Featured Listing: 26,000+ Customers, and Strong Branding in a Competitive Niche

About the business

Tell us a little about yourself. What’s your background? How did you start the business?

I went to college for business entrepreneurship and shortly before finishing my associate’s degree, I decided to drop out to start my first eCommerce company.

As an eCommerce business, where are your products made?

Since my e-Commerce business specializes in creating Japanese-inspired chef knives, our knives are produced in the knife-making capital of the world – Yangjiang, China.

What can you tell us about your Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

What I can say about customer lifetime value is that out of 32,000 orders almost 11% of those orders are from returning customers. Acquisition cost for Japaknives has averaged out to about $40 when we factor in Facebook, YouTube, Google, SMS, and emails.

How have you marketed the product and where are your customers originating from?

Our products are marketed as Japanese-inspired chef knives that won’t break the bank, given that authentic Japanese knives can go for thousands of dollars. Our whole idea was bringing to the market knives that carry a true Japanese look and feel yet at an affordable price so everyone can own them.

Is the asset on your listing owner-operated, how much time does it take to run the business, who else is needed on the team, and what is automated?

The business is owner operated – requiring up to 15 hours per week to maintain. The main player on the team is a backend manager to keep up to date with fulfillment and customer escalations, as well as ensuring the support team are hitting their support goals. Most of email support is automated with Gorgias using macros, with 1 virtual assistance manually handling the tickets.

What does someone need to do to continue operating the business in its current form?

Refresh creatives in the control campaign on the Facebook advertising platform when performance drops below KPIs.

Growing the business

Can you list a few opportunities for a potential new owner to continue growing the business?

Establish TikTok as a new organic traffic source using a strategic partner + set up Amazon as a sales channel with our account manager. We are already receiving thousands of monthly searches on Amazon that competitors are using to their advantage given that we do not have any stock with our Seller Central Account.

What has been the evolution of this asset since its launch?

We first came to the market promoting the worlds first ever premium control chefs knife, and through the evolution of time we have come to be know as bringing the most appealing Japanese inspired chef knives to the market – particularly with a focus on our Exotic Japanese Series.

How does this business make money? What are the current revenue streams?

We make money by using Facebook as our primary source of traffic. We look at Facebook as an intent creation device, and then use our backend remarketing to capitalize on the traffic. SMS, Email and branded google search all make up our remarketing.

We don’t focus on seeing seeing the ROAS of Facebook alone, but rather on the ecosystem ROAS of the store as a whole since there are multiple touch points in any customer journey and no true way to attribute credit to any one stream.

What marketing channels are most profitable for the business?

Facebook. The success of every other channel (Google branded search, google shopping, emails, SMS) are all dependent on the intent that we create using Facebook. It’s not about seeing a 4,5 or 10 ROAS on your Facebook dashboard, but rather hitting your KPI for the platform at the max amount of spend so that every other channel can do it’s job.

How does the business currently acquire customers and what is your breakdown for marketing costs?

We acquire customers by creating intent through facebook and converting them directly from those ads and by following up with them via SMS, emails and with Google branded search, and performance max campaigns.

How big is your current team? How many people does it take to run this business?

As the founder, I run all of our front end paid marketing efforts. Next we have virtual assistant supporting customer emails. Then we have a social media support agent answering all queries received on Facebook + Instagram. Lastly we have a backend manager who handles fulfillment, disputes, customer escalations and ensuring the support team is hitting their support goals.

What’s the reason for selling your business on Flippa?

The reason for selling this business on Flippa is to fund my next big e-Commerce project! I feel like in 21 months I have established Japaknives as an authority in the market of kitchen knives with its brilliant branding. And I am now ready to have the same level of impact in the fitness niche to help people achieve better health.