The global online home décor market nearly reached $100B in 2020 and is expected to topple $350B by 2027. The pandemic reoriented how we view our homes and lockdowns led countless individuals to focus their attention and finances on improving the aesthetic of their living situations. Yellowpop is a direct-to-consumer home décor startup that’s hoping that LED neon signs will be a part of this increased shift. The company offers both custom options, where consumers can design their signs, and also from its collection, which includes limited editions co-produced with leading artists, designers, and creators. London TechWatch caught up with cofounder Jeremy Cortial to learn more about the inspiration that led to turning neon signs into art, the company’s strategic plans, recent funding round from Eutopia, and much, much more.
E-Commerce
A CEO’s 5-Step Guide on How to Manage Online Retail Finances: The Startup Edition
Synder is a personal financial assistant for small to medium-sized businesses in the eCommerce sphere. Synder carries out all bookkeeping and accounting tasks for your business. It doesn’t matter which sales channels or payment processors you use, whether it is Stripe, Square, Shopify, Amazon, eBay, PayPal, Etsy, or WooCommerce.
SaleSource Lets Dropshippers Find the Right Products With a Data-Driven Approach
Dropshipping accounts for 24% of all global online sales. Digital entrepreneurs have raced to capture a portion of this growing market and the marketplace has become increasingly competitive. SaleSource is a SaaS platform that empowers dropshippers to optimize the offerings in their storefronts through a data-driven approach. The AI-powered platform allows sellers to find top-rated vendors to source products from, analyse the competition, understand the economics associated with marketing and advertising, and discover trending products. London TechWatch caught up with CEO and Founder Kyle Dayne to learn more about the state of the drop shipping industry, the company’s future plans, how the pandemic has encouraged more entrepreneurs to set up dropshipping businesses to diversify income, and much, much more…
How Can E-Commerce Merchants Cut Through the Hype to Find Reliable SaaS Providers?
Over the last few years, the number of startups and solution providers in the technology space has been growing to handle everything from social media marketing and customer experience personalization to fraud prevention and shipping management. A market crowded with service providers can be good for e-commerce merchants, because it’s easier than ever to find solutions that work with your business model. But technology isn’t the only factor to consider. To make sure you’re picking vendors and partners who will stand the test of time and help you compete in a rapidly accelerating field, it’s also wise to consider each option’s funding structure, experience, and data resources.
Alphagreen Raises £1.1M to be the One-Stop Marketplace for CBD in Europe
The demand for CBD products across the globe has been steadily increasing and in Europe, consumers are projected to spend approximately €13.6B on CBD products by 2025. The e-commerce CBD marketplace, Alphagreen, makes it easy for consumers to discover and purchase high-quality CBD products while providing emerging CBD brands the tools to scale and launch products in new markets. London TechWatch caught up with CEO and Cofounder Alexej Pikovsky to learn more about how Alphagreen’s plans to become more than just a CBD marketplace by becoming the go-to intelligence platform for CBD products, the company’s impressive traction, and recent funding round from investors that include Enexis AB, West Creek, and Igor and Oleg Tikhturov.
RevLifter Raises £3.3M to Power Hyper-Personalised Online Shopping Experiences
With Cyber Monday right around the corner and the holidays coming up, brands are preparing for the rush of online shoppers and getting ready to deliver outstanding, personalised shopping experiences through platforms like RevLifter. This AI, retail tech startup powers hyper-personalised real-time deals at all stages of the customer’s buying journey. RevLifter’s AI algorithm can pinpoint the right deal for the right customer at the right time, and its solution has been so effective at increasing customer conversion rates that clients like Harvey Nichols, Very AT&T, and more have incorporated RevLifter into their commerce platforms. London TechWatch caught up with Simon Bird to discuss how RevLifter boosts e-commerce sales and helps brands maintain a competitive edge in a time where a curated, personalised experience means everything to consumers. We previously interviewed Bird in 2019 after RevLifter’s seed round. RevLifter has raised a total of £5.6M across two rounds.
Personify XP Raises £550K to Help Brands Deliver Personalised Ecommerce Experiences without Violating Privacy Laws
95% of online shoppers browse websites anonymously and this number will only continue to grow as browsers such as Google Chrome will phase out 3rd party cookies in 2022. Personify XP is the world’s first anonymous real-time personalization platform. Personify’s AI-powered technology understands online shopper’s interests in real-time and can deliver personalised content, or product images, to consumers without sacrificing their anonymity. Personify XP has experienced a 420% YoY growth since August 2019. London TechWatch caught up with Ben Mercer to learn more about Personify XP, how its technology drives a 10% increase in revenue on average for brands that are leveraging the technology, and the company’s recent funding round from investors that include Founders Factory, Touker Suleyman, and other high-profile angels.
Lick Home Raises £3M to Disrupt Legacy Paint Brands with its DTC Décor Approach
The global decorative paint and wallpaper market alone is worth $93B. The global paint market is dominated by incumbents, with the top 5 global paint brands owning 50% of market share. Lucas London launched Lick Home, a direct-to-consumer home décor brand focused on wall treatments, on the very same day that the UK was put into lockdown. The pandemic has given people a new appreciation for their homes. Lucas shares more on the company’s launch, product line, and seed funding round from investors that include Felix Capital, Magnas Rausing, Alex Chesterman, Piton Capital, Talis Capital, and Samos Investments.
How Augmented Reality Can Completely Change Ecommerce for Buyers and Sellers
In the balmy summer of 1995, an American entrepreneur who had just quit his job on Wall Street wrote a list of items he thought it would be possible to sell on the internet. It wasn’t long. He eventually came up with five contenders before narrowing it down to one – books. The entrepreneur’s name was Jeff Bezos and the company he incorporated that year was Amazon.
How Brands Can Lean Into a Direct-to-Consumer Model
The world was moving towards direct-to-consumer anyway, COVID just accelerated it because people got forced into new behaviors. Now that people have had a taste, it’s going to be very hard to “wean them off” of the convenience, price power, and enjoyment of e-commerce buying. It doesn’t mean that people aren’t going to go to stores anymore, it just means that a lot of consumers have added e-commerce into the mix or that e-commerce is now a bigger percentage of their overall activity. Find out what you should be doing to capitalize on this shift.