THE LEAKY TAP REPORT · SEVILLE · 30.09.26

What Ecommerce Agencies Do When Nobody Is Looking

We asked 28 ecommerce agency leaders how they find clients, spend their hours, and deploy AI. The findings show an industry running on borrowed pipeline and unearned comfort.

28 agency leaders. One room. Thirteen questions.

71%

New business reliant on referrals and partner intros

THE SHORT VERSION

0171% of new business comes from referrals and partner intros rather than marketing.
0250% of agencies advise clients to spend more marketing hours than they spend themselves.
0354% of agency content could be published by a competitor with a swapped logo.
0439% of founders admit they have never published anything that might annoy someone.
0521% of agency leaders have no idea what they will close in six months.

FINDING 01

Almost three quarters of agency growth belongs to other people

Referrals and word of mouth represent the primary source of new business for 64% of agencies. Partner or platform intros account for 7%. Combined, 71% of new client acquisition relies on goodwill generated outside the agency. Outbound accounts for 14%. Inbound content, search, and social account for 7%. Paid ads stand at 0%. Overall, 43% of agencies draw half or more of their revenue from referrals and partner introductions. Relying on platforms your buyers already trust works until the introductions dry up. Most agencies do not possess a sales pipeline. They possess a network of acquaintances who occasionally remember they exist. That works until market conditions shift.

71%

Rely on referrals or partner intros as primary source

A referral is a compliment, but it is not a pipeline strategy.

Where new clients came from

Share from referrals and partner intros

THE REST IS BEHIND AN EMAIL

That's the free bit.

Five more findings. What 28 agency owners admitted was keeping them up at night, in their own words. The full dataset to poke at. And a benchmark that tells you how leaky your own tap is. One email.

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FINDING 02

One in five agency leaders is flying completely blind

Only 21% of respondents can forecast revenue to within about 20% over the next six months. Another 57% say they can forecast roughly. Exactly 21% admit they have no idea what they will close. Agency scale alters the result. Among agencies under €1m in revenue, 31% cannot forecast what is coming. For agencies under €500k, 36% have no idea. At €3m to €10m, exactly 0% say they have no idea, and 40% forecast to within about 20%. Predictability does not arrive by accident. It is the same silence you get when you ask what they are closing in six months. Agencies without proactive outbound simply wait for the phone to ring.

21%

Admit they have no idea what they will close

Hope remains a remarkably common forecasting method.

Do you know what you'll close

Forecasting by revenue band

FINDING 03

Half would sack a client who marketed like they do

The most common weekly time spent on internal marketing is 0 to 2 hours, reported by 36% of agencies. Yet 43% advise clients to invest 6 to 10 hours a week. Another 32% recommend more than 10 hours. Exactly 50% advise clients to invest more time than they invest themselves. Responsibility explains the deficit. For 39%, marketing falls to the founder when there is time. Another 11% leave it to whoever is free that week, and 4% admit nobody handles it. That leaves 54% running marketing on leftover attention. Only 39% maintain a dedicated person or team. When growth sits in the founder's shadow, consistency disappears entirely.

50%

Advise clients to spend more hours than they invest

Agencies regularly prescribe medicine they refuse to take themselves.

READ · Consistency Is the Only Thing That Matters

Hours a week on marketing

Who does the marketing

FINDING 04

Founders lose sleep over AI relevance and empty pipelines

When asked what keeps them awake at night, 7 founders named pipeline and sales. Another 6 pointed to operations and scaling. Exactly 6 cited AI and future relevance. One owner running an agency under €500k asked whether every brand will do this work internally within five years. Another leader in the €1m to €3m bracket described sleepless nights wondering who the agency will be in 2 years. At €3m to €10m, leadership worries about how to stay relevant in the era of technology democratization. The fear is existential. Founders worry that their core technical craft will soon be reduced to an automated default setting.

Leaders kept awake by AI and existential relevance

The quiet worry is not losing a pitch, but losing the category.

READ · The Real Answer Was Never "More AI"

What keeps them up at night

The thing keeping me up at night is
In five years, will every company be able to do this for themselves as table stakes?
Owner, under €500k a year ecommerce agency

The thing keeping me up at night is
Not knowing who we’ll be in 2 years. Things are changing so rapidly, and it’s exciting, but takes brain power during sleepless nights.
Leadership, €1m to €3m a year ecommerce agency

The thing keeping me up at night is
Driving the change with AI within the team without stressing them out and overwhelm them.
Owner, €1m to €3m a year ecommerce agency

The thing keeping me up at night is
How to reinvent ourselves and new value added services to create to stay relevant in the era of technology democratization.
Leadership, €3m to €10m a year ecommerce agency

FINDING 05

Clients buy personal trust while founders panic about tech

While founders lose sleep over artificial intelligence, clients buy basic human reassurance. When asked why their last client signed, 9 cited expertise and audits, and 8 credited relationship and trust. Only 2 attributed the win to an AI recommendation. The verbatims are plain. One founder won through personal touch. Another cited clear explanations and taking time to understand business needs. A larger agency pointed to reputation and trust from referrals. Another leader described the pitch as vibe check af. Buyers still pay to de-risk their decisions. Trust remains stubbornly human, even as the technical delivery moves to automated tooling.

Won their last client through relationship and trust

Buyers purchase certainty from people, not efficiency from algorithms.

