Nasty Gal is an eBay page that sells vintage women’s clothing.  It was started in 2006 by a 22-year-old community college dropout, Sophia Amoruso.  Nasty Gal gets its name after the 1975 album by Betty Davis. In 2012, Nasty Gal sold almost $100 million in clothing and accessories.  Nasty Gal has more than 500,000 Facebook followers and 600,000 Instagram followers.

When Sophia Amoruso started, she bought an $8.00 Chanel jacket at Salvation Army and sold it for $1,000 on eBay.  She was able to find Yves Saint Laurent clothing online by searching for misspellings of the name anticipating that individuals who didn’t know how to spell the name, probably didn’t realize the value of the clothing.  Initially, she styled, photographed, captioned, and shipped each item herself.  She created a Myspace page first and then began to reach out to folks who were fans of certain music and fashion magazines.  As her business grew, she enlisted friends to help her model and photograph her products.  She quickly moved from her aunt’s cottage to a 7,500 square foot warehouse in Emeryville, California.

Sophia began on eBay and realized that it was no longer a great platform for her business.  Competitors started accusing her of breaking the site’s rules by linking her eBay page to her Myspace page. She began ShopNastyGal.com and recruited friends to help her build her website.  She used real models that were approachable and fired models who customers said looked too skinny or annoying.

Nasty Gal has a constant conversation with its customers.  25% of Nasty Gal’s customers visit the site daily for at least six minutes and the top 10% return to the website more than 100 times a month.  Nasty Gal fans comment on every Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and Pinterest post the company makes.

The company has had some challenges.  Initially, the domain name of NastyGal.com belonged to a pornography site and came up frequently when customers searched for the retailer.  Also, as Sophia Amoruso grew, she found some brands unwilling to work with her.  Eventually, Amoruso forged a relationship with shoemaker Jeffrey Campbell, who quickly became one of the most popular brands on the Nasty Gal site.

In 2012, Nasty Gal partnered with Index ventures and gave them a slice of equity for $9 million.  The company was growing so quickly that it was on track to quadruple its sales by the end of the year.  The company raised an additional $40 million from Index and used it to build a 500,000 square foot fulfillment center in Kentucky.

Still, Sophia Amoruso knows that now is not the time to rest on her laurels.  Critics claim that her business model is just a fad.  Her personal motto is, “Only the paranoid survive.”

Discussion Question:

If you wanted to start an eBay business, what tips could you use from Ms. Amaruso’s Nasty Gal?

 

SOURCE: Nicole Perlroth, New York Times, March 24, 2013