Startup interview: Dominic Portman, CEO and founder, Boulevard
RTIH gets the lowdown on UK-based online marketplace and tech startup, Boulevard, which recently closed a £2.2 million seed investment from Fuel Ventures.
RTIH: Tell us about yourself and Boulevard
DP: My journey started out when I sold dress-up outfits to friends while studying at Nottingham Trent University. It was a good university side hustle.
As it came time to graduate, I noticed some retailers were struggling with the transition to online because they had legacy systems. I thought if we built some unique software, maybe we could work on a just-in-time warehouse stocking solution.
In 2016 I went full-time, with the business becoming Fancy Dress Worldwide - helping to sell fancy dress products on the world's biggest online marketplaces like Amazon.
By 2019 Fancy Dress Worldwide was thriving with £3.4 million in sales through online marketplaces and we had built our unique tech software, Eiger, to handle growing demand.
Then Covid hit . People’s need for fancy dress disappeared and the business took a downturn.
Rather than ‘batten down the hatches’ we took the decision to expedite the company’s plans to diversify and use our breadth of knowledge and tech to support those wanting to sell online quickly and with minimal fuss.
The pivot involved changing the name to Boulevard as well as extending the products we offer.
As of today, Boulevard is an online marketplace super seller. As the appetite for buying and selling through marketplaces explodes, we using its ground-breaking software to be the bridge between independent sellers and manufacturers and the world’s biggest marketplaces.
From pricing strategies to and handling the supply chain and fulfilment at scale in a way comparable to the marketplace fulfilment service themselves.
RTIH: What was the inspiration behind setting the company up?
DP: I always wanted to start a business and I found the retail industry fascinating, from being a teenager visiting the high street every week into the struggles I could clearly see chains were facing from the emergence of online.
I knew if we set up with a core foundation around software, we’d be on the right path and fancy dress was the first product category we proved the concept with.
RTIH: What has been the industry reaction thus far?
DP: It has been overwhelmingly positive. We took a chance expanding our offering and it is going well.
The pandemic fast-tracked the popularity of online marketplaces and it is the next frontier of e-commerce. We have been the supportive platform that makes these highly complex marketplaces more accessible.
RTIH: What has been your biggest challenge/setback?
DP: The pandemic battered our business when it first hit. At this time we were selling fancy dress clothing on marketplaces but people’s need for fancy dress disappeared and the business took a huge downturn in terms of revenue.
Rather than ‘batten down the hatches’ we took the decision to expedite the company’s plans to diversify - avoiding furlough and redundancies of our amazing team.
We embraced the opportunity to adapt and change and help the many independent brands and businesses who were looking to quickly make up lost revenue by getting online quickly.
We could use our breadth of knowledge and tech to support those wanting to sell online quickly and with minimal fuss.
It was a tiring period for all involved in the diversification and rebrand, but we managed to grow, even with the requirement for our core products disappearing overnight.
RTIH: What are the biggest challenges facing the online retail sector right now?
DP: The logistical challenges and uncertainties brought about by Covid and Brexit have at moments had a clear impact on delivery times from suppliers and to customers.
There have been times where big infrastructure changes have been decided on and actioned within hours, whereas usually it would take dev teams months or at least weeks to plan, build test and launch.
The speed at which companies are having to respond in an agile way is daunting, but we already have signs of markets settling into new normals, which is leading to a more usual way of working.
RTIH: What's the best question about your company asked of you recently by an investor and/or a customer?
DP: I think one of the most fascinating things asked during our recent investment round was around how many products there are that exist on online marketplaces.
On Amazon’s marketplace alone, there are more than 350 million individual products, a number that continues to grow. It is crazy to think that this space did not exist only 21 years ago.
RTIH: What can we expect to see from Boulevard over the next 12 months?
DP: We have done well to diversify our product ranges so far and the vision to expand into new product areas and online marketplaces.
Online marketplaces are not going anywhere anytime soon. After all, more than 40% of all post-pandemic online spending is now taking place on marketplaces like Amazon, eBay and Etsy.
In the UK, challenger marketplaces, such as OnBuy, are continuing to make waves and grow significantly, which holds much promise and we are bringing more products to these marketplaces as well as growing sales through our core stores.
For the first time, we are also looking further afield with products being sourced from around the world and new products brought to our UK marketplace stores by our new business development team.
