Business idea - a machine that sells women's tights. Business idea - a machine selling women's tights Selling socks at the market

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One day, Siberian Nadezhda Chupakhina decided to buy her husband interesting bright socks. But she returned from the store as usual with dull black and blue products. Then the Chupakhins decided to add bright colors to the world - and began to produce original designer socks. The ZeSox brand will soon be five years old, and its fun socks are worn by thousands of people in Russia and abroad. The ideological mastermind of the ZeSox brand, Nadezhda Chupakhina, told the website about how to make the black and blue world of socks bright.

Spouse entrepreneurs from Novosibirsk, founders of a brand of unusual socks ZeSox. Graduated from the Siberian State University of Telecommunications and Informatics. The production of socks under the ZeSox brand was launched in 2013. The couple have two children – a daughter (6 years old) and a son (1 year old).

“My husband looked at me so sadly...”

“After university we did web development. The work fed me, there was enough money not to think about changing activities, says Nadezhda Chupakhina. - We didn’t think about business, especially about socks. If there were any thoughts, they were related to the profession. But then I went on maternity leave and gave birth to a daughter. When my daughter was one year old, I once went to the store and bought myself some socks. At home I brag to my husband: “Look what they are!” And he says: “What about me?” I say: “I bought it for you too.” And I lay out white, black and blue socks in front of him. There were no others. He looked at me so sadly...”

So it became clear to Chupakhin that there was a niche in the market - informal (or informal?) socks. Ivan and Nadezhda began to study the situation. As it turns out, the world is full of socks – fun and different. “We looked on the Internet at foreign sock manufacturers. There are many places around the world that produce interesting socks. I like Japanese and Korean better,” says Nadezhda.

Before the socks were released, they had to be designed and drawn. The Chupakhins came up with the ideas and the designers drew them. “At the development stage there were four of us. Together we came up with an idea, drew designs, sometimes also suggested ideas, and all we could do was say: “Wow, cool, let’s do it!” We wanted to make socks that you can talk to. Characters appeared: a modern young guy, a sweet girl, a stern Siberian man…” recalls Nadezhda Chupakhina.

To begin with, fourteen sock designs were created: “Cinemapark”, “Wake up”, “Joshua and the Pirate”, “Nyan-chan”, “Fast food”, “Nietzsche”, the Siberian series “It’s cold outside” (with bears, felt boots and balalaikas) and others.

At the same time, they came up with a name - ZeSox. “It happened by accident. I don’t even remember if there were any other options, maybe there weren’t any others. Although the name was spontaneous, we still like it,” says Nadezhda.

After coming up with a name, they bought a domain name and created a website. Or rather, they started doing it - work on the site continued for a year. “We immediately created the site in its current form. But even now, something is constantly changing and improving on the site. I'll start rewriting it soon. He’s my workhorse, I train on him,” Nadezhda laughs.

Russia is great, but there is nowhere to knit colored socks

Nadezhda had little entrepreneurial experience, to put it mildly - in the nineties, she and her friend sold potatoes at the market. I haven't read any books on business. I didn’t go to trainings. The economics of the project, the method of sales, promotion - Nadezhda admits that then, at the initial stage, it seemed that these issues would be resolved by themselves.

“We calculated the cost of the socks and figured out how much they needed to be sold for so that the project could develop. They practically didn’t consider anything, they acted intuitively. It looked like this: we’ll create a website and people will buy. Well, maybe we’ll run some more advertising. We didn’t think whether it would work or not. We just decided to try it, it will turn out great, no, it’s not a problem,” says Nadezhda Chupakhina.

We started looking for a manufacturer. First in the Novosibirsk region - they wanted the production to be nearby. We did not expect any problems - there are several hosiery production facilities in the region. But it turned out that socks are different.

“When we showed our design, someone said, no one will buy this. Some factories generally had two colors in their line - white and black. Others worked only with large volumes. The machine makes 300 pairs of identical socks per day. And in our first batch there were 50 pairs of socks of each article, with six or seven colors in one sock. This requires smart machines,” recalls Nadezhda.

Not finding production in Novosibirsk, they began to look for it throughout the country. But it turned out that Russia is wide, and there is nowhere to knit colored socks! Someone might have given up - no, no. But the Chupakhins “didn’t even have the thought of giving up without trying. We searched for the factory until the bitter end.” And in the end, the factory in Tatarstan agreed to knit the first batch of socks.

