Full-price sales drive 228% revenue growth at Sosandar

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Apr 9, 2019

Sosandar is proving there are massive opportunities in the ‘underserved’ over-40s market. The online fashion company, with only 2.5 years of existence, has announced strong revenue growth of 228% to £4.44m for the year ended 31 March 2019.

Sosandar is a bright spot in a retail landscape of muted consumer spending and CVAs. On Tuesday it revealed that its customer base remained loyal and continued to expand, with repeat orders increasing by 389% to 55,828 and new customers up 131% to 46,914.

The e-tailer has now over 105,000 customers in its database, who made nearly 103,000 orders during the year (up 224% on the previous year). Additionally, customers spent more per visit, sending the average order value up 10% to £103.

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Gross margin was up 558 bps to 55%, supported by an increased emphasis on full-price sales. Demand was so high that Sosandar made a £0.26m investment in stock at the end of the fourth quarter to ensure it had enough product going into the first quarter of the new year.
On the other hand, the volume of returns improved by 2% to 50% in the second half of the year.

"We are delighted to be reporting a year of substantial growth across all our key metrics including revenue, orders and new customers. This has been reflected in market expectations which have been upgraded twice during the year and we have now built a strong foundation on which Sosandar can continue to grow as a brand, providing our underserved market with quality, affordable clothing,” Ali Hall and Julie Lavington, joint CEOs, commented.

"Over the year, we have been focused on both growing our loyal customer base, underpinned by the continued delivery of high-quality clothing, and increasing the efficiency of our spend. Through increasingly sophisticated methods, we have managed to retain a high level of sell-through, alongside good ongoing full price sales, and significantly increased the efficiency of marketing costs.”

The joint CEOs, a former Look magazine editor and a former Look and InStyle publishing director, said look forward to the new financial year “with confidence."

Sosandar will release its full-year report in early July.