Children’s Watches & Accessories Maker Pivots to Masks and Ecommerce with Express Speed

Financing children’s clothing, toys, and accessories gives Express an extra jolt of pride. Knowing our client delivers safety-tested joy and fun to children lightens our hearts and swells our store of feeling great purpose in what we do. This particular maker of children’s watches, slap bracelets, and other fun, parent-friendly gear had their share of ups and downs.

Initially, they came looking for growth capital in the form of factoring for their mounting invoices and purchase order funding to fulfill their growing orders. While Express was able to deliver on all fronts, the client was pleased to find other benefits whose value they overlooked at first.

As they grew and took on more brick-and-mortar retailers, they were surprised to find that not all well-known retailers had great credit. To their relief, ETC was able to cover the risk of payment default for retailers big and small while providing experienced advice and tailored recourse funding solutions in instances when the credit approvals were not available in part or whole.

Avoiding Risk with Good Advice: In 2020, the client gained greater respect for ETC as shipping rates skyrocketed and certain customers went bust. The client avoided the worst of this because they took heed of Express’ guidance, cutting orders to ensure they could deliver quality products on time while balancing the concern of taking on too much risk. In doing so, they avoided painful defaults and evaporated margins by adjusting orders (and shipping costs) to better align with their risk tolerance.

Navigating through Storms: As COVID shutdowns hit, many of the clients’ customers closed, and much of their volume vanished overnight. Ever nimble, the client pivoted to making fun children’s masks, which Express was eager to help finance. In addition, the client added e-commerce to help their business take advantage of an omnichannel approach. Given their history, Express was again able to assist.

All in all, after over 7 years of working with Express, the client weathered the storms of COVID and shipping spikes even as their sales went from ~$500k to over $3MM in consistent annual turnover. Allowing Express to reduce its risk while maintaining solid growth ensured the client slept like a baby when it came to scaling their enterprise.

Building Strong Relationships: ETC’s role transcended financial support. They nurtured a partnership with the client, offering guidance and expertise and fostering the trust and confidence needed to navigate the challenges of rapid growth. This strong backing allowed them to broaden their product lines, venture into new markets, and solidify their brand presence both online and in retail stores.