Featured Listing: Online Industrial Pneumatics Supplier

About the business

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

The business is a stand-alone trading entity of a <40year old family company that is looking to restructure before a sale to a large manufacturer. The business is profitable.

As an eCommerce business, where are your products made?

We sell and distribute a variety of different makes. Our best selling products are parts that are made in Italy, Germany, Taiwan, and China — this is the norm within the pneumatics industry.

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

We are SEO-driven (and do not rely on ads for conversions or traffic). CAC is therefore nominal.

We tend to rank very highly for specific products — due to our product listing structure. Unlike the current norm, most suppliers don’t list all MPNs online, and/or list them (by copy and paste) into one single page. In contrast, we have a page for each of our, now, close to 60k products. Search a single part, and we often rank top 3. With respect to general SEO performance, search “UK Pneumatics”, and we rank top 3 on google (at least, at the time of writing and in the UK).

It is worth mentioning that we have a technical guidance section (of about 15-20 well-written technical articles (that have illustrations) within our niche that brings in traffic, increases brand awareness, and helps with backlinks).

As it is a B2B business, users who visit often have a very high intent to purchase. This is because they are already looking for specific parts.

As for CLV, most of our products have planned obsolescence (needs replacing over time). So, clients are expected (and often do) to come back for return purchases.

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

Most of our clients are in the UK, followed by the USA.

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?

We rely on self-fulfilment and drop shopping from our existing network of suppliers. That is after a sale is made, we fulfil or initiate the dropship. Some products are more popular than others, so it’s worth keeping “core” stock (we will be happy to share what these are to the buyer).

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

Though not necessary, this is best suited for an existing business that is already trading industrial supplies, such as pneumatics, hydraulics, gears, bearings, and electrics.

The purchaser may operate from within the UK or elsewhere (USA). One idea is to duplicate the site, and make minor adjustments, to target one’s local market (for example, the USA). One can then achieve sales in both regions but fulfil from the one centre. Dropshipping suppliers are mostly UK based.

Our parent company can also continue to ship for ~6 months (subject to separate negotiation and pricing agreement).

Growing the business

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

• Continue to increase SEO through a variety of means. Cold call previous customers as well as

• Increase upselling/cross selling within the site (e.g. sell accessories with their purchased products).

• Place physical marketing material within parcels for upselling and brand recognition.

• Launch email campaigns to existing list to increase brand awareness (we don’t do this, but probably should, as it’s bang for buck.)

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

It’s trading high-profit margin industrial parts to B2B customers, who tend to be low maintenance, unlike consumers.

What marketing channels are most profitable for the business?

Profitable or highest revenue? If profitable, I would say SEO.

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

SEO. So, zero marketing costs (other than writing articles). This is the best model. And keep existing clients happy.

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

1-2 for this stand-alone trading entity. B2B customers tend to be low maintenance. I think we only ever had one return in about 300 orders.

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

This was briefly mentioned above. Not sure if this should be disclosed, but if it is, then be more discreet rather than not. The parent company will be sold to an international manufacturer within a 2-year time frame. It’s best to restructure by way of selling assets (viz. this standalone trading arm) independently.