In an awesome grassroots retailer success story, indie e-tailer ModCloth recently announced plans to expand its commerce and operations, after raising an impressive $19.8 million in funding from Accel Partners.
The company, which was founded in 2002 by Susan Gregg Koger and Eric Koger when they were teenagers attending Carnegie Mellon University, began as an online vintage store and expanded to include affordable vintage-inspired wares four years later. The site was one of the first to capitalize on social media--MySpace, Flickr, Polyvore, and Twitter in particular--for its online marketing campaigns, a strategy that's only now considered common practice among e-tailers. According to WWD plans for the site's development include a wider product distribution as well as a proprietary social e-commerce platform.
It's an encouraging thing to see retail growth during these financially-strained times, especially when it comes to the smaller indie labels. We just hope that with the influx of big money, the label's site doesn't lose the personal vibe that's made it so unique.
