Sockwell jumped into digital sales with both feet-and it paid off

As the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic began to materialize, Sockwell’s leadership team understood the challenges that lay ahead for their business. Brick-and-mortar retailers had represented a major sales channel for the business and, as stores closed and people stayed home, this small US-based manufacturer saw orders drop rapidly. As temporary store closures looked to become permanent, the Sockwell team knew that they would be more reliant on their fledgling online business than they ever could have predicted.

But along with the challenge of shifting from offline to online, there was also a huge opportunity for growth with a new consumer segment. As 2020 saw many healthcare workers in the US and worldwide putting in extra shifts to deal with the pandemic and fitness fans turning to running in the absence of gyms, Sockwell recognized greater potential demand for their product. As a manufacturer of scientifically designed compression socks that help people stay on their feet and feel better after long days, Sockwell turned to Quantcast to take advantage of the market opportunity by identifying new audiences and reaching them online.

Leveraging Quantcast’s unique real-time data drawn from more than 100M online destinations, Sockwell was able to navigate the complex and fast-changing world of online consumer behavior to identify ways to reach younger consumers and identify yet-untapped opportunities. Key to this was repositioning compression socks in people’s minds, turning them from a drab medical necessity into a colorful and desirable product that can help support a wide variety of active lifestyles.

Quantcast tapped into two unique new audience groups: medical professionals and pregnant women. For the first audience group, by reaching out to healthcare workers during Nurses Week 2021 and launching an “Honor Our Heroes” campaign, the company achieved 4x gross revenues compared to the same period in 2020. Sockwell also identified pregnant women as an entirely new and underserved US audience and reached them with benefits messaging that aligned with their unique needs and mindset. By discovering and nurturing these audiences, Quantcast drove qualified consumers to their site at only $3 per lead, translating to a weekly online sales increase of 75% with a 3.5x return on ad spend (ROAS). The company is consistently engaging a new, younger 30-35 year old age group and is on track to double online sales this year.