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A social-first apparel seller grew from marketplace listings into a $141M online fashion retailer.
Start with the product conversations already happening in your community, then build a storefront that can take orders while you sleep.
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Tori Gerbig started selling on eBay with her husband in 2009 to ease pressure from student loans, a mortgage, and car payments. They bought wholesale items that were trending online and resold them at retail. A Facebook group became a stronger selling channel, and the couple later launched Pink Lily’s ecommerce site to capture orders beyond group posting hours. Gerbig left her insurance job in April 2014; her husband left his corporate role that July. The online store exceeded $100,000 in sales in its fourth month. Their first-year target had been $50,000, but revenue topped $4 million. Pink Lily rose from $4.1 million in 2014 to more than $12 million in 2015, then reported over $141 million in 2021 revenue. Gerbig describes the early operation as hands-on: posting products, invoicing through PayPal, packing orders, and even meeting buyers during lunch breaks.
For a fashion store like Pink Lily, the fastest first customers are usually gathered where shoppers already discuss outfits and discover trends.
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Data credibility: CNBC Make It reports the company figures in a founder profile and quotes Tori Gerbig. Revenue is founder-reported in the interview and not independently audited there; profit, margin, and acquisition costs are not provided.
For Pink Lily, the first dollar came from reselling wholesale goods on eBay, not from a sophisticated ecommerce stack. The couple tested items ranging from golf clubs to Halloween masks, choosing products they could source wholesale and sell at retail.
Pink Lily’s early growth loop connected product discovery, social proof, and availability. A product that attracted attention could be posted to the Facebook group, generate orders, and reveal which styles deserved more inventory.
An apparel store can feel stalled when social posts get attention but orders remain inconsistent, or when inventory consumes cash before demand is clear.
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