The first bumps and the first “Bump”

Start-up costs turned out to be relatively low. Nadezhda made the website herself; the design of the socks was developed either out of friendship or with a minimum payment. The first serious financial investment in the project was 250 thousand rubles - payment for the first batch of socks. These were family savings.

The first batch consisted of 1650 pieces of socks (women's sizes 36-40 and men's sizes 41-45). The cost of a pair of socks was about 150 rubles. The first bumps of experience were immediately gained. The Chupakhins intended to sell the first batch through the website. But, Nadezhda says, it turned out that the delivery of one pair is almost equal to its cost. For the client, it looked like the product was costing him twice as much as the stated price, and people don’t like such surprises. There was no trade. Then it was decided to transfer sales from the virtual space to the real one.

“Friends suggested that we try to sell our socks in the Novosibirsk street clothing store Shishka. We wrote to them and they agreed. That’s how it began,” says Nadezhda.

They expected to sell the first batch of socks in a year and a half - but they sold it by the summer of 2014, two or three times faster. The Chupakhins were delighted. But it's early. The ruble just collapsed, the dollar and euro rose in price. It would seem - so what? But ZeSox socks are knitted from Uzbek yarn, which has to be bought for dollars. When they contacted the factory to place a second batch, they found that prices had almost doubled. The Chupakhins found another factory, but there were surprises there too.

“They couldn’t agree on our order for a long time. Then the deadlines were delayed, the quantity produced was not the agreed upon one, with a large percentage of defects, and the price turned out to be higher than at the first factory. And they constantly said how difficult it was for them with our order. After this experience, we returned to the old factory, accepted their conditions and are still working with them,” says Nadezhda Chupakhina.

Business with a break for maternity hospital

After all this, Nadezhda gave birth to a son! He is now one year old, which means Nadezhda has to combine business and two children.

“The eldest daughter is now six years old, the son is one year old. When we started, my daughter was one and a half years old. We adapted as best we could. Sometimes discussions took place at night when she was sleeping. I remember how we met with the designers - we specifically chose a cafe with a children’s playroom and a teacher, so that my daughter was busy, we calmly discussed. Sometimes her parents managed to leave her. Then my daughter went to kindergarten - it became easier.”

“When I became pregnant for the second time, I did not stop working on the project - I answered letters during the day, and collected orders at night. There was a pause only during those three days while I was in the maternity hospital, and then I asked my husband to send orders. Now I collect orders at night, and during the day, as part of a walk with my child, I deliver them to transport companies and the post office. In the cold weather I asked my husband to take me. The eldest daughter sometimes helps, asking: “Who bought these socks, oh, “Sea Monsters”, my favorite ones!” - says Nadezhda Chupakhina.

Economics, geography, audience

Now there are sales points of funny ZeSox socks with pirates, Nietzsche and other characters in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Perm, Yekaterinburg, Izhevsk, Ulan-Ude, Yakutsk. Also, sales and promotion go through the website, through pages in Instagram And "In contact with", on the international marketplace of hand-made goods Etsy.

On the website, socks cost from 260 to 325 rubles, and on Etsy, aimed at a Western audience, they cost $9.50. Half of this amount is the cost price, i.e. when selling online, the Chupakhins receive plus or minus 50 percent from each pair of socks. When selling through stores, the margin is less - 20-30 percent. But it is wholesale sales to stores that form the basis of ZeSox sales.

Costs - manufacturing, logistics, taxes, etc. - rather large: since 2013, according to the Chupakhins’ calculations, they have grown by 60 percent. The obvious way out is to start your own workshop. “It’s possible to create your own workshop, but you can’t get by with calculations on your knees.” And the amounts required will be much higher. We don’t have that kind of money yet,” says Nadezhda.

Agent Morse is beyond competition

“At first we thought that our target audience was people of our age, 25-35 years old, but both schoolchildren and young people took the socks for their parents. Now I think that our socks are suitable for everyone,” says Nadezhda Chupakhina.

To date, women's and men's socks have been divided approximately equally in sales volume. However, the division is quite arbitrary, because Many sizes fit both men and women.

As in almost every business, there is a seasonality in the sale of socks: in the summer sales fall, but with the onset of cold weather they increase. Sales also increase during the holidays. There is also “the day that feeds the year” - February 23.

