How to sell to Founders at E-commerce companies in Australia
Founders in the Australian e-commerce sector are primarily measured on revenue growth. They respond to outreach that demonstrates a clear understanding of their unique challenges, such as scaling operations while maintaining customer satisfaction. Highlighting how your solution directly impacts their ability to drive sales can make your outreach compelling.
Written and maintained by the SoloRiff team, who build outbound software and run outbound with it. The figures below are our own: we measured 578 e-commerce company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- high cart abandonment rates
- inventory management issues
- customer retention challenges
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent funding rounds
Search for e-commerce companies in Australia that have recently secured funding. Use platforms like Crunchbase or PitchBook to filter for those that raised over $1 million. Founders of these companies are often looking to invest in tools that can help them scale quickly.
- 02
Analyze customer feedback trends
Review customer reviews and social media mentions for these companies. Look for consistent complaints about shipping delays or product quality. Mentioning these pain points in your outreach can grab their attention and show you understand their operational hurdles.
- 03
Connect through industry events
Identify upcoming e-commerce conferences or webinars in Australia. Reach out to attendees or speakers before the event to introduce yourself and suggest a brief conversation. This approach leverages their interest in networking and can create a warm introduction.
- 04
Leverage seasonal sales data
Research sales trends around major Australian holidays or events. Reach out during peak shopping periods, offering insights on how to optimize sales channels. Founders are particularly receptive when they feel they can gain a competitive edge during busy times.
- 05
Follow up with personalized insights
After your initial outreach, send a follow-up email that includes tailored insights based on their recent campaigns or product launches. Highlight specific metrics or strategies that could enhance their performance. This shows you’ve done your homework and are genuinely invested in their success.
Can e-commerce companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 578 e-commerce companies, sampled evenly across company sizes, to see how many authenticate their own email. It matters in both directions: a domain that does not authenticate is a domain whose team is used to mail going missing — and if your own domain is in the gap, yours is the mail going missing.
Publishes a DMARC policy of quarantine or reject — the domain actually asks receivers to act on failures.
The gap is the finding: 19.6% of 1–10-person companies against 67.5% of the largest — 48 points apart. Small companies are where the unauthenticated domains are, and small companies are who most cold outreach is aimed at.
Where does your domain sit?
Same three lookups, run live against your domain. Nothing is stored and nothing is emailed to you.
How this was measured
Company domains were sampled within employee-count bands, then queried over public DNS for SPF (TXT at the apex), DMARC (TXT at _dmarc.) and MX. One domain per company, deduplicated. Anyone can reproduce any single row of this with dig.
DKIM is deliberately absent. A DKIM key lives under a selector that cannot be enumerated from outside the domain, so a company with flawless DKIM under a name we did not guess would be counted as having none. That would measure our guess list, not the industry.
Domains with no MX record are excluded rather than counted as failures — parked and redirect-only domains would otherwise drag every figure down and make the result an artefact of the sample.
Sampled within bands, so this describes the population of companies, not of employees: a 10-person company counts once, as does a 10,000-person one. Each band is at least 60 domains; bands below that are not published. Figures are percentages of the sample, not of the whole industry, and we publish no company names — only counts.
Measured 2026-09-03. Re-measured monthly.
The full census across every industry — sortable, with sample sizes, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.
Subject lines that fit
- Boost your e-commerce sales
- Addressing cart abandonment
- Insights for your Shopify store
Questions
- Why do founders in e-commerce ignore cold outreach?
- Founders often receive a high volume of unsolicited emails and may prioritize urgent operational issues over new proposals. If the outreach doesn't immediately address a pressing pain point or offer a clear value, it risks being overlooked. Personalization and relevance are key to standing out.
- What challenges do e-commerce founders face during scaling?
- E-commerce founders frequently grapple with managing supply chain logistics, ensuring product quality, and maintaining customer satisfaction as they scale. Each of these challenges can directly impact their revenue and brand reputation, making them critical areas of focus.
- How can I demonstrate value to an e-commerce founder?
- To demonstrate value, provide specific examples of how your solution can alleviate their pain points, such as reducing cart abandonment rates or improving logistics. Case studies or testimonials from similar businesses can also help establish credibility and relevance.
- What metrics are most important to e-commerce founders?
- E-commerce founders typically focus on metrics like conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, and average order value. Understanding these metrics allows them to make informed decisions about scaling and optimizing their operations, which is crucial for growth.
Or have it run itself
SoloRiff does every step above on its own — finds the companies, finds the people, writes each of them individually, and handles the replies. Drop your URL and watch it work before you sign up for anything.
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