Online women’s fashion business sees revenues soar by 228%

Sosandar, the Wilmslow-based online women’s fashion retailer founded by two former fashion journalists, reported “exceptional growth” today.

The AIM-listed venture saw sales jump by 228% to £4.44m, while pre-tax losses narrowed from £6.056m the previous year, to £3.546m for the year to March 31.

At the year end the business had a cash balance of £3.64m.

Order growth rocketed by 224% to 102,967 orders, while the customer database grew 95% to 105,756. Active customers increased by 185% to 62,214, and Facebook and Instagram followings increased by 72% and 208%, respectively.

Co-chief executives Ali Hall and Julie Lavington said: “We are delighted to be reporting a year of exceptional growth along with significant operational progress.

“We have expanded our product range and invested in highly effective customer acquisition, which together are driving ever-growing repeat rates.

“We continue to inspire and excite our customers and once we recruit customers they are proving to be incredibly loyal and highly engaged with the brand, which will fuel future growth for the business.”

They added: “We are continuing to invest in the expansion of our product range, most recently making investment into specialist areas of footwear, accessories, knitwear and denim.

“Our social channels continue to expand rapidly, and we have seen an ever-growing army of high-profile celebrities wearing our clothes, such as Amanda Holden, Kelly Brook and Natalie Pinkham.

“We have also been featured regularly in the national press, from the Daily Telegraph to the Daily Mail, as well as being featured regularly on ITV.

“Brand awareness continues to grow and most recently the fashion industry bible, Drapers, recognised the brand, awarding Sosandar the prestigious accolade of Best New Online Business and Digital Team of the Year.

“Recent investment into specialist design areas and new factories will drive a larger product range going forward further enhancing choice for existing customers to continue increasing their frequency of purchase and broadening the appeal even further for new customer acquisition.”

Looking ahead, they said: “The new financial year has started strongly and in line with our expectations with June setting a new record for the number of units sold in a month.

“Repeat orders for Q1 increased 122% year-on-year and Q1 has seen c.23% year-on-year revenue growth.

“This revenue growth has been achieved through strong repeat business with deliberately less emphasis on new customer acquisition as external factors resulted in a tougher acquisition environment.

“Being an agile e-commerce business, we have been able to respond quickly to external forces, making the prudent strategic decision to hold back funds to invest for customer acquisition in future months where we expect to achieve a better return on marketing spend.

“With a clear growth plan, we are confident in the outlook for the year and very excited about Sosandar’s long term prospects.”

Sosandar is specifically targeted at a generation of women who have graduated from throwaway fashion and are looking for quality, affordable clothing with a premium, trend-led aesthetic.

This is a section of the market that is currently being under-served, the business believes.

Sosandar was launched in September 2016. The business model is built around using trend-led, exclusive designs produced in-house and then manufactured using a variety of global suppliers.