ExpoCart

Idea

Introduction

ExpoCart is a marketplace that helps businesses to easily hire and purchase furniture, audio visual equipment, printed displays, floor coverings, packages and more for their exhibitions and events through a network of suppliers.Users can choose from furniture, audio visual, printed displays, flooring, props and more which is all delivered directly to their stand or event.

We’re a small (but energetic!) team of individuals who have huge ambitions to revolutionise the way businesses organise their events by enabling them to order everything in one place.

We are raising a seed plus round to continue our growth, strengthen our digital marketing channels and extend our products offerings.

Intended impact

Organising events is a time consuming and confusing process. Typically, companies have to work with lots of different suppliers to source everything they need for their event. This can be archaic and fragmented, since dealing with many suppliers is cumbersome.

In response to these pain points, we have developed an e-commerce one stop shop marketplace for B2B events.Through proprietary technology, we aggregate products from 50+ categories from our network of trusted suppliers and allocate these orders via a smart allocation algorithm saving companies time and money in the process. Our marketplace removes the hassle of paying multiple invoices to multiple vendors following a convoluted process obtaining quotes and negotiating pricing.

Substantial accomplishments to date

- Achieved GMV run rate of £1m+ in H1 2019.
- Built a scalable technology that powers the platform and provides a solid foundation for future features and integrations.
- Established a customer base of 3500+ companies from 75+ countries.
- Strong supplier network and contacts developed with a range of UK event and exhibition suppliers.
- 485% increase in organic traffic is past 6 months.
- Impressive repeat rate of 20-25% of GMV.
- TrustPilot score – 8.5/10.

Monetisation strategy

Companies are able to hire and purchase equipment and build stand packages via our marketplace and package builder. Pricing is instant and is based on the exhibition venue with no hidden fees.

We earn, on average, 30-34% on all orders placed with approximately 20-25% of revenue coming from returning customers.

Suppliers have access to an intuitive dashboard where they can easily accept and decline, view and manage orders, view inventory, view invoices and download delivery notes for upcoming jobs.

Use of proceeds

We are seeking £200k to enable us to diversify and accelerate our product range, marketing team and grow our customer base.

Funds will be invested in the following areas:

- Accelerate our product range and verticals.
- Scale SEO, digital acquisition strategies and marketing team.
- Strengthen our digital marketing channels.
- Launch new technical platform features to help facilitate strategic partnerships.