Online direct-to-consumer fashion brand, SockSoho, does more than sell quirky and stylish men’s luxury socks. The company is leveraging data science to reduce marketing and customer acquisition costs. Founded by data scientist Pritika Mehta, and growth marketer Simarpreet Singh, the retail company launched 10 months ago and already has over 30,000 customers.
Funded by Y Combinator, an American seed money startup accelerator, SockSoho is not solely relying on its e-commerce store to bring in revenue. Instead, it’s using WhatsApp to drive its sales. With over 400 million WhatsApp users in India, the company’s selling formula is definitely working! The brand has acquired most of its customers through the messaging app. In fact, it brings in 70% percent of their sales.
The company is definitely taking full advantage of WhatsApp’s potential as both an e-commerce and A/B testing platform. The brand markets its products and tests out its ideas by easily interacting with customers straight through the app. All that data clarifies demand well before placing any manufacturing orders.
In an email to TechCrunch, Eric Migicovsky, the Y Combinator partner who invested in the company writes “[SockSoho] looks like a fashion brand on the surface but at the backend they operate like a tech company. They’re A/B testing every aspect of the product and e-commerce path, not something every fashion brand does.”
By being able to acquire customers, sell merchandise, and market new products at the same time, SockSoho is working smarter and not harder. This personal engagement is what will keep customers coming back for more. There won’t be a need for traditional costly marketing and customer acquisition techniques.
As the brand scales up, Mehta realizes personal engagement will become more difficult. To solve this issue, SockSoho is developing their own AI proprietary tool. With the use of AI-based chatbots, customers’ inquiries won’t go unanswered. Plus, more complicated issues will be quickly transferred to customer representatives.
“We are basically gathering data points to understand customer behavior and spending patterns, and those insights help us refine every single thing that we are building, from our designs to marketing and inventory planning, and even expanding into future verticals,” said Mehta.
By using technology that is already in place and innovating it to do more, SockSoho is showing the power in data science. They report that they will be able to grow into a full menswear line soon. According to Singh, the end goal is to “become the Uniqlo of India.”
Veronica Garcia has a Bachelor of Journalism and Bachelor of Science in Radio/TV/Film from The University of Texas at Austin. When she’s not writing, she’s in the kitchen trying to attempt every Nailed It! dessert, or on the hunt trying to find the latest Funko Pop! to add to her collection.
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