With the eBay for Business Awards open for 2021, today we take a look back to the 2018 eBay for Business Awards where Velocity Commerce were named winner of The Grassroots Award at the eBay for Business Awards. I caught up with PF Scott to find out what’s happened since.
The early days at Velocity Commerce
Founded by Eddie Latham and PJ Scott who met while working together for a high street retailer and both feeling pretty disillusioned with corporate life at the time they decided to have a go at starting our own thing and Velocity Commerce was founded with fifteen hundred quid each, which they splashed on laptop rucksacks to list on eBay. Sales sky rocketed and while stil working their day time jobs, by Christmas they turned over around £140,000 and when offered voluntary redundancy the duo fully committed to the business.
Eddie and Pj created their own range of radios and other household audio devices too, under the brand name ‘Majority Radios’, with individual items named after places in Cambridge where the business is based. Today, Majority Radio is a massive digital radio brand and the products can be found in more than two million homes as well as being sold by the likes of Maplin and Currys.
Their early success on eBay rapidly growing to a multimillion pound business employing a couple of dozen people earned them the coveted eBay for Business award in 2018.
“We entered the awards because we are huge advocates of eBay and wanted to show others what could be achieved. eBay takes the time to understand your business and they are a partner that wants to help you succeed. It’s a two-way conversation and they are always looking at ways to help sellers grow their sales.”
– Eddie & PJ, Velocity Commerce
Looking back, PJ tells me that they are still incredibly proud to have won an eBay for Business Award in 2018.
Velocity Commerce today
Today there are four strands to Velocity Commerce’s business with the most recent being the introduction of a refurb service and they are still growing. Even during lockdown they have been recruiting and expanding their services and doubled their staff to 50 during the pandemic.
- Majority Radios
Majority Radios are still a major part of the business and as well as being in 2m UK homes, they sell roughly a third of units to the EU and a third to the US. Electronics is a sector that many shy away from due to the ongoing development costs, but PJ tells me there are benefits – different plug formats around the world mean that they have some protection from copy cats and their investments have paid dividends.
In the past two years, the Majority has been extended with the introduction of a new range of sound bars. They have also planted almost 400k trees with a company called ecology – Each time a customer subscribes to their newsletter or purchases a Majority product the Majority Forest grows with the addition of a new tree.
- 3rd Party Brands
Building on the lessons learned from running their own eBay business, today Velocity Commerce also handles direct sales for the likes of Lego, Nextbase and Sony with a full service ecommerce model.
- Amazon Agency
Naturally, eBay isn’t the only game in town and having embraced Amazon, Velocity now run an Amazon agency model helping brands launch and optimise their sales on this marketplace, N Brown is one such client.
- Certified Refurbishment Service
Then the most recent side of the business is the refurbishment service, Velocity receives, inspects and repairs returned products across the UK, USA and China. Wherever possible they resell refurbished goods through dedicated channels such as marketplaces and that brings them full circle back to eBay where the business was born. For example, in 2019, Velocity helped Sony to launch on eBay as a completely new sales channel for its refurbished, returned and excess stock and Velocity is now one of eBay’s certified sellers of refurbished goods on the relatively new eBay Certified Refurbished Hub.
If you’d like to find out more about their services, you can contact Velocity through their website.
Are you the next eBay for Business Awards winner
The 5th eBay for Business Awards 2021 is open for entries and you’ve got until the 2nd of August to get your entry in.
Don’t worry if your business isn’t as big as Eddie and PJ’s or is massively bigger. This is a contest that any business can win from the largest to the smallest, from the for profit to the not for profit, from the one man band to the business creating employment for dozens or even hundreds.
Each finalist will go home with a prize of £5,000. They will also be given access to a range of tailored marketing and business support, such as a free anchor store subscription, eBay Concierge service, or enrolment in eBay’s Pro-Trader programme.
The Grand Prize winner will be awarded an extra £15,000 (£20,000 prize in total), in recognition of their entrepreneurial flair and success. They will also receive a package of marketing and PR support from eBay valued at over £100,000, giving them the power to stand out, increase exposure and grow their business.
You can enter the eBay for Business Awards 2021 here.
