founder fashion store Nasty Gal Sophia Amoruso was able to create a multimillion-dollar business, starting with the trade vintage stuff on eBay ...
recent morning in downtown Los Angeles in the conference hall were ten young women dressed as if theyto be output to the podium: denim jacket with fringes, transparent neon tank tops, shorts and shoes on a five-inch platform.They in turn appears to be biting breaks pastries from Starbucks."I am very happy to be here and I'm sure Nasty Gal» - says Kelly, a clinical psychiatrist."I like the fact that the Nasty Gal has done for me" - wedged into the conversation a graduate of the University of Southern California.
But it is absolutely incomparable with that Nasty Gal has done for 28-year-old Sophia Amoruso.For 4 years it belongs to an online store Nasty Gal has become a hit by offering its customers a new way to buy stylish but cheap stuff.This year the company is to ensure that increased sales fourfold to $ 128 million, and the gross margin to be about 60%.To achieve such indicators Nasty Gal managed without high-profile advertising campaigns and almost without discounts.Instead Amoruso has built its brand through social services like Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and Facebook: in fact she was able to transform the "husky" in sales.Nasty Gal is trying to maintain round the clock contact with their fans.Pages Store in social networks updated five times a day, and every morning the employee Nasty Gal discuss with his client, he's put on.
Amoruso sits on a chair at the other end of the table.On it - close-fitting black chiffon dress, combined with short boots with white laces and bright pink lipstick.The girls in the room to catch her every gesture.Her story - it became a reality the dream of a little girl on the big fashion, but this story is not well known.Amoruso mostly quiet, even shy."You guys are trying to keep fit?" - She asks at the end of the meeting.Head quickly nods in agreement, then it squall hottest requests, pleading to take in the current line of sportswear companies giant Lululemon.
For Nasty Gal is the first real focus group gathered before the upcoming release of a line of designer clothes from the most Amoruso.She was discouraged by the result."Power" and "fierce" - these are just some of the epithets awarded gathered her torn halter tops and short shorts Mail.After the group left the room, she was lost in thought, "They seemed to read my thoughts.I never used those words in public, but I've always thought so. "
Amoruso opposed fashion trends rather than the style of selling her things (such as can be found anywhere, often at a lower price), but the technology it has developed for their sales.To begin with Nasty Gal buys only limited circulation.This allows Amoruso almost all stocks sell at full price - a rarity for the industry.Amoruso just abandoned the standard tricks - such as discounts for recommending to friends.
For online store Nasty Gal has a very strong performance.A quarter of the 250 000 customers visit the site once a day for at least a few minutes.10% of buyers - this is the top of the most active users, who visit the site more than a hundred times a month.One of the girls in the focus group shared that she updates the site every 20 minutes.Of course, not every visit is transformed in a package.Thus, the ratio of the number of visitors who have used the service offered on the site, to the number of users coming to the site, is 1%, which is much lower than that of conventional retailers.But that's why the site has a large group of loyal customers.Slightly more than half of sales Nasty Gal accounted for 20% of their customers.This means that there is an opportunity to reach an even larger audience: why in the fall at Nasty Gal will own label.
«My philosophy is to sell things more than you bought them," - said Amoruso.Now it negotiate some of the most successful venture capital firms in Silicon Valley and managers wealth management Mark Zuckerberg.Earlier this year, Amoruso received $ 9 million from the fund Index Ventures: All Nasty Gal result was estimated at $ 130 million. Now actively negotiations on a new round of investment, which will raise the company's value even higher.
«I have never seen someone work exclusively for a salary" - said Amoruso.In her Greek-American family entrepreneurial blood flows: her grandfather kept motel and store that sells pianos.Her father gave mortgage loans, the mother sold the house.Sofia started buying books about startups in 9 years in the mid-nineties it was "president" of shops in your street in Sacramento, manufacture and sell lemonade shell clams.But her charming country life collapsed when Sofia was 10 years old: at that moment, her parents lost their jobs.She remembers how they cut their bank cards and throwing them in the bin with the others.Then they took her out of the Catholic school to save a little.
Soon dally Sofia began to get up at 6 in the morning and delivering newspapers.The money she received for her were far more than just a means of spending money.In 15 years, preparing sandwiches Subway, it is believed due to the customer concentration olives, while her companions were dozing.She followed his father's advice: "Show yourself.Do not cease to move.Sweep the floor, even if you do not ask about it. "For 22 years she has managed to work in ten local seller.In one of his photos, where she goes to art school, Sofia looking very bored.She always felt a sense of frustration and guilt from the fact that she is wasting her youth.
