Gravity Grabber
How Gravity Grabber scaled to Five countries. No European entity. under Operator One as Merchant of Record.
A US ski rack brand with no European entity sells in five countries on Amazon and Bol.com, with Operator One as legal seller. At its peak the operation ran about 4.9 times its opening months.
5 countries
Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands
2 marketplaces
Amazon and Bol.com, covering all five European markets
0 EU entities
No European company set up, official listings, buy box held
4.9x at peak
Peak trading against the operation's opening months
Live on
Markets
- GERMANY
- FRANCE
- ITALY
- SPAIN
- NETHERLANDS
What wasn't working on its own
Gravity Grabber builds wall-mounted racks that hold skis and snowboards off the floor without clamping the tips, tails or rocker. The product travels. The company does not. It is a US business run out of Utah, with no European entity, no VAT position and no producer registrations. European marketplaces need a seller of record, and demand counts for nothing if nobody is legally entitled to sell. Solving it alone means incorporating abroad and registering for VAT in several countries first.
What changed with O1
- Operator One became the legal seller as Merchant of Record, carrying the European entities and invoicing the end customer, so the brand did not have to incorporate anything in Europe.
- Five countries opened: Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, across two marketplaces, Amazon and Bol.com.
- VAT registrations and fiscal representation were put in place and maintained across the markets, with no company set up on the brand's side.
- Product compliance, packaging and producer registrations were kept current per country, so a category block never takes a whole market offline.
- A focused range of roughly ten products was built as official listings, written in the local language of each storefront rather than translated once and left.
- O1 holds the buy box and runs advertising, customer service and returns. The brand keeps ownership of its inventory and sets its own pricing strategy.
The result
5 markets, no entity
European countries opened without the brand incorporating in Europe
Five countries opened on two marketplaces from a standing start. Official listings, buy box control, and the brand setting its own pricing strategy on stock it owns. At its peak the operation was running about 4.9 times its opening months, and it is still live after more than two and a half years.
Gravity Grabber at a glance
- Which marketplaces and countries does Gravity Grabber sell on in Europe?
- Gravity Grabber sells on Amazon and Bol.com across 5 markets: GERMANY, FRANCE, ITALY, SPAIN and NETHERLANDS. Operator One runs the operation behind those storefronts.
- What problem did Gravity Grabber have before working with Operator One?
- Gravity Grabber builds wall-mounted racks that hold skis and snowboards off the floor without clamping the tips, tails or rocker. The product travels. The company does not. It is a US business run out of Utah, with no European entity, no VAT position and no producer registrations. European marketplaces need a seller of record, and demand counts for nothing if nobody is legally entitled to sell. Solving it alone means incorporating abroad and registering for VAT in several countries first.
- What does Operator One do for Gravity Grabber?
- Operator One became the legal seller as Merchant of Record, carrying the European entities and invoicing the end customer, so the brand did not have to incorporate anything in Europe. Five countries opened: Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, across two marketplaces, Amazon and Bol.com. VAT registrations and fiscal representation were put in place and maintained across the markets, with no company set up on the brand's side. Product compliance, packaging and producer registrations were kept current per country, so a category block never takes a whole market offline. A focused range of roughly ten products was built as official listings, written in the local language of each storefront rather than translated once and left. O1 holds the buy box and runs advertising, customer service and returns. The brand keeps ownership of its inventory and sets its own pricing strategy.
- What were the results for Gravity Grabber?
- Five countries opened on two marketplaces from a standing start. Official listings, buy box control, and the brand setting its own pricing strategy on stock it owns. At its peak the operation was running about 4.9 times its opening months, and it is still live after more than two and a half years.
What this means if you're a Merchant of Record brand
Any brand outside the EU or the UK hits the same wall, and it is not a commercial wall. It is legal and fiscal. Merchant of Record answers it in weeks rather than the years an entity, several VAT registrations and a compliance file would take. The brand keeps its products, its stock and its own pricing strategy throughout.
Talk to the operator behind the Gravity Grabber story.
Same MoR + IoR setup, modelled to your category, your catalogue and your target markets.