E-Commerce Success Stories » Sunflower Ideas Marketplace Payouts Success Story

INDUSTRY

Home and Garden

CHALLENGE

Growth stymied by Amazon restrictions, costly inventory purchases, and slow payouts.

RESULTS

Doubled Amazon sales a month after getting SellersFi Working Capital and Prepaid Business Card.

SOLUTION

From Inventory Restrictions and Cash Flow Woes to 2X Sales on Amazon

“SellersFi is a great e-commerce funding option. Before getting funding, we had sold $90,000. I got a credit limit from SellersFi in December 2021 and as soon as I got the funds, I was able to invest in my business. We increased to $133,000 in December, and the month after we got funding, we sold $180,000. So basically, we doubled sales.”

—Sansarah Beermann, Founder of Sunflower Ideas

About Sunflower Ideas

Founded in 2020, Sunflower Ideas quickly became an Amazon hit in the home decor category, reaching a healthy $90,000 per month in revenue by November of that year.

The visionary behind this rising-star brand is entrepreneur Sansarah Beermann. Pre-pandemic, Beermann was a sales executive for a prestigious hotel. In that role, she had traveled the globe learning and improving the hospitality industry with her 10+ years of hotel management experience.

When the pandemic hit and travel ceased, Beermann redirected her entrepreneurial skills to e-commerce.

The Challenge: Restrictive Rules from Amazon and Slow Seller Payouts Tied Up Cash Flow

Just as Beermann was finding her e-commerce footing, Amazon changed its rules and increased its fees, threatening Beermann’s budding business.

“Within a year, e-commerce changed so much due to the pandemic. Marketplace rules and processes got stricter. Before, we were drop-shipping from suppliers to Amazon, but we had to change all that and reinvent our model,” said Beermann.

Amazon’s rule changes meant that Beermann had to move from drop-shipping to purchasing inventory outright. This added multiple layers of paperwork, logistics, and costs. With an increasingly complicated cash-intensive process enforced by Amazon, Sunflower Ideas’ margins were dropping fast.

Beermann adapted by moving into private labeling her purchased inventory. This relieved some of the pressure, but not all as it required large amounts of capital for inventory acquisition and branding. This capital took months to recoup between ordering and selling and getting paid for those sales. Add to this Amazon’s notoriously slow payouts, and Beermann’s cash flow was stalled.

Given the length of the inventory-to-payment cycle, Sunflower Ideas paused business for a month to rethink its strategies and create a better model that closed the cash flow gaps.

“The main challenge for us is cash flow. It’s a huge problem because you sell goods and simultaneously need to purchase inventory, but it takes a while to get your payments to acquire more goods.”

—Sansarah Beermann, Sunflower Ideas, describing a challenge faced by all Amazon sellers.

The Solution: Working Capital and a Prepaid Business Card That Pays Cash Back

Like many sellers, Beermann initially tried to manage Sunflower Ideas’ capital needs with credit cards. But as sales increased, the brand needed a funding solution that could scale along with the growing business.

After exploring funding options from multiple providers and finding none that met her needs, Beermann was introduced to SellersFi by a friend. Almost immediately, she knew she’d found the right partner to support her business.

Here’s what made the partnership a great fit for Sunflower Ideas:

SellersFi was more affordable than Sunflower Ideas’ past e-commerce funding partners.
SellersFi’s customer success team conducted an in-depth analysis to find the best funding solutions for Sunflower Ideas’ unique needs and goals.
Beermann was able to choose from a wider portfolio of funding options than was available through other lenders.
She now had flexible payment options that worked on her schedule, plus second-to-none support.

Beermann chose a low-interest loan as well as the SellersFi Prepaid Business Card, giving her capital, cash, flow, global purchasing power, and cash back on her purchases. Her funding was a custom solution created with her needs in mind.

“Working with SellersFi was great because I was able to get capital to invest in my business. SellersFi also has lower fees and different options for funding. I can get capital to reinvest in my business and grow faster with more options.

—Sansarah Beermann, Founder of Sunflower Ideas

The Result: Capital Investment Doubled Sunflower Ideas’ Amazon Sales After Just One Month

The moment Beermann received capital from SellersFi, she invested in her business. She knew the sooner she started, the sooner she would see results. And that’s exactly what happened!

With SellersFi funding in the form of a credit limit in December 2021, Beermann invested in her business. Later that month, she hit $133,000 (up from $90,000 in the previous month). The he month after Sunflower Ideas got funding, the brand sold $180,000, doubling sales.

With the credit limit providing capital and cash flow and the SellersFi Prepaid Business Card giving Beermann ASAP purchasing power in nearly 200 countries, Sunflower Ideas went from scrambling to close the inventory-to-sales gap to having more than enough capital to buy goods, advertise, and develop new products.

With SellersFi’s backing, Beermann put her energy into continuing to transform Sunflower Ideas into an Amazon powerhouse by focusing on the revenue-generating tasks that matter.

“SellersFi’s support is amazing because if there’s something urgent that I need, I know I can reach out to my customer success rep for immediate help.”

—Sansarah Beermann, Sunflower Ideas

In early 2024, we made the decision to sunset Prepaid Business Card. This decision was made in an effort to further develop existing funding solutions and expand our comprehensive solutions. For more information on our available products and services, check out our suite of e-commerce products.

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