The range is constantly updated - at a rate of two new designs every three months. Only a few designs remain from the first collection. Some socks simply didn’t work, some turned out to be impossible for technical reasons and didn’t work either.

“For example, we came up with “Who’s There” socks for fans of the TV series “Doctor Who.” This is a movie about traveling through time in a machine that looks like a telephone booth. Everything looked great in the sketch, but it was very difficult to recognize the booth on the finished product. In addition, we apparently overestimated the popularity of the series,” Nadezhda recalls.

ZeSox now has over twenty sock designs. Top 5 – socks “Boris” (a blue-faced, bearded sailor in a vest), “Joshua” (these socks became popular with the appearance of lumbersexuals in 2014 - “hipsters pretending to be lumberjacks”, in thick sweaters, work boots, with beards), “ Pirate Joe”, “Cinemapark” (socks with popcorn, stereo glasses, dinosaurs) and the most popular socks – “Agent Morse”.

Interestingly, Agent Morse socks are popular among both men and women. As for the rest, there are differences: “Sea Monsters” socks are also popular among the fair sex, and “Boris”, “Pirate Joe” and “Major Honey” socks are popular among men.

Socks are like children!

“I worry about every design - whether it will work or not. Socks are almost like children - you carry them for a long time, put in an idea, and don’t know whether it will resonate with other people. For example, the “Let's Go” design, my favorite from geometry. There are only two colors, but people like it because it’s bright and contrasting,” says Nadezhda.

Socks from ZeSox are also cool because the pattern on them is not only on the top, but also on the bottom – on the “sole”. As one of the clients put it: “You lie in front of the TV, and your socks watch the movie with you.”

Although the ZeSox project is already in its fifth year, it is still not even a small business, but a very small business. “I’m the only one who works here all the time. Designers and photographers are involved as needed. In the understanding of economists, our turnover is microscopic. We immediately invest everything we receive into ZeSox,” says Nadezhda Chupakhina.

Nowadays the competition in the segment of original socks is high. Nadezhda considers HappySocks (Sweden) and Sammy Icon (Moscow) to be her most serious competitors. They started earlier, they have a wider range of products, and they spend heavily on advertising. But the market is not small - 280 million legs in Russia alone! So the company’s ambitions are not childish.

“We want ZeSox to become a household name for all cool colored socks, like Xerox is for copiers. We are fighting the blackness of feet, we want to defeat black socks so that there are none left at all, this is our goal! - Nadezhda declares decisively.

In this article we will look at the question: how to open an online sock store and provide a minimum business plan to get started.

Creating an online store is a very popular service at the moment. The Internet audience is growing rapidly and, according to forecasts, will only increase over the years. Internet sales in large cities reach 25%.

If you think about it, it is much more convenient to place an order on the Internet due to busyness or illness. Previously, there were few such stores, but now you can buy almost anything on the Internet: from simple socks and groceries to cars and apartments.

Are you thinking about starting a business, but have a small budget? Then you've come to the right place! Today we will look at a business with minimal investment - opening an online sock store. But let's start in order.

Website creation (Step 1)

The first thing you need to open a store on the Internet is a website.

Now we will look at several options for creating it.

Self-development

If you already have skills in this matter, then developing your own website will not be difficult. It may take longer, but you will only spend money on food :)

Pros: minimal costs;
Minuses: a large period of time during which (provided that you order a website) you can further develop your business without distractions.

Free templates

The Internet is full of freelancers and web designers; on their sites you can also find free templates for your store in all different designs and colors.

Pros: minimal costs;
Minuses: template design, which can already be used by many stores, lack of support and additional services (payment with electronic wallets, export of goods, multilingualism, etc.)

Order a website from knowledgeable people

The web design and development environment is very popular right now. You can look through the company's portfolio and choose the one that can bring your ideas to life.

Pros: individual design to suit your tastes, support, a huge number of additional useful services;
Minuses: additional opening costs.

Budget

On average, the price of a website will cost you 25-30 thousand rubles. Both more budget solutions (but with minimal functionality) and those requiring high costs are possible.

When our website is almost ready, it's time to think about suppliers.

Suppliers (Step 2)

Suppliers are needed not only by online stores that are just starting out, but also by those that are already operating. Since most of your profit will depend on supplies, you need to approach this issue very carefully.

