Stocking Out Means Scaling Up for Willow & Grace Designs
John Gill is an ecommerce mastermind. When he began Willow and Grace Designs, he was riding 30+ years of entrepreneurial success, including hosting exclusive events (with a $100K buy-in) for fellow sellers to exchange their expertise.
At this stage of John’s career, any project he began was bound to turn a profit. Still, even the most lucrative ventures are at risk of succumbing to the scale of their success. Riding a wave of consumer demand and response, Willow and Grace hit a snag in their growth: they were stocking out.
Money Does Grow on Trees
Willow and Grace is a family-owned floating wooden shelves brand, powered by Shopify and active on both the Amazon and Walmart marketplaces. While floating shelves are abundant in the ecommerce ecosystem, W+G set themselves apart by maintaining absolute transparency with its consumers, in keeping with the familial sincerity of the whole operation.
Committed to putting the customer first, they present nearly customized solutions for each consumer request, including adding multiple shelves to their line requiring a specific, hard-to-secure depth of wood. While the initial investment proved worth it—they sold out of every style in practically no time—keeping up fulfillment was going to be pricy.
John sets high standards for the businesses he partners with, and he’d spent too much time finding the right supplier for the necessary lumber to compromise for a lower tag.
The next step for Willow and Grace to scale was clear: they needed a partner to boost their inventory.
Enter: Yardline
As he does with every professional venture, John put the value of relationships at the forefront of his funding search. Through the recommendation of his son and business partner, Sean Gill, John founded Yardline Capital, and after meeting with the Seller Success team, felt assured he need look no further.
In addition to making the funding process extremely easy, Yardline helps merchants by assigning a Seller Success Manager to each business we support. As on-hand ecommerce experts, the Seller Success Team provides insights and recommendations to help sellers maximize opportunities to scale.
Even with decades’ worth of insight in John’s pockets, he notes how having “great, fun people to work with” made accepting funding—something he never needed to do as a seasoned entrepreneur—actually enjoyable. “Funding is always tricky and sometimes very frustrating, but working with Yardline was a piece of cake,” John recalls. “They were very transparent, professional, flexible, and a pleasure to work with… it was a breath of fresh air!”
Moving Up and to the Right
Prior to our partnership, Willow and Grace Designs was sold out of ~8 SKUs and at serious risk of losing their market momentum. Now, after a swift approval process and repeated investments in their inventory, W+G is out of the woods (except for lumber, of course).
Barely weeks away from a full, healthy stock, John is looking ahead to retail potential through his Walmart marketplace connections—a future that never would have seemed feasible prior to accepting funding. As he’s built a trusted partnership with the Yardline team and can count on the non-dilutive capital to fulfill his product, he anticipates his potential profits will only rise from here.
No matter your tenure as an entrepreneur, stocking out can forecast the best or worst future for your business. For Willow and Grace Designs, a simple three-minute funding application meant unlocking a whole new wave of growth potential. If your success is proving too big for your budget, don’t drop out… scale up with Yardline Capital.