How to sell to Founders at E-commerce companies in United Kingdom
Founders of e-commerce companies in the UK are primarily measured on their revenue growth. They respond to outreach that clearly identifies how your solution can streamline operations, reduce overhead, or enhance customer experience. Understanding their pain points means recognizing the constant pressure to innovate and the need for scalable solutions that support rapid growth.
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 customer churn
- inefficient inventory management
- slow shipping processes
- limited scalability options
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent funding rounds
Use platforms like Crunchbase to filter for e-commerce companies in the UK that have recently secured funding. These companies are often looking to scale quickly and may be more receptive to new solutions that can enhance their growth trajectory.
- 02
Analyze customer retention metrics
Research companies that have a high churn rate by checking reviews on platforms like Trustpilot. Founders will be interested in solutions that help retain customers, so tailor your outreach to highlight how your offering addresses retention challenges.
- 03
Highlight operational inefficiencies
Examine case studies or reports that indicate common operational pain points in e-commerce, such as inventory management or shipping delays. Reference these in your outreach to show you understand the specific struggles they face day-to-day.
- 04
Address scalability concerns
Look for companies that have recently expanded their product lines or geographic reach. In your messaging, focus on how your solution can help manage increased complexity and support their growth without sacrificing quality or customer satisfaction.
- 05
Follow up on engagement
If a founder opens your email but does not respond, follow up within a week. Reference their recent business developments or industry news to create a sense of urgency and relevance, encouraging them to reconsider your proposal.
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
- Scaling your e-commerce operations
- Addressing customer retention challenges
- Streamlining your inventory processes
Questions
- Why do founders at e-commerce companies ignore outreach about optimization tools?
- Founders may perceive optimization tools as non-essential or too costly compared to immediate revenue-generating activities. They often prioritize solutions that directly impact sales over those that enhance operational efficiency, especially in the early growth stages.
- What factors influence a founder's decision to adopt new technology?
- Founders are influenced by potential ROI, ease of integration with existing systems, and the technology's ability to solve specific pain points. They typically seek evidence of success from similar companies or industries before making a commitment.
- How can I make my outreach stand out to e-commerce founders?
- Personalize your message by referencing specific challenges they face, such as customer retention or logistics issues. Use data or case studies relevant to their niche to demonstrate your understanding and the potential impact of your solution.
- What are common objections e-commerce founders have to new solutions?
- Common objections include concerns about costs, the complexity of implementation, and whether the solution really addresses their unique challenges. Founders often require strong evidence of value and efficiency before considering a new tool.
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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