RMRB 1374 – Building an eCommerce Business Making $40K per Year in the Kitchenware Niche

In this episode, Lauren talks to the seller of an eCommerce business created in April 2022 in the kitchenware, home, and hobbies niches. Listen in to find out how the business makes an average of $40,819.00 per year in net profit, why the seller has decided to sell, the lessons learned from running the business, and much more.

Visit https://empireflippers.com/listing/88387 to learn more about this business.

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Transcript

Forget gurus. Forget anyone claiming to be an online business expert without going through the challenges of entrepreneurship themselves. The Real Money, Real Business podcast is here to prove the best insights in online business come from your fellow online business builders.

We dig into stories of entrepreneurs selling their businesses on the Empire Flippers marketplace so that you can learn how they made their businesses profitable, how they overcame obstacles, and what lessons they learned in their online journeys. If you want to take your business and your knowledge to the next level, you've come to the right podcast. Let's get started.

Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Real Money, Real Business podcast. We record these interviews so that potential buyers can learn more about the business and the seller to help them make an informed buying decision.

If you would like to learn more about this business, including details like what type of business it is, how much revenue and profit it makes, and all of the assets included with the business, simply visit empireflippers.com/marketplace and search for this business's listing number, which you can find in the video thumbnail and in the description. Or, if you're watching this on YouTube, you can click the link in the description to go straight to the listing.

So, without further ado, let's get into this interview.

First up, let's learn a little bit about you. Can you tell us about your background in building and running online businesses?

**Seller:** Yes. Can I tell you a bit more about my background?

**Interviewer:** Absolutely.

**Seller:** So, I'm actually a marketer by trade. I've worked in marketing for over 25 years and have also started up other businesses in niches that did not exist before. So, I have actually done category creation before.

For me, this was hugely exciting because I got to build the brand all the way through to product selection and actual active marketing. So, that's who I am.

**Interviewer:** Why are you selling the business now instead of keeping it and growing it further?

**Seller:** You know, we had the wonderful good fortune to be able to move to the United Kingdom a couple of years ago. Although we've been very successfully managing it with great staff remotely, it's just becoming too much, and I just don't feel like we're able to give this business the attention it deserves.

There are so many avenues for growth that we just don't have the time to take advantage of. It really feels like, after five years—which is an excellent run with great profitability—it's time to hand it to somebody who can take it to the next level, which is hard, but at the same time, it feels good. We really did build something special, and I'm excited to give it to somebody who will help it grow even more.

**Interviewer:** Can you describe the amount and the type of work that you do on this business to maintain it?

**Seller:** Well, actually, I don't do the day-to-day work, particularly, although I do some customer service when I have time. But really, what's required is somebody to do fulfillment and answer customer inquiries on a regular basis.

The amount of time is actually really minimal. As you can see when you look at the business specifics, the actual labor costs are very low, and that's because the time requirement is not huge. The majority of the effort was honestly getting it started, getting it set up, and getting all the systems in place so it would kind of run autonomously.

For me personally, I supervise and keep an eye on things. But the majority of the work is done in fulfillment, in a physical space where someone's actually preparing the orders and answering inbound customer emails and so forth.

**Interviewer:** So, if you were to keep this business, what are some of the ways you would try to grow it?

**Seller:** There's so much opportunity, and I think this is the thing: after five years, we've taken it to a point where we can, but for someone else who really wants to focus on it, there's so much opportunity.

One of the biggest areas will be digital marketing. The only digital marketing we do is email. Of course, our email metrics are phenomenal, as you would see if you get into the details of the business—way above and beyond the average. We're better than 96% of Klaviyo users on every single metric.

But that's only one thing that we're doing. We haven't really done any digital advertising. We haven't done any Google Ads or really invested in Meta advertising. There are all these digital channels that we just haven't done anything with because we don't have the time and focus. That's a huge area of growth: cracking that nut and getting the business out to a wider audience. It's a massive opportunity, especially when you're talking about a profitable business without that already.

I think the other big area of opportunity is a different vendor assortment. We are dealing with vendors from very high-cost geographies, predominantly Western Europe. Obviously, our products are made in other areas as well, where margins can be much, much larger, provided the quality is just as good.

Especially if you have contacts in other regions, exploring vendors in other regions that can deliver the same quality for a much lower price is a real opportunity. We know that, given our personal circumstances, it's just not something we have time to explore. But I think it's an enormous opportunity for growth.

This is such a great foundation to build on—both operationally and technically, as well as brand awareness-wise. There are all these really great ways you can grow the business, should you choose to explore them.