She always filled own wardrobe things bought in second-hand clothes stores and garage sales.Determined to see the sites that sell vintage clothing, she realized that she too can sell it.Only better.Most sellers olnayn online auction site eBay understate prices."The starting price for the jacket Chanel - $ 9,99.It can be sold at that price, or $ 1,000.Your task - to show that he is worth more, "- explains Sofia.
That's what she did, first buying some item on eBay, and then selling the same, but in three to five times more expensive.Its main weapon was the gallery that accompanies this item on eBay.Amoruso asked her friends to act as a model and made their artistic pictures on the background of a garage door of her aunt's summary.She carefully considered pose models, their jewelry and clothes.Once she was able to sell a children's checkered sweater, bought for pennies a second-hand for $ 150.Amoruso Micro studies also conducted.His best pictures, it is placed not only on eBay, but also on MySpace, trying to get a distinct response.If the comments on MySpace were negative, it changes the model.
After a year and a half of trade on eBay and more than 30,000 friends on MySpace, annual revenues of small businesses Amoruso exceeded the already $ 115 000 and the profit - $ 20 000. At this point, it moved its business from the guest house consolidated aunt's studio in Benicia, fara suburb of San Francisco.But she did not stop and began to develop the site Nasty Gal (the name was borrowed from the song Betty Davis, former model and the former wife of Miles Davis).While at the site, there were only a name, Amoruso sent letters to customers with links to products on eBay - other sellers complained that the scheme is prohibited.Competitors also accused her of committing false bids during the auction.Amoruso itself denies this.
way or another, but in July 2008 Amoruso fired from eBay - this was the push that made her a few weeks later finally run Nasty Gal, as the site for the sale of fashionable vintage clothing.She changed her MySpace to Facebook, where she began drawing of gift cards of $ 200 among those customers who send their best photos in buying clothes.The turning point was the support of the fashion blog Whowhatwear.com.Once, in one of New York's bars Amoruso asked the girl where she bought a jacket, to which she responded: «Nasty Gal»."Mom has blocked my credit card for your site" - complained the girl.
his first employee Amoruso found via the website of electronic ads Craiglist.She became Christine Ferruccio, a saleswoman from San Francisco.Together they began to flirt with the non-vintage clothing Korean traders hunted in the trendy district of Los Angeles.Warehouse emptied so quickly that Amoruso had to travel every week on his Volvo in 1987 from Benicia to Los Angeles.At the same time co-worker decided to try to trade a recognizable brand, which began attending fashion shows.One of the largest acquisitions promised to be products of the brand Sam Edelman.However, the brand was too capricious in the choice of retail partners.Returning home, Amoruso grabbed my iPhone and came to the home page of Nasty Gal.From now on it will be an advertising slogan: "We will make your brand cooler."
In January 2011, Amoruso took a group to the center of Los Angeles to be closer to suppliers.She was still economical.After her first week-long vacation in Hawaii, she returned to the new office, cluttered with Aeron ergonomic chairs cost $ 12 000. Sophia was furious and immediately get rid of them.
last November Amoruso went to Silicon Valley to meet with potential investors.It was a difficult time for Nasty Gal.Her chief of the warehouse without warning resigned during the sale on Black Friday - just as when it was launched a new inventory system.Showered with thousands of orders for goods that were not available at the moment.Many buyers are not receiving those things which are ordered.Nasty Gal had to cancel about a thousand orders.In the end, a deal was made with Index Ventures.She also scoured LinkedIn network in search of potential employees - so she found a dozen different employees.
In order to communicate with website visitors, it encourages its employees to create posts in social networks on their travels on vacation or on the useful tips for makeup.Although Amoruso and ceased to develop clothes and images for shooting models, it constantly interferes in the shooting.If fitting dress manages to sell only once a week, it insists on changing patterns and sales soar 400 times.
Now her schedule is very chaotic: one day she chooses models for his new magazine Super Nasty, in the other - is in talks with Index Ventures on possible candidates for the post of financial and technical directors.With one lawyer she talks about fundraising, the other - to minimize taxes on the property."I still have 28, but I need to have the will, - she says.- I used to be spontaneous. "
Victoria Barret
Photo source: venturevillage.eu
Articles Source: forbes.ru
