Huddled Group - live commerce launch shows early traction, shares up 10%
Shares in circular-economy e-commerce business Huddled Group (AIM: HUD) have gained 10% to 0.55p after the firm announced the launch of its live commerce operation. This initiative expands on its value‑driven ecommerce model and introduces live, presenter‑led shopping formats integrated with automated fulfilment and next‑day delivery. Executive Chairman Martin Higginson has called the move “one of the most exciting developments in Huddled’s evolution”.
The business & live commerce strategy
Huddled Group is an e-commerce business which, following the merger of its Discount Dragon, Boop Beauty, and Nutricircle brands in April this year, operates a digital surplus superstore called Peeko at peeko.co.uk. The company specialises in rescuing surplus items and redistributing them at low prices - think 24 cans of Fanta for tenner. The firm has spent the past 6 months improving unit economics, establishing next-day delivery as standard on orders made by 11pm, and earning an 'Excellent' Trustpilot rating across a combined total of over 35,000 reviews.
Huddled has recently identified live commerce as a differentiated channel combining entertainment, social interaction, and real‑time auctions - a format already gaining traction at pace in Asia and the United States. Whatnot, the current live commerce market leader, sees dwell times (the time a consumer spends on site) of c.90 minutes, compared to only a few minutes on traditional e-commerce platforms, making for significantly increased engagement and sales opportunities.
We covered two pieces of news last month on the strategic move, with the company launching a proprietary live-commerce technology which connects live commerce platforms directly to its automated fulfilment operation, and forming a joint venture with AEWW Limited, operator of the AE Stores channel on Whatnot. Subsequent to that, the firm announced a joint venture with Cipher, one of the UK's leading TikTok agencies, to operate Peeko Live Commerce channels across TikTok Live and TikTok Auctions.
Huddled Group 5-year share price chart
Live channel launch
Since soft‑launching its live commerce channels, Huddled is said to have recorded encouraging early metrics across categories including gadgets, beauty and groceries. Initial performance results include: “encouraging” weekly sales of c.£100,000, strong repeat visits and purchasing patterns, high viewer dwell time and active chat participation, and growing communities around presenters and product drops. The firm said that, “Customers don’t just browse, they stay, chat, bid and return.”
To put those early weekly revenues in context, annualised they are already £5.2 million, against last year’s total reported company sales of £18.65 million. We must flag that it’s still early days though, and these early figures may not be truly representative of the long-term picture.
Current live commerce capabilities include: real‑time auctions across Whatnot and TikTok, presenter‑led broadcasts across multiple product categories, automated fulfilment linked directly to live orders, and next‑day delivery on qualifying orders.
Huddled intends to expand its live commerce footprint over the coming weeks, including: additional product categories and extended broadcast hours, launching on eBay Live, and beta testing of its proprietary live‑auction platform.
Further news
Huddled will provide additional information on its live commerce strategy and platform development alongside its interim results later this month. Investors will be looking for progress towards profitability, with the firm having raised £1.51 million in July this year, with the directors saying that they believe that the funds raised are sufficient to enable the company to become operationally cash flow positive.
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Disclosures
Huddled Group is not a corporate client of Optimo Research Ltd.
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