Website Closers® presents an eCommerce business that has successfully mixed apparel with patriotism and developed a fast-growing customer base. Effectively using social media to connect with like-minded customers, the brand is now recognized by more than 200,000+ customers in the U.S. for their patriotic themed men’s and women’s shirts, hats, shorts, hoodies, socks, flags, and other SKUs. While apparel is a highly lucrative industry worldwide, there’s a growing market for clothing that promotes one’s love of country, devotion to the American flag and a commitment to buying products made in the U.S. Personalization has helped boost sales of all manner of clothing, and patriotic apparel has become a significant way for consumers to make a statement about their values.
For this brand, that’s meant 16% YOY growth, 25% net margins, and an expanding customer base. The company has an interesting story to tell about how to connect with customers who share certain values and are eager to use their discretionary income to promote them. Founded in 2016, the company started as a streetwear brand in the patriotic niche space. All the graphic designs are exclusive to this brand, created to resonate with the themes that their core market cares about. Part of the key to providing customers with the kind of products they want was the company’s decision to consistently browse Amazon to see what this market was missing, then to review their competitors and what they were posting on social media. That turned out to be invaluable research enabling the company to deliver products that were not readily available and to provide customers with something unique.
The company now has more than 300 SKUs, with sales divided between their Shopify site and Amazon. As a patriotic-themed business, the company is now selling exclusively in the United States, and their t-shirts are sourced in the US from local distributors, and all products are packaged and shipped domestically. Their leggings and board shorts are sourced in China and then printed and packaged locally.
All products are specific to this brand, which became one of the first to market in this niche space. As a result, the brand is leading the field with its designs, forcing competitors to take note of their rising sales and find ways to catch up – a great position for any company to be in.
Among their SKUs, the company offers multiple size shirts for both men and women as well as headwear, hoodies, socks, sweats, and leggings. Their average order value is $64 on their Shopify site and $30 on Amazon, where their pro-gun rights t-shirts, blue line of products and White Flag snapbacks are selling particularly well. While sales remain consistent throughout the year, the weeks leading up to certain holidays provide a major spike in sales, and not just around Christmas. Independence Day is like a second Christmas to the brand, a time when their patriotic gear sees a major peak in sales. They also sell more hoodies in the winter months and more board shorts in summer.
Their customer base includes both men and women between the ages of 18 and 50, with women’s merchandise accounting for a rapidly growing part of their sales. The company’s strong connection with its audience is clear by the fact that they now have a 28% Repeat Customer Rate from buyers who are consistently placing multiple orders.
Amazon has overtaken the company’s website when it comes to revenue, representing 55% of sales. The company enjoys a high 4.7 Seller Rating on Amazon, and 5 Star reviews that emphasize the quality of their products, the appealing patriotic designs, and the fast shipping. The company recently added a subscription box to their website which is already delivering higher revenues.
The brand uses Fulfillment by Amazon for deliveries, and stocks up to 10 weeks of inventory year-round at their warehouse. New products are ordered quarterly, and during busier seasons their inventory levels get considerably higher. Sales from Shopify are shipped directly from their warehouse.
Throughout the company’s existence, digital marketing has been effectively used to drive sales. They employ PPC ads on Google to boost sales on their Shopify site and PPC ads to do the same on Amazon. Their site is optimized for SEO to boost search engine rankings, and they have a massive following on social media, including 306,000+ followers on Facebook and 233,000+ on Instagram, which has been instrumental in helping them connect with customers who appreciate the messaging of their SKUs. Their social media accounts are also used for strong influencer and affiliates marketing campaigns that are driving sales higher.
At a time when personalization is providing a significant boost to the apparel industry, this brand’s strong connection with its customer base and their values gives it some tremendous scale options.
The popularity of their current SKUs across a very large customer demographic amply demonstrates the appeal is there, and their high repeat customer rate indicates new products would be easy to upsell to those existing customers.
Similarly, the company is currently offering just black shirts and could add more colors, including white, gray, military green and Navy blue.
Another focus could be on expanding the brand’s influencer marketing campaigns, which have worked so efficiently in the past.
Values-themed clothing becomes highly desirable once a company has marketed effectively to its core audience, and this brand is a terrific example of how to do that quickly and to generate tremendous sales as a result.
With products that can’t be found elsewhere, this brand’s recurring revenues are guaranteed to stay high, while a fortunate buyer has an opportunity to grow this business in simple but productive ways.