READ · The Testimonial Industrial Complex

What keeps them up at night

Why clients said yes

Personal touch.
Owner, under €500k a year ecommerce agency

Vibe check af.
Leadership, €1m to €3m a year ecommerce agency

The hands on proactive approach.
Owner, €1m to €3m a year ecommerce agency

Reputation and trust from the referrals.
Leadership, €3m to €10m a year ecommerce agency

FINDING 06

Most output is AI drafted and totally swappable

Production has become automated. For 57% of agencies, most or nearly all content is drafted by AI. Only 4% use none. Meanwhile, 54% concede a competitor could swap logos and publish their material. Among heavy AI users, swappability climbs to 63%, compared to 42% for lighter users. Among those using nearly all AI, 71% admit a competitor could probably publish it. At the same time, 39% have never published anything that might annoy someone. Safety breeds sameness. As described in the logo-swap test, removing friction strips out distinctiveness. If anyone could say it, nobody remembers who did.

54%

Admit a competitor could publish their content

Bland work is fast to make, easy to approve, and completely invisible.

READ · You don't offend, you don't attract

AI-drafted content

Could a competitor swap the logo

Last published something that might annoy

Logo swappable, by AI use

IN THEIR WORDS

What keeps them up at night.

Agency leaders speak candidly when given an empty text box. Here is what they said about sleepless nights and won pitches.

AI and future relevance

The thing keeping me up at night is

In five years, will every company be able to do this for themselves as table stakes?

Owner, under €500k a year ecommerce agency

Relationship and trust

Personal touch.

Owner, under €500k a year ecommerce agency

AI and future relevance

The thing keeping me up at night is

Not knowing who we’ll be in 2 years. Things are changing so rapidly, and it’s exciting, but takes brain power during sleepless nights.

Leadership, €1m to €3m a year ecommerce agency

Relationship and trust

Vibe check af.

Leadership, €1m to €3m a year ecommerce agency

AI and future relevance

The thing keeping me up at night is

Driving the change with AI within the team without stressing them out and overwhelm them.

Owner, €1m to €3m a year ecommerce agency

Relationship and trust

The hands on proactive approach.

Owner, €1m to €3m a year ecommerce agency

AI and future relevance

The thing keeping me up at night is

How to reinvent ourselves and new value added services to create to stay relevant in the era of technology democratization.

Leadership, €3m to €10m a year ecommerce agency

Relationship and trust

Reputation and trust from the referrals.

Leadership, €3m to €10m a year ecommerce agency

AI and future relevance

The thing keeping me up at night is

Understanding how and where to.focus.our energy around AI, ensuring we're able to keep up/stay ahead of industry trends and expectations.

Owner, €500k to €1m a year ecommerce agency

Relationship and trust

Personalised approach, proximity, in-person meetings and flexibility.

Owner, €500k to €1m a year ecommerce agency

Operations and scaling

The thing keeping me up at night is

Entrepreneurs not accepting they need to take preemptive actions, not reactions.

Owner, under €500k a year ecommerce agency

Relationship and trust

We talked about their fears and they felt they had to sort it out.

Owner, under €500k a year ecommerce agency

Pipeline and sales

The thing keeping me up at night is

Sales.

Owner, under €500k a year ecommerce agency

Relationship and trust

Clear explanations, timeline for project, understanding their business needs not just selling the store development.

Owner, under €500k a year ecommerce agency

Operations and scaling

The thing keeping me up at night is

Client calls and invoices.

Owner, under €500k a year ecommerce agency

Expertise and audits

We showed them very in depth analysis of their business.

Owner, under €500k a year ecommerce agency

Operations and scaling

The thing keeping me up at night is

How to optimize the process of creating processes.

Leadership, under €500k a year ecommerce agency

AI recommendation

ChatGPT suggested us.

Leadership, under €500k a year ecommerce agency

AI and future relevance

The thing keeping me up at night is

Ai adoption.

Owner, €1m to €3m a year ecommerce agency

Expertise and audits

Ahead of market in geo offering.

Owner, €1m to €3m a year ecommerce agency

Operations and scaling

The thing keeping me up at night is

Recruitment.

Owner, €1m to €3m a year ecommerce agency

Expertise and audits

Our audits.

Owner, €1m to €3m a year ecommerce agency

Pipeline and sales

The thing keeping me up at night is

Brand awareness.

Leadership, €500k to €1m a year ecommerce agency

AI recommendation

Chat GPt recommended us.

Leadership, €500k to €1m a year ecommerce agency

EXPLORE THE DATA

Poke at it yourself.

Revenue

Role

Split by

Showing 28 of 28 responses

Where did most of your new clients come from in the last 12 months?

HOW LEAKY IS YOUR TAP?

Six taps. Thirty seconds. Then we tell you where you sit.

How your agency compares across pipeline predictability, marketing commitment, and positioning edge.

1 of 6

Roughly what share came from referrals and partner intros combined?

THE POINT

The data shows an industry caught between borrowed pipeline and automated sameness. Agencies depend on introductions for growth, leave self-promotion to spare hours, and flood feeds with swappable copy. Yet when buyers sign agreements, they pay for judgment, trust, and reassurance. Producing original thinking requires a distinct point of view. Without that discipline, an agency is not marketing. It is merely waiting for the phone to ring.

READ · Before You Plan 2026, Read This.

Waye builds research like this for ecommerce agencies and the platforms that partner with them. waye.agency

WHO ANSWERED

Revenue

Under €500k 39%€500k to €1m 18%€1m to €3m 25%€3m to €10m 18%Over €10m 0%

Role

Founder or owner 75%Leadership 21%Marketing 0%Sales or BD 0%Delivery 4%

28 responses, collected anonymously in the room at the EU Ecommerce Agency Summit, Seville, 30 September 2026. Thirteen questions, under four minutes. Percentages are rounded. Where a filtered group has fewer than five responses we say so.