Suppliers can be divided into 2 parts:

Dropshipping suppliers

Literally translated, this is the delivery of goods directly from the supplier to the buyer. The store in this case makes a profit from the difference between the wholesale price (set by the supplier) and the retail price (at which the product is sold in your store, not taking into account overhead costs).

This option is best suited for a start-up business, as it does not require large investments and reduces the risk to “no”. The store does not buy the goods and transfers funds to the company only after the client transfers funds for the goods.

Examples of similar suppliers:

• AliExpress.com;
• DX.com;
• BuySKU.com;
• LightInTheBox.com;

Wholesale supply

This option is most suitable for an established business.

You purchase goods from a company from a warehouse with prepayment or deferred payment in large quantities.

Where to find suppliers

You can simply find them in a search engine with the request “wholesale supplies” or “find a supplier.” You can also meet them at various fairs/exhibitions/forums, find them on competitors’ websites or in print publications. The choice is very large.

Below are the sites where it will be most convenient for you to find them:

postavshhiki.ru- free website with existing companies and their ratings;

insalescomerando.ru- automated online trading service, paid tariffs are available;

optomarket.su- Chinese wholesale purchasing site.

Budget

Dropshipping delivery is very versatile. It all depends on what price you order the product for and what price you sell it for. On average, the price of socks will be from 10 to 37 rubles. As for wholesale delivery, usually the minimum order costs approximately 15,000 rubles.

Target Audience and Advertising (Step 3)

Whatever you say, socks with bright prints and unusual designs are now very popular, especially among people aged 14 to 26. Most often, the buyers are girls. This is what you need to count on when promoting your product.

Promotion options are different: contextual advertising, social networks, product platforms (for example, Yandex.Market), e-mail newsletter. If you have ordered a website, then most likely your products will already be integrated into trading platforms, which will make your life much easier :) You can do this yourself, and as your business expands, hire a professional.

Markup (Step 4)

What markup to put on the product is up to you to decide. We recommend carefully studying your competitors' websites and choosing the best option. First, you need to choose the middle ground that will bring you profit and at the same time lure visitors to you. Arrange discounts and sales.

Now let's move on to the question of the profitability of this niche. To summarize, on average, starting a business with an individual website and dropshipping purchases will cost you about 30,000 rubles. But you can vary this budget in a way that is more convenient for you.

Profitability

We will perform the calculation using the site as an example: vse-noski.ru
We go to the site: keys.so and enter the URL of the desired site.

Search traffic is approximately 15 people,
Traffic from context 26 people,
15+26 * 31 = 1271 people visit the site per month.

It is impossible to determine the conversion of this site, so we will take approximately 3%. (This is a relatively good and normal conversion for an online store)

1271*0.3 = 381 purchases per month. Let’s take the average bill (using the analysis method) as 75 rubles. Purchase price for similar socks: RUB 10.70. Markup 64.3%.

Now let's put the data together:
75*381 = 28575 rub. – income per month
28575 - 10.70*381 = 24498 rub. - net profit.

According to approximate calculations, the net profit will be 24,498 rubles per month.
Considering that we are opening a business with an initial budget of 30,000 rubles, it will pay for itself in about 37 days.

Business model

Manufacturer

You can find your buyer at various auctions, online fairs, and in stores. Also, you can create your own website or at least a page on social networks/magazine. Be responsible when it comes to its design because... it will be your face.

Get a portfolio and distribute it on thematic forums and networks with a link to your contacts.

Communicate in a friendly manner, try to describe in detail and clearly the terms of your product, payment and delivery.

Another good option is to work with coupon sites. In this case, everything is simple: they supply you with clients, and you give a small percentage of the sales.

At the beginning of your journey, you can use message boards, both paid and free. The main thing is to monitor the ad in a timely manner, update it and compose a competent text.

Mediator

How to sell a product if you are an intermediary?

Mediator- This is a person who helps conduct a transaction between the manufacturer and the client.

The first thing (given that you have already found clients and a supplier by following the instructions above) is to agree with one of the parties that you will receive some compensation for your services.

Next, you need to conclude an agreement: agency or commission. In the first case, the client transfers the funds directly to the supplier, and in the second - to your account. The commission agreement is signed by people from different countries. You enter into an agreement with the person whose interests you represent.

The procedure is as follows:

• The buyer gives you his details;
• You transfer the buyer's details to the supplier;
• The supplier issues an invoice to the buyer using these details;
• The invoice is sent to you;
• You transfer the invoice to the buyer;
• The buyer transfers money through this account to pay for the goods, the supplier transfers the goods.

