Wolf & Badger powered ahead in 2020, as international sales surged

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jan 19, 2021

​Multichannel retailer Wolf & badger saw a strong rise in global sales last year, despite the closure of its King’s Cross flagship in London and its New York City location during lockdowns.

The company, which sells independent brands, saw an online sales rise of 92% during the year and said overall annual revenue growth was 79.1%.

In its 10th anniversary year, the company said it sold 253,902 items online and saw 14.7m visitors to the e-tail platform, 109,779 of them being completely new customers.

The categories that did well in 2020 reflected the wider industry and the Covid crisis as consumers bought lingerie and nightwear (up 625% compared to 2019) and blankets and throws (with 556% higher revenue). It added that 81 of the designers stocked on Wolf & Badger added face coverings to their offer, most of them created using material offcuts. Nearly 10,000 face masks were sold during 2020.

Active brands using Wolf & Badger reached a record high in the year, increasing by 93.6% from 564 in December 2019 to 1,092 by last month. New brands joining the platform came from 56 different countries, including Mexico, Norway, Ecuador, Ghana and Lebanon, as many labels faced disruption to their usual sales channels.

The increased global focus that happened quite quickly during 2020 also saw the company launching further internationalisation capabilities in May. This included multi-currency and global sizing support. It has also worked hard to make its operations smooth pre- and post-Brexit and through its partnership with DHL, the business now also provides duty and tax-inclusive shipping for all customers in the UK, EU, Australia, US & Canada regardless of where in the world each supplier is based.

The company said this has boosted its international ops and helped drive US sales 144% higher, Australian sales up 1,048% and Canadian sales up 414%, vs 2019. Overall, international customers accounted for 46% of sales in 2020.