How to sell to Founders at E-commerce companies in Canada
Founders of e-commerce companies in Canada are primarily measured on monthly revenue growth. They respond to outreach that demonstrates a clear understanding of their unique challenges, such as scaling operations while maintaining customer satisfaction. Highlighting specific strategies that can streamline their supply chain or enhance their online presence will capture their attention.
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
- inventory management headaches
- high cart abandonment rates
- slow website performance
- customer service overload
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent funding rounds
Use sources like Crunchbase or PitchBook to find e-commerce companies in Canada that have recently secured funding. Focus on those that have raised Series A or later, as they are likely to be scaling and looking for solutions to support their growth.
- 02
Research product launches
Look for companies that have recently launched new products or expanded their offerings. This information can typically be found on their websites or industry news sites. Highlight how your solution can help them manage increased inventory or improve customer engagement.
- 03
Analyze social media engagement
Check platforms like Instagram and TikTok for e-commerce brands that have recently ramped up their marketing efforts. If they’re investing in ads or influencer partnerships, they may be open to discussing tools that enhance their marketing effectiveness.
- 04
Address common scaling challenges
Prepare to discuss specific issues that e-commerce founders face, such as cart abandonment or logistics bottlenecks. When reaching out, mention how your solution can address these pain points directly, as founders appreciate practical, actionable insights.
- 05
Follow up on initial outreach
If you don’t receive a response within a week, send a follow-up email referencing a specific aspect of their business that aligns with your offering. For instance, if they are launching a new product, remind them how your solution can support that initiative.
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 growth
- Streamline your inventory process
- Enhance customer retention strategies
Questions
- Why do founders of e-commerce companies overlook cold outreach?
- Founders often prioritize immediate operational challenges and may see cold outreach as a distraction. They are inundated with messages and might overlook those that don't clearly articulate a direct benefit to their current goals, such as revenue growth or customer satisfaction.
- What common objections do e-commerce founders have about new solutions?
- E-commerce founders frequently express concerns about the cost of new tools versus their potential ROI. They may also worry about the time required for implementation and whether their team can effectively adopt a new system without disrupting current operations.
- How can I make my outreach relevant to e-commerce founders?
- Tailor your outreach by referencing specific trends in the e-commerce industry, such as shifts towards sustainable practices or changes in consumer behavior. Providing insights or data that align with their business objectives will make your outreach more compelling.
- What timing is best for contacting e-commerce founders?
- The best time to reach out is typically at the beginning of a quarter when many founders are assessing their goals and strategies. Additionally, contacting them after they announce a product launch can also be effective, as they may be more open to discussing tools that can support their new initiatives.
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.
Try it on your site