**Interviewer:** Right. And what would you say are the biggest risks with this business that buyers should be aware of?

**Seller:** You know, there really are not a lot of risks because we are the only company in this category, and we have such a massive five-year head start on any other competitors. We're backed by major mainstream media coverage in publications like The Wall Street Journal, Air Mail, and other tier-one publications. It's kind of yours to lose.

I think making sure that you are in a jurisdiction where you can ship into the United States without tariff penalties is important. That's the biggest market right now. But when we talk about opportunities, other geographies, like Europe, are a huge opportunity as well. Especially because so many of our products are actually created in Europe, I don't see there being a lot of risk.

The only headwinds we've ever seen were the tariff issues and the de minimis changes, but that impacted every single e-commerce business globally. So, getting around that by making sure you're in the right geography and the right location to be able to ship tariff-free, I think, is the big opportunity.

But, yeah, I mean, it's a great business that no one else has thought of, and so there's an awful lot of novelty to it that I think gives you a lot of runway to build it and grow it.

**Interviewer:** How much support are you willing to offer the buyer who acquires this business?

**Seller:** I think we talked about four or five weeks of on-call support. It's not that complicated. Truly, if you know how to operate an e-commerce business, the systems and processes are so tidy and clean that it really is a matter of a quick orientation.

Nothing is bespoke. Everything is very off-the-shelf. We have wonderful vendors who are available to make modifications if you want them. They're very affordable and very responsive. We've got a great support network around the business.

I want you to be successful. I want you to do well. I want to show you the ropes, and we have staff who can help with that as well. But I'll be honest: I don't think you're going to need that much support. If you know how to market and you know how to operate a business like this, it's very clean, very tidy, very well structured, and very organized.

So, yeah, I'm happy to talk about the brand and that kind of stuff. Formally, we talked about four or five weeks of on-call support, which we can also talk about extending if you have other questions down the road. That would never be a problem.

**Interviewer:** Are you open to negotiating something like an earn-out agreement?

**Seller:** No, we are not. The cost of the business is not so large. We're not talking millions of euros or millions of dollars. The business is priced very reasonably, and an earn-out just probably doesn't make sense for the size of the business or the size of the payment that would be required.

In addition, we have proven metrics, proven profitability, and a proven, loyal customer base. I am very confident that this business has what it takes to keep going in a healthy and profitable way in the right hands.

**Interviewer:** Okay, final question. If you had to put yourself in the shoes of a buyer, why is your business worth buying?

**Seller:** It's a five-year-old business with a good track record. The customer base is insanely loyal. In the last 12 months, we have seen a return customer rate—people coming back to buy again—of 70% of our sales. That's because we're very effective with email marketing as well.

We have this incredibly engaged customer base, and year over year, that rate has edged up, starting at 20%, going to 40%, and now increasing. So, we have an enormously engaged customer base.

We have incredible coverage in tier-one media and a novel category-creation opportunity. This business created a luxury goods category that did not and does not exist anywhere else. We have no competitors for this type of product and tons of opportunity for growth.

There are all kinds of things we haven't been able to explore because of moving into the United Kingdom and being busy with our day jobs. There are different vendor assortments, really enhanced digital marketing—we've done very much just the basics—as well as shipping into other geographies.

So, there is all kinds of runway to take something that is proven: a category that has been created, completely novel, with no competition, a proven business, a loyal customer base, and all kinds of runway for growth. I don't know what more you could possibly want.

In addition, operationally and technically, our storefront, all of our software, and everything on the back end are beautiful and clean. There is no jumbled mess of weird handmade software in the back. Everything is Shopify, everything is clean, everything is beautiful, super easy to operate, and requires a really minimal time investment.

It's literally putting products in envelopes and shipping them. So, if you're looking for a beautiful little turnkey business that is already profitable and you can just take over right away and make money from day one, this is it. And it's cool. It's a really cool business.

It's really interesting. We've got great SEO. The only reason we're selling is because our lives are complicated and we have very demanding day jobs. I feel really good about what we built here, and I would really like to give it to somebody who gets it, appreciates it, and can take it to the next level, because I think it is just a gorgeous little business with all kinds of opportunity.

**Interviewer:** All right, everyone. Thanks for listening. To learn more and see if this business is still for sale, head over to empireflippers.com/marketplace and search for this business's listing number, which you can find in the video thumbnail and description. Or, if you're watching this on YouTube, click the link in the description to go straight to the listing.

Once you've unlocked this listing, you'll find everything you need to know about this business. So, thanks for joining us. See you next time.