Sosandar to beat full-year sales target after record Christmas

Sosandar generated a 136% rise in net revenues to £3.8m in the three months to December 31 – more than it achieved in the entire first half of its financial year.

The etailer, founded in 2016 by joint chief executives Ali Hall and Julie Lavington, attributed the performance to an expanded product range and increased TV marketing.

Sosandar said that order numbers climbed 140% to 84,304 in the period, when gross margin, ”including the seasonal Sale period and higher than forecast acquisition with first-order discount”, was 52%.

An average order value of £101.97 was up on the first half, ”reflecting cold weather driving sales of higher price point items”. Repeat orders increased 140% to 51,320.

Hall and Lavington said: ”We are delighted to be reporting on an exceptional period of growth. It is pleasing that, as expected, following our increased investment in marketing, product and team, we are seeing accelerated growth across all our KPIs.

”It is also testament to the quality of our product range that, once we have acquired the customers, they are becoming highly engaged with our brand.

”The opportunity we identified appears to be bigger that we first thought, with the success of new product areas helping to drive repeat purchases, increasing the potential for future ranges.

”This has been enhanced by the successful trial in TV advertising, which, combined with the already established channels of social, direct mail and PR, expands our ability to attract more new customers than originally anticipated.

“Acquisition of customers is nothing without successful retention and that’s why it is so pleasing to see that repeat customers in January, a traditionally difficult trading period, are tracking higher than in the peak autumn/winter period, helping to continually improve the ever-growing lifetime revenue number.”