Sosandar sales continue to soar but it's still making early-stage losses

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Sandra Halliday

Veröffentlicht am
21.11.2018

Sosandar is continuing its sales climb with the company saying on Wednesday that its revenue soared over 400% in the latest half and that current trading is in line with expectations, its website seeing “record sales” in October.

It saw “strong trading in the autumn across all product categories including partywear,” while “September and October delivered consecutive record months for revenue, as well as orders, traffic and conversion rate.”

That's particularly significant because last month was a tough one for many companies in the fashion sector, and it's becoming something of a British tradition that October should be a weak month for fashion retail.

Admittedly, turning in impressive numbers is a lot easier for a company still at a very early stage of its development and the company, which targets consumers who’ve outgrown fast fashion, generated revenue of only £1.84 million in the six months ended September 30.

It will clearly hit a barrier at some point with sales growth that's likely to be less spectacular. But for now, it's basking in triple-digit leaps as it increases customer numbers and order volumes.

The company said that revenue rose 407% while its gross margin improved by nine percentage points to 55%. And its gross profit increased by 498% to reach £1.01 million. However, it made an underlying loss on an ebitda basis of £0.17 million, companies at this stage in their life-cycle being highly unlikely to make profits on this basis.

The company saw order growth of 446% (up to 43,979) and a 615% increase in repeat orders, while the conversion rate increased by 107bps to 2.75%. That said, its return rate also increased, to 52% from 44%.

But the overall picture was positive and its rises came as the company widened the number of SKUs it offers by 20% and also broadened its size range. And it worked hard to increase its social media impact as it launched Instagram shopping and also managed to more than double both its Facebook and Instagram followings.

Co-CEOs Ali Hall and Julie Lavington said that “exceptional growth in revenue, increased average order values and surge in repeat orders is evidence of how well we are engaging with an under-served market of women.”