Online fashion seller ModCloth finds social commerce strategy a good fit
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Richard Brown leads a brainstorming session with team members at ModCloth. -
Jason Krivanek, left, of Scott and Nick Kizina of Polish Hill work on packaging and shipping orders for ModCloth at the company's distribution center on the South Side.
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On a recent Wednesday, a collection of young writers gathers on couches in the corner of an office in the Strip District. It's a meeting that brings them together every morning at 10:30.
A daschund dozes off on one writer's lap as 31-year-old blogger Richard Brown, a lover of all things "Star Trek" and Western wear, leads the discussion.
Wearing a black and teal bolo, he holds up clothes, jewelry and other knickknacks as if he's playing show and tell. His colleagues throw out catchy names for the items to post on the company's website.
"Grape Expectations" for a "stylishly novel" purple dress, "Strike a Rose" for a floral top and "Truffle Shuffle" for a pair of mushroom salt and pepper shakers.
It's another brainstorming session for one of the fastest growing fashion start-ups in the region -- ModCloth.
This online retailer, begun in 2002 by high school sweethearts Eric and Susan Gregg Koger, has become something of a Cinderella story.
It started the summer before Eric and Susan, living in Florida at the time, entered college at Carnegie Mellon University. Susan, now 25, who loved "thrifting," often bought more clothes than she could wear, so Eric, now 26, suggested selling the excess online. After graduating from CMU in 2006, the young couple decided to expand their small, dorm-room business into a full-time enterprise, offering women all over the world vintage-inspired clothing from independent designers.
Blossoming into a successful business -- with an office in the Strip District and distribution center on the South Side near Station Square -- ModCloth became profitable in 2009 and now employs more than 150 people.
Last year, Mr. Koger told Bloomberg Businessweek that ModCloth earned around $1 million a month in sales and more than 1.25 million people visit the website monthly.
The Kogers, now married and living in Friendship, announced plans to again expand their operations after raising $19.8 million in funding from Accel Partners. The company moved its new headquarters to San Francisco in May and opened a supply chain operation in Los Angeles.
First Published August 4, 2010 12:00 am
