How to sell to Heads of Sales at E-commerce companies in United Kingdom
The Head of Sales at an e-commerce company in the UK is primarily measured on their quarterly revenue growth rate. They respond positively to outreach that illustrates a clear understanding of their sales funnel challenges, such as high cart abandonment rates or ineffective lead conversion strategies. Demonstrating familiarity with their specific products and market dynamics will capture their interest.
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
- ineffective lead conversion
- seasonal sales fluctuations
- competition from larger brands
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 likely looking to ramp up sales efforts and may be more open to new solutions that can drive revenue.
- 02
Analyze seasonal sales trends
Review sales data from the last holiday season to identify e-commerce brands that experienced significant growth or challenges. Tailor your outreach to address how your solution can help sustain or enhance those trends in the upcoming season.
- 03
Target companies with high cart abandonment
Look for e-commerce businesses reporting cart abandonment rates above 70%. These businesses are actively seeking solutions to improve their conversion rates, making them more receptive to outreach that addresses this specific pain point.
- 04
Reach out after a product launch
Monitor e-commerce announcements for new product launches. Following up with a personalized message that references their recent launch can demonstrate relevance and timeliness, increasing the chances of securing a conversation.
- 05
Connect on LinkedIn during peak sales seasons
Engage with Heads of Sales on LinkedIn during peak sales periods, like Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Share insights or industry trends in your outreach that are timely and relevant to their current sales efforts, making them more likely to respond.
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
- Navigating seasonal sales challenges
- Insights for your next product launch
Questions
- Why do Heads of Sales in e-commerce ignore outreach during peak seasons?
- During peak sales seasons, Heads of Sales are often overwhelmed with urgent operational tasks and may prioritize immediate revenue-generating activities over external outreach. They might also be focused on managing their teams and ensuring that sales targets are met, leaving little room for new conversations.
- What common objections do Heads of Sales have about new sales tools?
- Heads of Sales frequently cite concerns about the integration of new tools with existing systems, the learning curve for their teams, and the potential disruption to current sales processes. They may also question the ROI of investing in new solutions during tight budget cycles.
- How can I effectively follow up with a Head of Sales after initial outreach?
- A strategic follow-up could involve referencing a recent industry trend or news relevant to their business. This shows that you are not just following up for the sake of it, but are genuinely interested in providing value that aligns with their current priorities.
- What metrics do Heads of Sales care about most?
- Heads of Sales typically focus on metrics such as quarterly revenue growth, lead conversion rates, and customer acquisition costs. They are also interested in understanding how these metrics compare against industry benchmarks and their competitors, as this informs their strategic decision-making.
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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