Personally, my Christmas wouldn’t be complete without a pair of socks and Andrew Gill agrees. In fact so much so that in 2012 he started selling his range of Seriously Silly Socks at a Christmas market and quickly realised his product was a hit.
That same night, Gill bought his domain name and signed up with ecommerce platform BigCommerce. Over the next six years, Seriously Silly Socks went from a single market stall to a complete omnichannel retail experience. Sales of its popular product range soared.
Since then, Seriously Silly Socks’ level of integration with external marketplaces has evolved and become even more vital to the continued growth of the business, while its bespoke ecommerce site has helped shape the brand’s personalised offering.
In the past three years, Seriously Silly Socks’ biggest sales channels have shifted dramatically. In 2016, 85% of trade was conducted through external channels, yet in 2017 over half (51%) of sales were generated via its own ecommerce site seriouslysillysocks.com.
“Although we love selling direct, we can’t overlook the constant evolution and fluctuations of the marketplace. In order to achieve the biggest turnover of product, we needed to be agile and effectively operate across multiple channels. We needed to ensure we were going with the ecommerce flow instead of trying to swim against it.”
– Andrew Gill, founder, Seriously Silly Socks
The rise of the ‘Amazon Prime’ effect
For Gill and his team, 2018 has seen another shift in the marketplace – the expansion of Amazon Seller Fulfilled Prime.
Earlier this year, Seriously Silly Socks was invited to be one of the first sellers of seller fulfilled Prime, the Amazon programme that lets businesses sell Prime products directly from their own warehouse. More than 8 million people in the UK now pay for Amazon Prime, according to investment banking firm Cowen and Company, and its popularity shows no signs of slowing down.
Having the integrated backend already in place, Gill could join the programme almost overnight. It has been one of the biggest game changers for the company to date.
“Sales have rocketed by 50 percent over the last 12 months. Shoppers who pay for the Prime service want to get their money’s worth. So, they very often filter their shopping search via ‘Prime products only’ which means all competitor products outside of the Prime offering are no longer visible to them. Since joining Prime, we’ve reduced our marketing costs, yet sales have grown dramatically both in channel and on our ecommerce site.”
– Andrew Gill, founder, Seriously Silly Socks
Integrated sales channels offer big ROI
For Seriously Silly Socks, an integrated, multi-channel approach is paving the way towards a bright future for the brand. Gill has found that direct and channel sales create the biggest return on investment when seamlessly used together.
“For us, Amazon shoppers take a ‘one click’ approach to shopping our products, which is far less personal, but it appeals to the masses. Our ecommerce site on the other hand allows us to be more personal, offer additional services, capture reviews and engage with customers. The least expensive customer is the one you already have so here we are able to focus on the experience, not just the end product.”
– Andrew Gill, founder, Seriously Silly Socks
Seriously Silly Socks makes 60 percent of its entire yearly sales during November and December, and during that time, Gill’s team doubles in size. The market gets much more aggressive this time of year, believes Gill. He says that, more so now as buying socks for Christmas has become fashionable again. What BigCommerce provides us with is peace of mind – a backend we can rely on when it’s all hands on deck and sales suddenly increase across all channels.
Over the years, Gill and his team have become experts at finding new product niches. Seriously Silly Socks need sto make sure we continue to differentiate ourselves from competitors with products such as welly socks, crazy socks and sofa socks.
One of the biggest differentiators between direct sales and channel sales is the ability for personalisation, which Gill and his team emphasise throughout the customer experience.
“We understand the impact big changes in the ecommerce industry can have. Our goal is to make sure companies like Seriously Silly Socks are ready to take advantage and reap the benefits of these changes by having a flexible backend that can be adapted in real-time.”<.em>
– Mark Adams, general manager EMEA, BigCommerce
