Learn how I bought, grew and sold Kids Rooms, a high-end children's e-commerce retailer specialising in furniture, room accessories and toys for babies, children and teens.
Strategy & Planning
Digital Marketing
Martech Solutions
Growth Marketing
Kids’ Rooms was a high-end children’s e-commerce retailer specialising in furniture, room accessories and toys for babies, children and teens, supplying B2C and B2B customers.
I invested in Kids Rooms, by buying it in its fledgling year 2 of trading and took over full ownership and managerial control of it. I then revenue organically (without any external investment) to final exit and sale to a private UK investor in late 2013.
I bought Kids Rooms from a client of mine, while I was working on the brand as a freelancer. When I bought it, it was a fledgling brand and I did not inherit a specific vision for it as a brand. My vision was to build it into a household name, famous for high quality merchandise and outstanding customer service.
After the purchase of Kids Rooms, I created, managed and reviewed a digital commerce strategy annually, creating a road map for our FY. I conducted competitor analysis and set KPIs for our business growth.
To set the wheels in motion for growth, I initially defined and managed a multi channel digital marketing strategy, later adopting a growth marketing approach and strategy.
As we grew the business, I recognised the need for the redesign and rebuild of our website, to accommodate changing customer behaviour and expansion into new product categories.
I tendered out the requirement for this and chose an UX team, and agency for the project. I then managed this through to completion and launch, evolving the our website and brand.
After my initial strategic work, I worked with my team to execute a plan with the below key tactics and deliverables:
The majority of these tactics and deliverables were managed in-house by myself, but as we grew as a business we employed help and sought the support of freelancers, and agencies.
It was critically important that we were able to measure the customer journey from initial engagement, to final sale. I setup all the required tagging in Google Tag Manager for this, utilising Google Analytics as our main means for online measurement.
When I was running Kids Rooms, the likes of Shopify did not exist yet. I therefore designed and managed the build of a custom CRM, order and stock management suite, which integrated into courier and payment platforms. This housed our 1st party data, which we utilised in a variety of digital marketing channels.
Utilising data from Google Analytics and our CRM, I conducted product merchandising by integrating Clicktale with this data to improve site performance (i.e. increase conversion rates and basket size, and decrease bounce rates).
Your suppliers make or break you as a retailer! I built and retained influential relationships with senior-level managers of our network of 50+ suppliers and service providers.
A highlight of this journey for me was when we commissioned and merchandised two exclusive furniture ranges, which sold over six figures PA.
"Chris and his lovely wife ran Kids Room and took it from a small enterprise to one that John Lewis frequently copied. They set the bench mark for children's furniture on line retailing that everyone followed. Chris was responsible for their e-commerce strategy and on line marketing and this is what made their business so desirable. Chris is well rounded in business and for anyone wanting advice about their e-commerce challenges you won't find better. He has been there, bought the T-shirt then sold it to me! You can contact me if you ever want to validate this recommendation."
"I bought Kids' Rooms Ltd from Chris and found him to be honest, hard-working and very knowledgeable about all aspects of his business. He made the transition as painless as possible and proved to be a a good support in the following months as we got to grips with the business. I would recommend Chris as a valuable asset to any company and am sure he will be very successful in the future."
"I've had the pleasure to work with Chris from Kids Rooms over a few years. He was one of our first customers and always extremely courteous and professional. Always makes time to make things work even better, working in partnership. I wholeheartedly recommend Chris .It’s a privilege to work with him."
There were many things I was proud of during the 6 years I spent managing and growing Kids Rooms.
500%
Growth in turnover
Grew revenue organically, without any external investment, by 500% over 5 years, to a little under 7-figures, maintaining a profitable balance sheet throughout.
Growth in non brand organic search traffic with commercial intent.
Average ROAS achieved over 3 financial years from paid search.
Ecommerce conversion rate improvements over 3 financial years.