DiscountShop

After the 2008 financial crisis, many dealers of popular brands were left with excess inventory, but they were legacy businesses that didn't know how to operate online. As a result, they were unable to take advantage of the growing demand from online customers. That's how this business was born -- buy buying excess inventory of prestigious brands at wholesale prices and reselling to online customers.

It's been a decade. In this time, the owners have developed other interests outside of e-commerce and would like to move on so that they can spend their full time on these new interests.

The business involves making purchase decisions to continue replenishing the inventory, and then make corresponding pricing decisions to ensure the right balance of margin and turnover. Operations include logistics (order fulfillment) and customer support. Beyond that, it's all about digital marketing.

The Shopify supported website is just one sales channel. This business also sells across marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart, eBay, etc.

Branded watches fall within the fashion/apparel space and, as such, social media should be the primary marketing channel. That's not the case currently with this business, which means the untapped growth potential is in riding the new wave getting generated by the recent developments at Facebook/Instagram. These platforms are attempting to take on a larger piece of ecommerce by facilitating purchases on their platform. Visually attractive products like watches being promoted on these platforms by a social media savvy marketer can create a winning formula for growth.

The other growth opportunity is internationalization. Currently the business is 80% US focused, but there is no reason it has to remain that way. Expansion into English-speaking countries like Canada, UK, Australia, etc is low-hanging fruit since watches are high-value items that are light-weight and can ship cheaply all over the world.

75% of the sales are still happening through marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart, eBay, etc. so another opportunity not necessarily for growth but rather for improving profit margins is to grow the Shopify business and reduce the dependency on the marketplaces.

All aspects of digital marketing apply to this business -- affiliate marketing, email marketing, SEO/SEM, and experience with marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart, etc would also give a strong advantage.

This business involves sourcing merchandise from suppliers who are located in US, Europe, and Hong Kong. So it helps to be able to handle import procedures and do business internationally.