As you probably know, we hosted our Seller Barcamp in March. But we at fulfin always want to be in the middle of the e-commerce action. For this reason we were still on the one or other event. Here you will find out what they are and we will present you some interesting key-facts from a lecture.
Start Summit in St. Gallen
The START Summit actively promotes innovation by bringing together more than 3500 startups, investors, companies and young talent. This year, the Start Summit took place in hybrid form. We from fulfin were there live with a booth in St.Gallen. With more than 5000 attendees, 90 nationalities, 180 speakers and 4000 additional virtual meetings, the event was a must-do for us.
The event once again thrilled us with familiar faces from the world of e-commerce, such as Daniel Weinand, the co-founder of Shopify and other impressive speakers, such as Tina Müller, the CEO of the Douglas Group.
Amazon Late Night by Amzell
On 01.04.2022 the Amazon Late Night took place in Berlin. Many e-commerce retailers and service providers met here.
What’s Amazon Late Night all about?
At this event, participants get the opportunity to talk to experts and like-minded people about Amazon once a quarter in a relaxed atmosphere. There are new topics and speakers at every Late Night, making it a varied and always interesting event.
This time Nathan, one of our co-founders, had the chance to contribute as well.
This is how e-commerce merchants can increase their sales many times over!
With a variety of Amazon Sellers represented at Amazon Late Night, Nathan wanted to bring the topic of funding and the opportunities it creates a little closer to the attendees. Since this topic is an important point for e-commerce sellers, we want to explain the key learnings to you a bit more in detail here.
Why is financing so essential for e-commerce merchants?
The topic of financing and working capital is often not given enough attention, because why borrow money if it is not absolutely necessary? Here’s the answer: with a loan, sellers can finance COGS and marketing costs to drive sales growth. In addition, the only factors that stand in the way of sales growth are often a lack of time and too little liquidity.
Alternative Lending as a special solution for e-commerce merchants
Alternative finance refers to any lending practice that takes place outside of the traditional financial system, such as banks and capital markets. Here you should observe the MOM rule:
- Minimizethe liquidity gap
- Optimizethe use of liquidity
- Maximizeavailable liquidity
Minimize the liquidity gap
In the meantime, there are many tools on the market to help you keep track of your liquidity, but most of them are not adapted to the specific needs of e-commerce. Here, for example, the following factors are not taken into account:
- A comprehensive overview of the cash balance, including Amazon and Paypal
- Automatic categorization of typical e-commerce transactions
- Liquidity planning based on products and units
fulfin currently offers its customers access to a prototype that satisfies all these needs and that users can actively shape through their feedback.
More tips:
- Use your home field advantage and build relationships with local representatives
- See your service providers as partners: share your growth forecast with them and do not set up punitive contracts that could negatively impact product quality
- Fast Track: apply for a BTI number and avoid unnecessary and expensive delays at customs
- Conclude a framework agreement with the freight forwarder → Avoid waiting for a quote
- Compare prices of different types of freight with the savings in financing the total cost of the product and not with each other
Maximize available liquidity
There is no right answer – It’s a funding mix and the mix makes the difference!
Optimize the use of liquidity
It’s certainly important to note that most high growth sellers can’t fully fund all of their products. Your best seller may not be your growth driver.
E-commerce merchants should also always adhere to three points:
- Avoid an out-of-stock event
- Take advantage of funding opportunities
- Improve or remove growth killer
A real life example
To round out his contribution, Nathan presented his audience with a case he himself had worked on.
For all those who are interested or have further questions, we can only say: Come and meet us at the next event or contact our sales team!