In 2013 two lawyers realized that dress socks, an imperative part of any lawyers arsenal, were lacking in quality, price, and availability.
In search of a better sock for a better price, these two lawyers discovered a wonder material and wonder business model: bamboo socks delivered to customers doors, automatically. Zockster was born.
How did you earn your first sales? Which channels are now generating the most traffic and sales for you?
Our first sales came from family and friends. Later, we began a referral program in which a referring customer earned a free delivery of socks for every individual they referred to our service. This is where Zockster began to grow and require better back-end systems.
Tell us about the back-end of your business. What tools and apps do you use to run your store? How do you handle shipping and fulfillment?
Zockster consists of three back-end systems: (1) Shopify, which handles our products available in single-purchases; (2) Chargifiy, a shopify integration which handles our subscription products; and (3) ShipStation, where all orders from Shopify and Chargify are funneled into for fulfillment.
What are your top recommendations for new ecommerce entrepreneurs?
Try everything! It's important to try new products, new website layouts, and new marketing ploys. You never know what's going to work until you try it. By trying as many things as possible, you begin to build data points that help you make better decisions as your business grows.
For example, we used to only sell our socks on a subscription basis. At the suggestion of a co-founder we decided to offer a one-time-purchase option for 30 days. Our sales increased dramatically, and we better realized what our customers wanted.