Dropshipping

How to sell if you are a dropshipping supplier?

The sales preparation scheme remains the same, only the essence of providing the goods changes. In dropshipping, you work directly with the client.

You need to attract a potential buyer to your online store, accept his order and send it to the supplier.
There are 2 options for sales schemes:

You transfer the order and the buyer's contact information to the supplier without payment, he delivers the goods, receives payment for it (at your price) and transfers a commission (This is the difference between your price and the supplier's price).

The client pays a 100% advance payment to you, you transfer the wholesale cost to the supplier, and keep a portion for yourself. This is your income. The supplier delivers the goods to the client.

Find staff

In the age of the Internet, finding the personnel you may need is not difficult. At first, you can handle the main work yourself, but then you will need staff. What personnel may be required:

Courier or employee at the points of delivery of goods;

Sales agent;

Content manager (copywriter, SMM).

Employees can be either full-time (if there is an office/warehouse) or remote, it all depends on your needs.

Websites that will help you find personnel:

• hh.ru
• worka.yandex.ru

To search for outsource workers:

• fl.ru
• kwork.ru

The very first and most important thing to remember is that delivery is most often valued for speed and accuracy. Therefore, at first you should not make delivery throughout the city. Limit yourself only to the nearest areas - and then expand the places where you pick up goods and your delivery.

Time is money, so calculate the number of couriers and the time required for delivery. In 12 hours, a client, in large cities, must have time to make 7-8 orders. Therefore, you need to consider the route “logistically” and come up with it in advance.

In addition to couriers, you can use other delivery methods: Russian Post, pickup, paid courier services.

Payment acceptance services

People still like to pay with cash, but most use online payments, so your site should have the most popular payment methods available. For example, payment by card. You will need to enter into an agreement with the acquiring bank. The leaders in the Internet acquiring market are: Sberbank of Russia, Alfa-Bank, Russian Standard Bank and VTB 24.

To draw up an agreement, you need to leave an application on the website of the selected bank. His employee will contact you and help you collect the necessary documents. Please note that the payment supports the most popular cards: Visa and Mastercard. It is also worth adding payment by electronic wallets and payment aggregators.

Payment aggregators are services that combine a variety of payment methods. By activating this service on your website, you receive a whole package of the most common methods of accepting payments in the store. First of all, convenience for the client.

Major competitors in the industry

Although the niche is highly specialized, there are still competitors in it. Let's look at 3 main popular online stores.

Nice website, high visibility and traffic, active social media. networks. It is worth paying attention to how they communicate with clients and leading by example.

Simple site. Great coverage. Many free delivery options, even by courier. Large selection of products + constant expansion of the range.

The question of how to open an online sock store should now become a little more clear. If you have any questions, we will be happy to answer them in the comments.

Men, who among you at least once in your life has not rushed around your apartment in the morning looking for a pair of clean socks? Ladies, how many of you have never been nervous about their constant “mysterious” disappearance?

Moscow student Evgeny Novikov claims he has found relief from these worries. He came up with the idea of ​​selling socks not in pairs, but in whole boxes.

Money in a sock

It all started a few years ago, when Evgeniy and a friend decided to wholesale socks among students. The idea was borrowed from the West. There is a place where you can, just like a newspaper, subscribe to socks and receive them by mail. Each envelope contains three pairs. Our students didn’t dare contact the post office, so the idea had to be transformed. They created a website where they offered to order identical socks not in pairs, but in boxes. Lost one after washing - no problem, get the next one. Profitable and without nerves. We counted on our own, but it turned out that orders came from all over Moscow: the site ended up in one of the search engines.

At the first stage, young businessmen worked, as they say, “on wheels.” We received the order and purchased the necessary goods on the same day. We also delivered socks to clients ourselves. Couriers needed money, and the business was created without start-up capital.

Demand for black, domestic

But it was impossible to do further without investments. Evgeniy, after graduating from university, found a job. He invested the money he started earning in his own company: he organized a mini-warehouse and a warehouse (all in one apartment), hired his first employees. Social networks did good advertising for the new business. It is through them that future clients of the company still learn about this unusual service. Other types of advertising, according to the businessman himself, did not work. Although they handed out leaflets near the metro, and established relationships with corporate clients.

