Website Closers® presents an eCommerce company that has nearly two decades of experience profiting off of one of the most-long held truisms of business: People just love a good bargain.
The brand, which operates two successful Shopify websites, enjoys phenomenal product diversity by offering SKUs in a variety of categories including Sports and Outdoors, Home and Garden, Health and Beauty, and Household Goods. These products range from pig roasters to inflatable bounce houses to fitness poles, all being sold under their own proprietary brand name with great success and gleaming reviews for quality and value.
All of their products are offered on Amazon and optimized for their Amazon FBA, Prime Model, making for a vast reach and recognition for super fast shipping. With a 98% Lifetime Seller Rating, the company has successfully determined who their target audience is and just as successfully delivered for them.
Pioneering an aggressive market research strategy, the company uses Helium 10, a software that enables them to analyze products they’re selling on Amazon to evaluate for seasonal trends and profit estimates. Having a strong understanding of what customers are looking for, they sell a lot of items that customers can’t find in their local big box stores, and they work hard to ensure their pricing is competitive to deliver what people want: Bargains. Surveys of shopping habits indicate that Americans love saving money on their purchases because it means they have more spare cash to – what else, but buy more products. Plenty of shoppers, particularly between the ages of 25 and 34, know when a sale is due to start at their favorite store and eagerly plan for it.
That was the company’s original goal when their site was launched 16 years ago to provide consumers with alternatives to local retail shopping. Their site has grown to more than 50 SKUs, allowing customers to shop for sporting goods, hardware, beauty products and more all from one retailer. In addition to the products they sell, their website has a prominent “Season Sale” for popular items that have been marked down.
A second website was launched marketing a foot bath and related accessories for customers interested in alternative and holistic health care products. Products are sourced from an international manufacturer, with a forwarder used to import their products, which are optimized, customized in terms of quality, size, and material, and packaged to fit the Fulfillment By Amazon requirements. With a growing number of SKUs, there’s a wide price range among these items, from $19 all the way up to $1,199. Sales remain steady throughout the year, with their foot bath, bounce houses, and pig roasters representing 70% of sales. In addition to Amazon, sales have been extended to other eCommerce platforms such as Walmart and eBay, although Amazon makes up 75% of sales, which are projected to surpass $2.4 million by the end of 2021. That represents a truly growth rate for this tried and tested business, indicating an incredible growth potential going forward.
The company gets a steady mix of both new and repeat customers, with their bounce houses appealing most commonly to new customers, and their foot bath accessories to repeat buyers. The company is now planning to increase their focus on the top performing SKUs that have become the most profitable for them. Another major advantage this company has is 10+ years of well-established relationships with its 6 manufacturers, which has enabled the company to provide fast deliveries to its customers. That has helped generate plenty of 4- and 5-Star reviews on Amazon and Walmart. The brand stocks 100% of its products, with 30% stored at the Amazon FBA warehouse and 70% at their own warehouse. New supplies are ordered on a quarterly basis, and orders are strong enough that they now maintain $680,000+ worth of inventory.
This is a highly automated business that requires just two hours per day from the current owner, who focuses on handling customer service inquiries through email or marketplace messages on Amazon or eBay. The company has one full-time employee who handles information technology.
The company has several clear scale opportunities, starting with their marketing. The company’s focus so far has been PPC ads on Amazon and taking full advantage of that eCommerce giant’s in house promotional tools, which has proven to be highly effective. But there are certainly other options for sharply increasing sales and profits. With their growing Repeat Customer Rate, the brand could collect customer emails to produce an Email Marketing Campaign with a focus on promotions, seasonal sales, and upsells. The brand has an active social media presence with 13,790+ followers on Facebook and 5,200+ on Instagram, and a more aggressive strategy could drive further website traffic. Taking advantage of additional social media sites such as Pinterest, YouTube and TikTok would also help reaching a new line of customers. TikTok bargaining trends are huge now, and partnering with bargain influencers for marketing could help refresh this brand with a hip, trendy new voice
The company also has the option to continue increasing and diversifying their SKUs, letting those bargain hunters out there know that something new is on the way, and building up that anticipation.
With the right tools in place to direct bargain shoppers to both their Amazon platform and Shopify sites, this branded company has turned common household goods into their own popular online retailer shop, with those Season Sales becoming the icing on the cake for price-conscious consumers.
Since we all love a deal, the bottom line for a buyer is that this company represents a bargain as well: Recurring revenues, an increasingly loyal customer base, and impressive ratings from buyers make this business practically a steal.
