launch new ecommerce, digital, marketplace, omnichannel or service propositions, from first commercial model to first revenue.
Digital Commerce & Trading
Improve proposition, acquisition, retention, conversion, trading, merchandising and the customer economics underneath them.
Transformation Architecture
Connect strategy, organisation, operating model, process, data, technology and execution so the parts stop working against each other.
International Growth
Accelerate international expansion, localisation, routes to market and marketplaces without rebuilding the business in every country.
AI, Data & Automation
Identify where AI and automation create genuine commercial or operational value — and where they are an expensive distraction.
Building growth
Leadership through others
What the work looked like from the inside.
“He walked into a business that had been talking about international ecommerce for years and had something trading within months. Not a slide — a P&L.”
“Arfan is the rare one who can sit with the board in the morning and unblock a payments integration in the afternoon.”
“He made my job clearer. I always knew what we were trying to earn, not just what we were trying to ship.”
“He asked harder questions than any client we work with, and the work got better for it.”
“No theatre. He tells you what is real, what is not, and what he needs from you.”
“The team he built outlasted the programme. That tells you most of what you need to know.”
Insights
Thinking, and current signals.
Ideas on growth, commerce and transformation — occasionally, not constantly.