Website Closers® presents an established private-label brand focused on sustainable and eco-friendly Apparel for Women and Babies. The company has shown excellent growth year on year and high-profit margins, with around 50% of products in the babies and children’s categories. The company is growing nicely YOY with a tremendous amount of upside available in the near term with just a few moves. Customers for this brand are super sticky, proven by a 40% Repeat Customer Rate. The vast majority of customers become aware of and track the brand via Instagram and other social channels. This is a true Social Brand.
The majority of products are designed and branded under the business name. The company does, however, stock a minimal capacity of additional products that complement its range, but this is not the core or focus of the brand.
The womenswear category focuses not only on ethical, sustainable, and eco-friendly natural fibers but also emphasizes inclusivity and quality across the range. This encourages repeat business in the category, which drives revenue.
Customer service is a priority. Emails are predominantly used to communicate with customers and related matters. All customer service-related issues are dealt with in the same vein as the core business values; ethical, inclusive, and friendly. The owners believe that their customers are the heart of the business, and without them, they would not have the success they do. As a result, all customer service matters are attended to on the same day or the next business day if received after hours or over weekends. Social media messages are dealt with immediately and in the same manner as emails.
Current stock levels are $426,000. This level is unusually high for the business and for the time of year; however, the strategy and reason for these deliberate higher levels are due to current supply chain issues and foreseen manufacturing issues moving forward due to the situation in China.
Due to lead times, management has astutely put their summer 2022/2023 lines under contract. The business has a strong supplier base and has used and built relationships with them for over 11 years. All suppliers are extensions of their values, and the owners have always felt supported by these suppliers.
Inventory is placed in two significant seasons due to the supply chain. The company works a year in advance regarding inventory orders and has done this from the beginning. Trading terms are a 20% deposit and the balance of payment on shipment. Deliveries are typically divided into monthly drops, and the business ships 60 orders daily from its warehouse.
The brand experiences some seasonality. However, it purposefully designs most products to be trans-seasonal as much as possible. In addition, using 100% cotton, which breathes better in warmer conditions and performs well in cooler conditions, assists with ironing out seasonal troughs.
The typical customer is varied due to the different categories the business offers. One constant, though, would be that customers are driven by eco-friendly, sustainable, and natural fiber garments with high importance placed on ethical production and practices.
The owners’ primary tasks include growth, strategy, design, purchasing, finance, marketing, advertising, payroll, IT, and systems.
Additional staff work full-time in the following capacities:
- Administration
- Warehouse Assistant
- eCommerce Manager
- Social Media Assistant
- Design Assistant
- Two Graphics Assistants
- Video Editor
Lead generation is executed primarily via social media, email, SEO, and Google PPC.
Facebook is used in various ways, from targeted ads, broad advertising, and customer ads to retargeting. The best-performing social posts are turned into advertising opportunities. As a rule, the brand separates ads between categories.
Instagram posts reach an enormous following of 200,000, and ads are usually done in conjunction with the above Facebook advertising. Instagram stories or Reels are run separately if they have performed well on the platform as a social post. TikTok is also used, and across all three channels, ads are run with purchase intent as the objective.
SEO is done via copy on the website and blog posts, explicitly targeting keywords focusing on brand and product. A large SEO project was completed in the past with an agency and is currently being maintained in-house. SEO comprises keywords and keyword chains relevant to either babies, kids, or womenswear categories.
Administration Warehouse Assistant eCommerce manager Social media Assistant Design Assistant Two Graphics Assistants Video Editor The company makes excellent use of its email database with regular, focused campaigns to drive sales, promotions, and new products.
As successful as the business is, scale opportunities are abundant. Expanding to additional sales channels like Amazon and other marketplaces seems like a promising next step. There is also an immense opportunity for a new owner to scale the operation with mass retail. The brand hasn’t ventured deeply into wholesale. However, a focused campaign targeting boutique stores or retailers that share their values could create a new and significant revenue stream. International expansion outside of Australia presents enormous opportunities. A buyer with an established domestic or international sales network, Amazon expertise, or capital can take this company to the next level, depending on their chosen roadmap.
