Stephensons Online
Sol Beauty
Scrubbingtons
When Barry and Katy Tong founded Stephensons Online in 2012 with just £10 and a handful of listings on eBay, they had little idea their bedroom venture would one day become one of the UK’s leading forces in online health, beauty and wellness retail, let alone a recipient of the prestigious King’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade. Fast forward to 2025, and Northampton-based Sol Retail (the trading name of Stephensons Online Ltd) now turns over nearly £20 million a year and ranks among the top 100 Amazon sellers in both the UK and EU. Its remarkable growth, entirely self- funded without a single loan or penny of external investment, is a testament to the Tongs’ resilience, innovation and unwavering belief in the power of digital retail. From start-up to stand out The company’s story is a classic example of British entrepreneurial spirit. Starting with second-hand DVDs and collectable ornaments, Barry and Katy quickly realised the untapped potential of online marketplaces. They expanded rapidly, reinvesting every penny back into the business and refining their model until they’d developed a fully-fledged e-commerce engine that could be scaled globally. In a sometimes crowded marketplace, what sets Sol Retail apart is its sophisticated fulfilment strategy, its lightning-fast international delivery (often within 24 hours, and in some cases, just one hour), combined with its unique ability to act as
both retailer and strategic partner for brands looking to scale across major online platforms, including Amazon, Walmart, eBay, TikTok, Tesco Marketplace, Temu and Superdrug Marketplace. “Right from the start, we’ve just wanted to make life easier for our customers,” says Barry Tong, CEO. “That means getting stuff to them faster than anyone else, making our listings easy and appealing to shop, and giving our partners the kind of all-in service that means they can focus on making great products. We take care of the rest.” Championing British enterprise It’s this agility and ambition that have earned Sol Retail the King’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade in 2025, one of only 197 organisations nationwide to receive this accolade. The award acknowledges the company’s extraordinary growth in global markets, with international sales rising 224% over the past three years. By 2027, the business is predicting that 85% of turnover will come from exports alone. Today, Sol Retail supports over 100 health, beauty and wellness brands, helping them reach an online audience of more than eleven billion impressions a month worldwide. Its clients range from emerging boutique brands looking to break into Europe and North America, to established names aiming to streamline their operations and expand into Asia- Pacific markets. The business also boasts its own successful portfolio of brands, including The Bluebeards
Revenge, Below The Belt, Scrubbingtons and Sol Beauty, which now sit proudly on virtual shelves around the globe, as well as appearing on some high street shelves too. Scaling with smart systems Technology has played a key role in Sol Retail’s meteoric rise. Over the past three years, the business has invested heavily in building and refining proprietary systems to handle inventory management, dynamic pricing, cross-border logistics and brand protection. Barry continues, “We figured out pretty early that if we wanted to grow globally, we couldn’t just keep hiring more people or copying what others were doing. So we carved our own path, building smart systems to handle the time and labour-intensive activities in the background, freeing up our amazing Sol Retail team to focus on the parts that really make a difference.” The power of staying independent In a world where external investment often dominates business growth back stories, Sol Retail’s refusal to take external funding is particularly noteworthy. The company’s entire expansion has been powered by organic growth and reinvestment, a model that has allowed Barry and Katy to stay true to their long-term vision and retain full control of the business. Katy adds, “Being self-funded has made us sharp and focused. We’ve always had to be smart with
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