How to sell to Founders at E-commerce companies in Netherlands
Founders in the Dutch e-commerce sector are primarily measured on their customer acquisition growth rate. They respond to outreach that demonstrates a clear understanding of the challenges they face in scaling their online store, such as increasing competition and managing operational inefficiencies. Highlighting specific solutions to these issues can 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
- high cart abandonment rates
- inefficient inventory management
- increasing competition
- customer retention challenges
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent funding rounds
Use sources like Crunchbase or PitchBook to find e-commerce companies in the Netherlands that have recently secured funding. Focus on those that have raised at least €1 million, as they are likely looking to invest in growth solutions.
- 02
Research their product offerings
Visit the websites of identified companies to analyze their product lines and customer engagement strategies. Take note of any gaps or challenges in their offerings that your outreach can address, such as inventory management or customer retention.
- 03
Craft a value-driven message
Compose an email that directly addresses the specific challenges faced by growing e-commerce brands, like high cart abandonment rates. Mention how your insights or solutions can help improve their conversion rates and overall customer experience.
- 04
Leverage mutual connections
Check LinkedIn for any shared connections who can introduce you to the founder. A warm introduction increases the likelihood of a response, especially if the connection can vouch for your expertise in the e-commerce space.
- 05
Set a follow-up schedule
If you don’t receive a response within a week, send a follow-up email. In your follow-up, reference a recent trend in the e-commerce industry, such as the rise of sustainable shopping, that aligns with their business goals.
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 conversion rates
- Tackling cart abandonment
- Streamline your inventory process
Questions
- Why do founders in e-commerce ignore cold outreach?
- Founders often prioritize urgent operational tasks and may view cold outreach as distracting or irrelevant. They receive numerous unsolicited messages and may only engage with those that immediately resonate with their specific pain points or present a clear value proposition.
- What triggers a founder to respond to outreach?
- A founder is more likely to respond when they see a direct connection between your message and their immediate needs, such as solving a pressing operational issue or enhancing customer engagement. Personalization and relevance are key in catching their attention.
- What common objections do e-commerce founders have?
- E-commerce founders frequently express concerns about budget constraints, the effectiveness of new solutions, and the time required to implement changes. They may also question the return on investment for any proposed service or product.
- How can I demonstrate value to e-commerce founders?
- To demonstrate value, provide specific examples of how your insights or solutions have positively impacted similar businesses. Highlight measurable outcomes, such as increased sales or improved customer satisfaction, to build credibility and trust.
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