Newport-based Enjovia stands as a testament to innovative thinking in the e-commerce sector. Starting as a participant in the Alacrity Foundation Entrepreneurship programme, it has become a leader in simplifying gift card and voucher management for businesses worldwide.
The company's core mission is to empower businesses, especially in the global hospitality and service industry, by offering an efficient and user-friendly voucher and gift card management platform. This platform aims to enhance customer experience, streamline operations, and boost revenues.
Enjovia's journey, enhanced by support from the Accelerated Growth Programme, demonstrates the power of strategic planning, team alignment, and embracing change, propelling them from a local start-up to a global e-commerce leader.
Here, Managing Director Sam Gibson shares his business journey and explains how support from Business Wales Accelerated Growth Programme has helped along the way.
Tell us about Enjovia.
I remember our early days in 2014, driven by a mission to empower the global hospitality and service industry. Our clear aim was to provide an easy-to-use platform for businesses to manage gift cards and vouchers, enhancing their revenue and customer experience.
Our platform is two-fold: an online store for customers to buy gift experiences and vouchers and an admin dashboard for businesses to manage these processes. Our feature-rich system – the most comprehensive in the market – and our business model sets us apart. We operate on a commission basis without setup or monthly fees, making our platform accessible to businesses of all sizes.
We're on the brink of releasing the third iteration of our system, featuring an open API and improved features. This upgrade will enable us to operate on a much larger scale and expand into new global markets.
Running a lean team allows us to be agile and responsive. Each team member is an owner, aligning our goals and motivations. This structure has been vital in rapidly adjusting our business to meet emerging challenges.
We're also guided by an experienced board, which has been instrumental in steering our strategy and growth.
What challenges has your business faced since starting out? How have you adapted to these challenges?
Our industry was hit hard by COVID-19, but our global presence and focus on inbound marketing were our lifelines. We survived - and even doubled our customer base - by streamlining costs, using grants, and relying on cash reserves from previous profits. Our organic search dominance played a critical role in this achievement – more of which later!
We now boast over 180 customers across 35 countries. Our growth can be quantified in numbers and our resilience and adaptability during such challenging times.
What is your proudest moment in business so far?
I'm particularly proud of how we've helped clients like the Celtic Manor Resort dramatically increase their annual gift voucher sales from £700k to £2.5m using our system. We also take a lot of pride in our socially responsible practices. Supporting local businesses, especially charities and start-ups, is a core part of our ethos. We offer preferred sales commission rates to aid their growth and success. We succeed when they succeed, and we love to see small businesses grow through their partnership with us.
How has support from Business Wales helped your business?
We've been fortunate to receive support through various COVID-19 grants, investment funding from the Welsh Government, Wesley Clover, the Waterloo Foundation, and private investors. This support has been instrumental in our growth and development.
Our partnership with the Accelerated Growth Programme (AGP) has been pivotal in our transformation, particularly through SEO and inbound marketing guidance. The support from AGP has been instrumental in driving our growth, helping us achieve a dominant online presence.
Thanks to AGP's specialist work packages, we have worked closely with Lee Woodman at Visit Digital, who helped set us up on our SEO and inbound marketing journey.
Lee taught us how to optimise our website and system and the importance of writing content to capture traffic. Thanks to this work, we now rank in the top three for 50 of the keywords in our industry and are ranked number one for about 20 of them. This was a game changer for our business. It has led to us embedding expertise in SEO and organic search within the team. AGP's support in refining our marketing and SEO strategies has been nothing short of a game-changer, establishing our dominance in organic search within our industry.
This work transformed us from an outbound sales, to an inbound sales company, which has driven 90% of our growth ever since.
What advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?
- Think early about customer acquisition.
- Embrace inbound marketing.
- Experiment often.
- Aim for profitability before expansion.
- Build a team that complements your skills and shares your vision.
Learn more about Enjovia.
Further information on the Business Wales Accelerated Growth Programme