Today, 70% of the company's customers are middle-income women. And this is quite understandable. Men lose socks, tear them, and women are looking for a way out of the situation: she bought a box with 30 pairs and provided her husband with them for a year. By the way, Evgeniy tests socks himself: he buys several pairs, wears them for a while, and then, based on the results, decides on a supplier. He prefers to work directly with factories - both well-known and not. And not with Chinese, but with domestic ones. He says that he went to the Celestial Empire and took a closer look. Socks, like everything else, are, of course, cheaper there, but customers don’t like Chinese stuff.

Currently, socks are delivered by a courier service. The main clients are in Moscow, the Moscow region, and St. Petersburg. The best selling color is black. Sometimes people of color ask too. Attempts to also sell women's socks and T-shirts were unsuccessful. So for now the range is expanding exclusively due to the colors and material of socks for the stronger sex.

Evgeny Novikov gives some advice to those who want. First of all, be confident in your project to the last: even if you are unlucky, it doesn’t matter, you learn from mistakes. Secondly, listen to other people's opinions, but always have your own point of view. Many people will say, “This won’t work,” and they will be wrong.

By 2002, he was bored with working in the press, and he switched to advertising - for two years he worked as a marketing manager for the Ekaterinburg Tinkoff restaurant, then he was appointed director of the advertising department of the entire restaurant chain and transferred to an office in St. Petersburg. Before opening his own business, he managed to work as a marketer in three more places - on the Geometria.ru website, at the St. Petersburg travel company Versa and the Novaya Pharmacy chain.

But Tonkov always dreamed of his own business. “I’m a creative person, so I was looking for an idea at the intersection of business and creativity,” he says. “When I found out that the production of socks is quite affordable in terms of investment and management, I began to look into it further.”

I wanted to start small - place orders for the production of socks at existing production facilities in Russia. But it turned out differently. In the summer of 2015, Tonkov found an advertisement on Avito for the sale of the Noskof factory in the village of Razbegaevo, Leningrad Region. “I immediately went to see this enterprise,” says Tonkov. — They made black, gray and white socks according to GOST: not very wearable, but not falling apart after the first wash. It was something we could work with."

Factory with an area of ​​350 sq. m with a warehouse were sold for 10 million rubles. The previous owners had no time to deal with it: their main business was the production of metal structures. In addition, the business brought in almost no money. According to SPARK-Interfax, in 2014 the company’s revenue was less than 1.5 million rubles.

Tonkov did not have 10 million rubles, so he started looking for a financial partner. Sergey Zhivotov, his acquaintance from one of his past projects (he was a co-owner of Geometria.ru), agreed to become an investor. “I told him how, when and what we could come to,” Tonkov recalls. - Naturally, these were all assumptions. The business itself was still incomprehensible to us. But Zhivotov agreed.”

The partners acquired the company in early September 2015. The only condition of the Noskof seller was to leave all the workers who live in Razbegaevo at the factory. This was to Tonkov’s advantage: he did not need to look for personnel for production.

It took about two months and 2-3 million rubles to modernize the enterprise, search for yarn and determine knitting parameters. Tonkov's personal funds. From the very beginning it was clear that there was no point in selling cheap socks, which means they must be of high quality and contain at least 80% cotton. It was not possible to find such yarn from domestic manufacturers. “Russian manufacturers make only synthetic and blended yarn, which contains 50% cotton or less,” says Tonkov. “The fibers of this yarn are short, so there are a lot of tears when worn.”

In October 2015, Tonkov entered into an agreement with the companies Targen and Rivage, which distribute Turkish yarn, and began preparing the first collection. At the same time, he independently developed a website and set up online advertising. “I didn’t come up with the name St.Friday Socks right away,” says Tonkov. — At first I complained to friends that all possible words on the Russian and foreign markets were already taken. But once at a friend’s birthday they told me: the company is from St. Petersburg, call it Saint Socks. And then I remembered that Friday when the idea came and everything came together in St. Friday Socks.”

The first collection consisted of 80 models: 15-20 prints in different colors. The main difference from competitors was the aggressive color combinations: white and red, black and orange. “We opened urgently at the request of my friends. Everyone wanted gifts for the New Year,” Tonkov laughs. The first customers, who bought about 2 thousand pairs, came mainly through Facebook.

