Must-Have Ideas: Online retailer that dominates social media and consumer trends

Must Have Ideas is one of the fastest-growing online retailers, shipping around 7,000 products a day, with products ranging from mildew-cleaning brushes to adjustable desks. It bases its customer offering on two bold promises: if it doesn’t arrive within two business days, it’s free; and a no-questions-asked, 100-day money-back guarantee. With a 4.7-star rating from 115,000 reviews on Trustpilot and a 4.7-star rating from 6,000 reviews on Google, it seems to be working.

Customer traction and loyalty helped her generate £26.8m in sales last year. That doesn’t happen without understanding her customers and knowing how to maximise a sales funnel. Amy Knight founded Must Have Ideas with her husband Rob Knight and Chris Finch. The trio had worked together at Ecoegg, a laundry egg company that Rob co-founded.

After Rob sold his stake in 2018, the couple saw firsthand the power of digital marketing and were inspired to launch their own venture. Amy and Rob went on holiday to the US and sourced their first product: Hygiene Hero. What made this antibacterial sponge stand out?

“We had worked in cleaning products before,” says Amy, “so there was a comfort zone around that because we knew how to sell it. But we thought it was really clever and innovative and had a lot of USPs that we could work with. It was also small, so when cash was tight it was easier to ship it, send it to customers and store it in our spare room.” With a huge warehouse in Snodland, Kent, space is not an issue these days, which is a good thing considering the company sells more than 200 different products.

What makes a good product? A mix of instinct and experience is key, says Knight. “If it’s in every aisle in Tesco, it’s probably not the product for us. We want something that people might not have seen before, so when they see our video on social media they’ll say, ‘Oh, that’s a great idea’.”

Since Must Have Ideas’ inception in 2018, the company has developed a community that eagerly awaits the six new products it releases each month. Must Have Ideas has over 200,000 followers on Instagram and over 360,000 on Facebook.

Understanding customers’ needs sometimes means that the products they supply aren’t always new to the market. “It obviously needs to solve a problem, but it also needs to be really demonstrable,” says Knight. “Because of the way we sell, we have to be able to create engaging videos, otherwise it’s not going to work.”

Social media advertising is a major focus for the company – it pays Meta around $1.5 per month. While some might be tempted to use an agency, Amy says they like to keep things in-house. “We’re control freaks at heart. With an agency, you’re just a client. At the end of the day, it’s our business and our brand, and no one cares as much as we do,” she explains.

Amy, like all business owners, admits that relinquishing control isn’t always easy. “When you’ve been doing something for so long,” she says, “it’s hard to just say, ‘Okay, okay, you’re in charge of this now.’ Especially with Meta ads, for example. How they perform can literally be the difference between us making money or losing money.”

However, he credits his two co-founders for making the job a little easier, especially since each is responsible for their own area of ​​the business. This collaborative culture has been developed over a period of time, but most importantly, the entire team is open to testing and trying new things.

“As a business, we’re constantly testing ads, website changes, emails…everything,” Knight says. “We’re getting people talking and trying out their ideas. It means there’s a lot more advice in the building and in the business.”

What’s Amy’s top tip for leaders on how to get the most out of their sales funnel? Test it out.

“You have to be open to tearing things down and starting over,” he says, “but whatever the data tells you is what you should go forward with. We’ve done a bunch of tests where we thought, ‘Really? I don’t really like the look of this.’ But we have to go with the data. Sometimes it comes down to: Do ​​you want a nice-looking website or a website that converts? You can’t always have both.”

Whatever they’re doing is clearly working – the company expects to hit its £60m turnover target this financial year. Amy Knight and her team are a serious case study in how to identify consumer trends and maximise a sales funnel in a compelling way.