Bricks to clicks to cash

750,000 businesses were forced to shut during lockdown. Cash strapped with bills to pay, but no income, led to the furlough of  staff or in some cases, redundancies. What was next?

As time passed and the future unclear, some realised it was better late than never: “Move online.”

The pandemic has fuelled a digital surge where UKtech reported more than 85,000 businesses launched online stores or joined online marketplaces in the four months to July 2020. Businesses were able to reach consumers in geographies they never thought to market in. McKinsey reported for this period that most consumer categories had seen a 15% to 40% increase in online channel user growth.

Plenty of opportunity, but not easy.

The digital marketing strategy is critical to the success of an online launch. Where a manufacturer’s key driver to revenue generation is “Plant and Machinery” which in turn produces their product, ecommerce needs to see “Marketing” in the same light. Driving traffic to a website or marketplace is just the beginning. Brands/retailers need to convert site visits to sales. In that process they need to think about minimising drop off rates, reduce page loading speed and reduce the number of clicks to reach checkout.

Direct to consumer (D2C) brands/online retailers who nail this strategy will see the greatest benefits. Delight your customers and they will return in droves.  Miss the mark and all that investment is in the recycle bin.

At Polestar we help existing brands/retailers raise smart capital, depending on where you are on the digital journey, whether it is to launch into the digital universe or for those who are already in the market, to expand on their current offerings. We can introduce you to experienced investors to grow exponentially.

We are working with a number of businesses who are in exactly this position.  Private equity is very focused on investing into these areas and we are finding the prices being offered are at least as high as those pre-Covid.

If you’re already a successful D2C or B2B2C brand and want a partial cash out or 100% exit to capitalise on your hard work, we can help. Let’s have a chat and discuss the options available for you.