Taking what is inherently a fairly personal, bricks and mortar process online is not an easy task. However, InStitchu is attempting to bring tailored suits to the masses for an affordable amount.

Set up in Australia, the model has now been brought half way across the world by young entrepreneur Elliot Suiter.

The InStitchu service provides a way for customers to create a made-to-measure and bespoke suit designs, which are then outsourced for production. With offerings including the blue tuxedo worn by Hollywood’s Ryan Gosling to the premiere of Drive and a double-breasted suit inspired by Christian Bale’s American Psycho character, customers can select fabric, cut and style.

Having only meagre amounts of capital to get started, Suiter and his partner set about building up some early traction and quickly turned to social media.

Utilising an order that English rugby player Danny Cipriani had made in Sydney while playing in Australia, Suiter managed to use the sports star as a platform to get people talking about InStitchu.

Suiter sees the business very much as technology-enabled, spanning the divide between online and offline. With users making orders online, they will also logically be in proximity to social media platforms. Using a power base of people they know, Suiter and his British InStitchu offering are building up a platform of trusted users who will then act as the company’s strongest ambassadors through trusted referrals.

The customer service offering is something that Suiter is focused firmly on, from the personal fitting to start with, right though to the after-care service which allows clients to have alterations done free of charge.

InStitchu’s business model works well for an early-stage company, with cash coming in before it has to be paid out to satisfy an order. This flow of capital is allowing Suiter to invest in growth drivers such as wedding fairs and social media advertising.

The company hopes to soon take up office space in London, where the capital will serve as a base to create regional offerings. To find out more, we invited Suiter to share his experiences of growing an online business.