Case study detailing how we have helped retailers grow their business with Zip Capital Group working capital financing
Katherine, a retail success story for a working capital financing
Katherine is the owner of a small children’s boutique in an upscale Texas neighborhood. Her store was mainly a labor of love for high quality children’s clothes. The Texas community where she was located was the perfect location for her boutique.
The boutique was popular throughout the community where she was located. Katherine never thought about taking her business to the next level until now.
A shared passion
Katherine’s sister Margaret shared her passion for children’s clothing. However, her interest lied in design rather than retailing children’s clothing. Margaret had been designing clothes for years and was now just starting to gain traction online.
Since Margaret was a recent college graduate, she did not have the capital necessary to start her fashion line of children’s wear. Her designs were starting to gain traction on social media sites such as Pinterest.
Realizing two dreams with one solution
Last June, Katherine approached us looking for ideas on how she could take her business to the next level while at the same time help her sister. Her business had a small but loyal group of customers who spent a small fortune to clothe their children. As a result, Katherine’s business had very predictable cash flow.
Like most retail businesses, Katherine made most of her money the last four months of the year. However, her situation was unique in that her cash flow did not decrease during the other eight months. It was sufficient to cover her costs in addition to providing her with a comfortable living.
Zip Capital Group solves Katherine’s problem
When Katherine reached out to us, she felt it was time to invest in a good eCommerce site and online marketing strategy. She also wanted to use the site as a way to promote her sister.
To help Margaret realize her dream of a children’s line of clothing, Katherine wanted to preorder several pieces of children’s clothing from her sister to sell online. The order needed to be sufficient to give her Margaret’s business the boost it needed. A working capital financing was just the vehicle to help her finance her eCommerce website, online strategy, and help her sister.
Speed, the critical component to success
Since we pride ourselves on speed and convenience, we were able to fund her financing in a little over 48 hours after she first approached us. As a result, she had the resources needed to build out her website and place an order with her sister.
Everything she needed to take her business online and help her sister was in place within seven weeks of when she received her funding. Katherine was able to leverage the buzz around her sister’s designs on social media to get some orders to her site. She was also able to get her inventory sold through Amazon.
The results
Katherine’s hunch was absolutely correct. The capital we provided her to get her business online and order from her sister was enough to prove her hunch was correct. There are many more loyal customers to be found online.
Within three weeks, the buzz around her sister’s was sufficient to generate orders. Very quickly, the orders started coming in. She sold out not only her sister’s designs but those of other designers as well.
The result was a 34% increase in sales over the previous Holiday season. Additionally, Margaret was able to get her business going. Last year’s holiday season was overwhelming success largely as a result of the working capital financing we were able to provide.
We are grateful for the opportunity to work with Katherine. We love seeing our clients succeed. Margaret will be taking out another financing in the next month or so to fund the second phase of her online transition and order more inventory from her sister.
Zip Capital Group working capital financing for retail businesses
Zip Capital Group specializes in working capital financing for retail businesses. Contact us or call 800-795-3919 to speak to a retail specialist.