City fairs have become an additional channel for promoting St.Friday Socks. “The markets became free focus groups for us. I stood behind the counter and asked people everything. I wanted to see my clients and understand why they buy bright socks,” says Tonkov. — The most important conclusion I made is that we are on the right path. Most clients have only recently switched to designer socks. That is, demand is just beginning to form.”

Stylish detail

According to the Fashion Consulting Group, imports of hosiery in Russia in 2016 decreased by almost 30% compared to 2015, and domestic production grew by 7%. Most socks are sold in the budget segment (from 50 to 200 rubles per pair). St.Friday Socks belong to the middle segment; their retail price averages 300-400 rubles. for a couple.

“Socks, an intimate part of the wardrobe, have become an accent element of the image in the wake of the main fashion trend - individualization and freedom to choose your own image,” says Anna Lebsak-Kleymans, CEO of Fashion Consulting Group. — In Europe and the USA, bright socks have already moved from the conceptual category to the category of mass-market products. The first to master it many years ago were, for example, the Swedish Happy Socks and the American Soxfords.”

Russia, as usual, lags behind, but now the market for unusual socks in the country is beginning to grow. Most of the large domestic manufacturers are focused on the traditional mass market and therefore continue to produce the usual monochrome assortment, which is in guaranteed demand. The main players in the bright socks segment were the startups St.Friday Socks, Happy Socks, Funny Socks, Sammy Icon, Zaporozhets, as well as international lingerie and hosiery brands (Calzedonia, Falke, etc.) and international chains (H&M, Zara, Uniqlo, Mango, etc.), which also included colored socks in their range.

Photo: Askhat Bardynov for RBC

Socks between books

When the New Year's rush subsided, Tonkov began to negotiate the sale of St.Friday Socks with grocery retailers (Azbuka Vkusa, Bakhetle, Metro Cash & Carry, etc.), fashion stores (TSUM, Podium Market, Streat Beat, “Econika”, etc.) and even bookstores, which are actively increasing sales of souvenirs (“Read-city”, Moscow House of Books, “Bukvoed”, etc.). But no one wanted to sell expensive socks. “I didn’t expect that we would face such a failure,” Tonkov recalls. “Everyone said: “We’ll keep an eye on you.”

We observed for six months. All this time, Tonkov was content only with retail sales on the website and single wholesale orders. With average revenue of 500-600 thousand rubles. the business was making losses per month. “I spent my own savings on advertising and employee salaries, plus my mother helped. That’s how we survived,” says Tonkov.

In addition, for some reason the aspiring entrepreneur opened an office in St. Petersburg. “We sat in this office for probably only six months, after which I realized that this was a wrong move,” Tonkov admits. — The sales department still sits at the factory, assembly also takes place at the factory. We closed the office because we were throwing 80 thousand rubles down the drain. per month".

Sergey Tonkov (Photo: Askhat Bardynov for RBC)

In the spring of 2016, he was finally contacted by one of the employees of the St. Petersburg book chain Bookvoed, to whom St.Friday Socks had offered cooperation back in the winter. She said that Bookvoed is ready to place racks of designer socks in the souvenir department. In May, Tonkov made the first delivery of 700 pairs, and St. Friday Socks appeared in several stores in the chain. Soon, on the eve of the World Hockey Championship, socks with hockey symbols were purchased by ABC of Taste.

In the spring of 2016, the entrepreneur released his first lookbook - a catalog of St.Friday Socks photographs. For the shooting, Tonkov invited stylists working with fashion magazines and department stores, and freelance photographers. In total, the catalog cost him 200 thousand rubles. However, it did not bring any new clients.

Then Tonkov decided to try his luck a second time; he decided to release a second lookbook - a series of photographs of the new collection, released in collaboration with famous Moscow designers. “The famous buyer Gosha Rostovshchikov, who at that time collaborated with Podium Market, helped me a lot,” says Tonkov. “He introduced me to designers Alexander Arutyunov, Oleg Ovsiev and Konstantin Gaidai and convinced them to release a joint collection.” Gradually, with the help of his acquaintances, Tonkov assembled a team of six fashion designers, under whose names six limited collections were released.

Thanks to the fact that some designers carried out the shooting themselves and sent finished photographs to the entrepreneur, the new lookbook cost only 20 thousand rubles. Tonkov paid the designers royalties based on sales. In the fall of 2016, he spent about 200 thousand rubles on royalties to all designers. “I tried to squeeze every possible PR opportunity out of the collaboration,” he says. “And I succeeded: the entire fashion elite drew attention to our socks.”

