Website Closers® presents a flourishing eCommerce Brand in the Anime apparel and fashion sector. This business originally launched as an Instagram Store and has built a loyal following on social media via TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Discord and Twitter. Their cult-like following has results in strong growth and an expansion into a Shopify Website, where they currently generate most of their sales. They have a number of immediate scale opportunities available to them as well.
The company has a team of in-house designers ready to continue to develop upon their array of custom, proprietary products that are only made for them. While many of the items are print-on-demand, some of the better sellers are inventoried – this is an immediate opportunity to expand beyond DTC into marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart.
Their top-selling SKUs today are custom shorts and t-shirts, but they offer additional products as well. The business also has seasonal products, such as Halloween masks, which see sales spikes on special occasions. The business transitioned from a non-branded dropshipping model to a fully branded one so the sky is the limit on growth.
The company has spent significant time branding its products with no replicability, which has increased its profitability and social presence. The business is evergreen, with sales showing consistency throughout the year, and they’re easily able to add products to balance out any seasonality, with hoodies in the winter, for example.
Products are shipped to customers from a 3PL in China and are printed on-demand, requiring no stock holding or inventory overheads, although roughly 20% of sales are held in inventory since these are the company’s fast movers. At least 300-500 orders are currently shipped daily. In a short time, management has systemized this business to the point where the owners spend little to no time running daily operations. The purchasing, distribution, sales, and day-to-day operations are taken care of with ease and offer a potential buyer the joy of seamless and stress-free integration.
The owner spends only 10 hours weekly on the business, which he has highly automated. Tasks include checking the discord community forum, emails, and socials to ensure everything is being responded to. In addition, interacting with the community to get them excited about future products, paying for orders, and overlooking ad performance are prioritized.
The company employs no full-time staff and utilizes contractors for design work, moderating, discord management, and email and SMS marketing for around $1,000 monthly in total. The brand’s products are sourced and produced in China. They have a relationship with the supplier in China, and all products are made specifically for them and sold under their brand. The payment terms are an enticing selling point since no upfront capital is required; orders are placed once a customer has checked out. The result, of course, is maximized cash flow, and time and budget can be spent on scaling the business.
The brand boasts approximately 30 SKUs at any time, with designs changing frequently and ranges often produced as limited edition runs to keep their cult-like following interested while adding perceived value to their products. The average customer is a young, social media savvy male between 15 and 24 years old. Expanding into additional product lines, such as bags and accessories, would undoubtedly show rapid growth, profitability, and increased cart value with upsell items at checkout.
The fashion business is more than big; it’s the biggest of the big. With a global market value of $759 billion in 2021, apparel, accessories, and footwear are the number one eCommerce sector in the world. Over the next five years, online fashion’s 7% compounded annual growth rate will put the industry at +$1 trillion.
Given the brand’s success in the USA, international expansion is a highly prosperous prospect. The owners can immediately look at expanding their sales channels to Amazon and can quickly sell locally and to the UK and Europe. Their custom range, which boasts value in scarcity, could remain on the website exclusively, while broader product lines can be sold on Amazon. As successful as the business is, they have not yet tapped into the industry’s colossal influencer marketing opportunities or focused much on paid Google advertising. Both options have shown a great return on investment with focused campaigns and work wonderfully in such a niche market.
The business relies primarily on social media for its marketing, where it has maintained incredible success. Half the budget is spent on picture ads and user-generated content on Instagram and TikTok, which have brought tremendous sales traffic to the site. The remaining half of the budget goes toward Facebook advertising. Opportunities are ripe to pursue influencer campaigns on their primary channels and engage with their close-knit community.
Taking over this business requires virtually no working capital, save for paid advertising and the small contractors’ bills each month, and the company has enormous growth potential.
