Online fashion retailer Sosandar beats expectations as sales soar
Online fashion brand Sosandar said it expects full-year sales to beat market expectations following soaring growth at the end of last year, avoiding the gloom affecting many high street retailers.
The Aim-listed retailer said investment in customer acquisition drove revenue up 136 per cent to £3.8m in the three months to 31 December, exceeding the £2.8m reported in the first half of the year.
The sales growth was driven by product rate expansion and investment in TV advertising to attract new shoppers. The firm’s customer database jumped 109 per cent to 207,672 during the period.
The mid-range fashion brand was set up by former Look magazine editor and publishing director Ali Hall and Julie Lavington in 2016.
Its strong performance in the fourth quarter comes against a background of tough trading conditions for bricks-and-mortar retailers.
Meanwhile online fashion brands – such as industry giant Boohoo, which hiked guidance earlier this month following record quarterly sales – continue to thrive.
In a statement today co-chief executives Ali Hall and Julie Lavington said: “The opportunity we identified appears to be bigger than we first thought, with the success of new product areas helping to drive repeat purchases increasing the potential for future ranges.
“This has been enhanced by the successful trial in TV advertising which, combined with the already established channels of social, direct mail and PR, expands our ability to attract more new customers than originally anticipated.
“Acquisition of customers is nothing without successful retention and that’s why it is so pleasing to see that repeat customers in January, a traditionally difficult trading period, are tracking higher than in the peak autumn/winter period helping to continually improve the ever-growing lifetime revenue number”.