Retailers Podium Market, Yunost, Good Local, Expedition, Capsula, Moscow Socks Club, Trends Brands have been added to St.Friday Socks clients. Following them, the largest online clothing hypermarket Wildberries came with an order. In addition, the company began to receive requests for the production of socks under the chain’s trademarks. For example, Tonkov made several sets of socks under the Testosteron brand for the Red Cube gift shops. True, most retailers took the goods for sale and did not pay immediately, but only after someone bought the socks. “Back then we supplied a lot for sale simply because we wanted to be present on store shelves,” says Tonkov.

According to SPARK-Interfax, the total revenue of the legal entities of the project, LLC Noskof and LLC Friday, for the entire 2016 amounted to 15.5 million rubles, profit - 236 thousand rubles. 70% of all funds earned came from wholesale sales, the rest came from the online store. “It got to the point that business stopped eating up my personal funds and I set myself a salary,” Tonkov rejoices. “But there was practically no profit due to the fact that we spent a lot on advertising and packaging testing.” Thematic sets of socks from St.Friday Socks are now sold in cardboard and even wooden boxes - this increases the manufacturer’s costs, but gives the product a premium look and allows it to be positioned as a gift.

Photo: Askhat Bardynov for RBC

In fact, designer socks are a very marginal product. The cost of a pair of St.Friday Socks is 40 rubles. (and ordinary black socks can be made for 3 rubles) their price on the store shelf reaches 400 rubles, but the retailer takes most of the margin. In September 2017, the company received 2 million rubles. revenue and about 200 thousand rubles. arrived.

The problem was also that the retailer was in no hurry to pay for the goods taken for sale. “For several months they simply deceived us, showing statistics on sales of 50-100 pairs per month. In fact, they sold many times more products, but did not transfer the funds to us,” says Tonkov. — For debts up to 30 thousand rubles. We didn’t even go to court.” Large debtors had to go to court: the entrepreneur won several cases, some are still being considered by the courts. For example, according to Tonkov, Podium Market paid regularly at first, but stopped in the spring of 2017. “We submitted an application to terminate the contract in April, and since then we have not been able to receive either goods or money,” Sergei sighs. The total debt of Podium Market to St.Friday Socks amounted to more than 700 thousand rubles. However, according to Vedomosti estimates, in total in 2017, 64 claims from counterparties were filed against Podium Market for a total amount of more than 1 billion rubles. Now the network, and no one knows when it will pay the suppliers. After this incident, Tonkov stopped working with retailers on sales terms and began demanding prepayment.

Tonkov associates the development of the project with supplies abroad. “We have already received more than a hundred requests from all over the world from people wanting to buy our socks,” he says. Exporting is difficult: the goods are inexpensive, and the cost of delivery eats up a significant part of the margin. However, St.Friday Socks are already sold in several offline stores in the USA, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Greece and Kazakhstan.

View from the outside

“We weren’t afraid to combine socks and books”

Olga Rogozina, head of the system communications department of the Bukvoed book chain

“We liked St.Friday Socks products right away. It was quite suitable for our new product group “products for self-expression”. It includes all products that allow a person to express his personal aesthetic tastes: T-shirts or bags with book and literary themes, quotes; caps, notepads, mugs. Such subcultural manifestations seem very promising to us. We are optimistic about the development of this product group and assume that it will occupy more than 5% of the company's total turnover. We were not afraid to combine socks and books, because we are used to surprising our customers and being ironic.

Sergey not only offered us his product, but also listened to our recommendations and changed the packaging design. The socks are popular, with sales peaking during the Christmas gift season. We are currently looking for opportunities to expand both the St.Friday Socks line and the entire “products for self-expression” trading group.

“Producing socks is one of the simplest”

Mikhail Labakhua, director of brand development "Zaporozhets"

“For the last few years, people have not been shy about wearing colored socks. Previously, it was a shame: people thought it was something indecent. Now they believe that such products can at least be given as a gift. Due to the increased interest in colored socks, new players have appeared. Since the production of socks is one of the most simple and quite developed in our country, the barrier to entry into the market is low. You can place orders at existing production facilities, or launch your own factory. The development of this segment can be judged by the appearance of racks with colored socks in shopping centers. Now I can say with confidence that we have our own strong players in this segment. Their advantage over Western brands is in price and speed of delivery.”