This story has a very good title. It's not really about technology. But it's cute and about a profitable business on Internet. Sounds incredible in 2002? Read on.
Blacksocks.com's formula is simple: It sends "sockscribers" regular shipments of the boring necessity -- and makes money doing it.
Everybody talks about focus, but few companies practice it with as much zeal as Blacksocks, an e-commerce outfit based in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Blacksocks sells black socks. That's it. Nothing else. Don't ask for red socks or green socks. There aren't any in its inventory -- though, in a major strategic departure, the Web site plans to launch a line of white socks in August. "We're working a small niche," acknowledges co-founder Samy Liechti, 33. But he insists: "The potential is huge."
He just may be right. Think about it. Lots of guys wear business suits. And almost every guy in a suit wears socks -- usually black ones. But buying socks is boring and time consuming. Why not sell black socks by subscription? That was Liechti's thinking back in 1994. Every few months, customers, or "sockscribers," would get a fresh shipment of nice, black, Italian-made cotton socks.
Liechti, whose career so far has included a stint at the Zurich office of ad agency Leo Burnett, claims he got the idea while attending a Japanese tea ceremony with clients. He removed his shoes and, to his embarrassment, realized his socks didn't match. Worse, one of his big toes was poking out. Bingo: business plan.
To be sure, lots of young would-be entrepreneurs were having similar e-commerce brainstorms in the '90s, and most of them now feel lucky if they got their old corporate jobs back. But Blacksocks.com, which went online in July, 1999, is still alive and kicking, having grown to hit its 2001 sales target of 1 million Swiss francs, or $685,000.
Here is the -- very brief -- sales pitch on the Blacksocks.com site.
Blacksocks is the inventor of the sockscription. Every sockscriber receives on a regular basis three pairs of beautiful black socks by mail. You can choose between: black mid-calf socks and knee socks. For those who work in with we also offer white socks called Blacksocks HEALTH. You can also choose the shipping rhythm: 3, 4 or 6 shipments of 3 pairs of socks a year starting at 69 euros.- / CHF 98.- Gift subscriptions also available, of course. Order a "sockscription" and you'll never worry about socks again. Do you want to risk this step into a worry-free life?
Source: Jack Ewing, BusinessWeekOnline, July 24, 2002
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