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- 🧻 Rollup Agencies Over Brands?
🧻 Rollup Agencies Over Brands?
Ecommerce turnarounds, rollups, market trends, strategies & insights
Marc Roca
September 13, 2024
Hey there 👋,
Welcome back to another issue of Inversal, which features honest, real-life stories on actual e-commerce turnarounds, market trends, strategies, and insights.
In today's issue:
🧻💰 Choose Agencies Over Brands For Rollup Success?
Front Row Group, an e-commerce marketing agency, has expanded through acquisitions including Fortress Brand, School House, and Taylor & Pond.
It recently announced a strategic investment from Charlesbank Capital Partners, a middle-market private equity firm, in September 2024. This investment, which is valued in the hundreds of millions, underscores a major move in the ecommerce agency sector towards consolidation and scaling operations.
The investment aims to help Front Row Group accelerate innovation, growth, and further its strategic initiatives, leveraging Charlesbank's expertise and capital to capitalize on the growing e-commerce market trends, especially in the beauty and wellness sectors.
This acquisition by Charlesbank also reflects broader trends in the industry where private equity firms are increasingly investing in ecommerce enablement services, recognizing the potential for growth and efficiency in managing brands' online presence.
This move not only bolsters Front Row Group's position but also highlights the sector's attractiveness for investment due to the shift of significant industries like beauty and wellness into e-commerce platforms, alongside the demand for personalized brand experiences.
And some commentators now see agencies as the most successful rollup model in ecommerce, rather than brands:
The most successful roll-up in eCommerce is not brands but of agencies.
Front Row, the marketing agency, has been acquiring agencies including Fortress Brand, School House, Taylor & Pond, has itself just been acquired by PE firm Charlesbank.
Guessing it was a 9-figure deal.
— Fan Bi (buying $5-30M DTC brands) (@lifeofbi)
7:57 PM • Sep 10, 2024
The best part? No inventory.
🚛 7 Cross-Docking Strategies to Cut Inventory Costs
Cross-docking is a logistics strategy that eliminates warehousing by quickly transferring inbound goods to outbound transportation. This reduces storage time, cuts costs, and speeds up delivery. Key strategies include Just-in-Time (JIT) cross-docking, opportunistic cross-docking, and consolidation or deconsolidation methods. By selecting the right cross-docking approach, businesses can streamline operations, reduce inventory holding costs, and improve supply chain efficiency.
📦 Just-in-Time (JIT) cross-docking
🚚 Flow-through distribution
🔄 Hybrid cross-docking operations
🚀 Amazon’s Export Central Simplifies European Expansion
Amazon has launched "Export Central," allowing small businesses to expand their sales across 39 European countries in just three clicks. Sellers using the Merchant Fulfilled Network (MFN) or Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) can now effortlessly reach new markets, including countries without Amazon storefronts like Austria and Portugal. This tool is part of the European Export Programme, driving up to a 10% increase in sales for some businesses.
🌍 Export to 39 European countries
📈 Potential 10% sales uplift for exporters
💼 Simplified VAT compliance via Union One-Stop Shop
Amazon’s move removes key barriers to international expansion, enabling small businesses to focus on innovation and growth.
📦 Reduce Amazon Inbound Placement Fees with Key Strategies
Amazon inbound placement fees can drive up costs for sellers by routing inventory to multiple fulfillment centers. To mitigate this, sellers can employ several tactics: using Amazon's Inventory Placement Service to consolidate shipments, optimizing shipping plans to better predict inventory needs, or partnering with third-party logistics providers for more efficient distribution. These strategies can significantly reduce or even eliminate fees, improving overall profitability.
🛠️ Use the Inventory Placement Service
🚚 Work with third-party fulfillment providers
📈 Optimize shipping plans for efficiency
🛒 Walmart’s E-Commerce Surge Surpasses Amazon in Key Metric
Walmart is now projected to outpace Amazon in the U.S. online grocery market by 2024, securing a 26.9% share, compared to Amazon's 18.5%. Walmart’s innovative integration of its physical stores with e-commerce has driven online grocery sales to an estimated $58.92 billion, setting it ahead in this sector.
🍎 26.9% market share in U.S. online groceries (Walmart)
🚀 Walmart's online sales are expected to grow 12.6% to $8.57 billion
💻 Both companies heavily investing in AI and personalization
This rivalry highlights Walmart’s rise through a unique blend of brick-and-mortar strength and digital innovation.
That’s it for this week.
If you have any questions or would like to know more about how Inversal can help you, just hit reply or send us a message.
Thanks!
Marc has founded, acquired, and operated more than 30+ e-commerce brands since 2017. He is also the founder of the third-ever Amazon Aggregator.