vente-privee.com: 10 years of success from the leader of online

years
vente-privee.com: 10 years of success from the leader of online sales events.
CONTENTS
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On the edge of innovation
A glamorous media platform
A privileged relationship with members
Unique savoir-faire
A European tour de force
A portrait of Jacques-Antoine Granjon
Prizes and trophies galore
Out of the ordinaire VP facts
3
On the edge of innovation
Favourite partner
for over 1,200 brands
Until the end of the 1990s, brands sold off excess stock via endof-line distributors. vente-privee.com offered them an entirely
new concept which combined exclusivity with a time-limited
event. Every day, the site sells products and services at unbeatable
prices on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. Everything is done to protect
the brand’s image: a limited number of sales per year (2-3 per brand), a
very short shopping time frame (3-5 days on average) and member-only
access.
vente-privee.com has leveraged this image-enhancing business model
to become a favourite partner for over 1,200 brands in a variety of
product sectors: prêt-à-porter, fashion accessories, homeware, toys,
sports equipment, electronics, fine food, wine, theatre tickets and holidays.
Steps to a sale extraordinaire
• THE INVITATION EMAIL: Two days before a sale, an invitation email
goes out to all members with a sneak-peek trailer of the brand’s offering.
The excitement builds…
• THE SALE: Lasting just 3-5 days, the sales begin at 6am GMT in the
week and 8am GMT at weekends.
of thousands of parcels directly to members’ homes - which can be
tracked via the ‘My delivery’ page.
• RETURNS: If members are not happy with an item, it can be returned
and a full refund will be issued.
• MEMBER RELATIONS SERVICE: A dedicated customer service team
is ready to answer member questions via the ‘Help & Contact’ section
of the website.
In 2010, vente-privee.com diversified its business model
to offer new services:
‘vente-privee rosedeal’ offers vente-privee.com’s 1,8 million daily unique
visitors in France the chance to purchase vouchers which are valid in
brands’ retail networks. For example, a £20 voucher bought on the
site allows members to spend £50 chez the brand. Just like the sales
events, these offers are time-limited.
New mobile applications for on-the-go website access. Following
the success of its iPhone application, vente-privee.com launched a
free Windows Phone 7 app in 2010.
• PAYMENT: Payment security is fundamental to vente-privee.com. It
is possible to make purchases by credit/debit card (Visa, Visa Electron,
Mastercard and American Express) and Paypal.
• DELIVERY: Once the sale doors close, the brand sends its products
to the vente-privee.com warehouses. Couriers then deliver the tens
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A glamorous media platform
vente-privee.com:
enhancing brand awareness and image
A TNS Sofres study1 conducted in June 2010 analysed the behaviour of
vente-privee.com clients:
• Appearing on vente-privee.com helps even well-known names
increase brand awareness. Awareness increases an average of
13 points among members and 24 points among members who have
made a purchase in the last six months.
Thanks to its large audience, vente-privee.com is also a powerful
platform for new product launches or special sales and helps brands
generate buzz and increase sales.
Unique offers on vente-privee.com include the first ever travel sale on
the UK website with Disneyland Paris, the first sale of New America in
Europe, the jean collection from iconic brand William Rast and sales of
theatre tickets including Sister Act, Holiday on Ice and Crazy Horse.
A powerful platform for new product
launches or special sales
Online study in France, conducted 8-24 March 2010 among a sample of 1,380 vente-privee.com
members and a sample of 500 non-member internet users. The groups are representative in terms
of gender, age, social demographic group and geographical location.
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A privileged relationship
with members
In just 10 years, one of consumers’
most-recommended brands
• 99% of members questioned have a good or very good
image of vente-privee.com.
• 97% are satisfied or very satisfied with their experience
according to a study by the ExactEtudes Institute in 20101.
A high-quality website driving vente-privee.com’s success. Userfriendly with no advertising, the site immerses members in the world
of its brands and offers products accessible ‘within a few clicks of the
mouse’.
A special relationship with members
Thanks to its marketing resources, vente-privee.com has an in-depth
understanding of its buyers who are on average 36 years old,
city-based and loyal (more than four purchases a year). Members are offered
exclusive services including gift vouchers (VPgift), a blog (Victoria
Scott-Richards), and a widget to stay connected without even opening
their browser (VPbubble).
Unequalled trust: vente-privee.com is honoured with
recognition
• No.1 ‘recommended’ brand in the ‘e-commerce’ category,
• No.5 ‘recommended’ brand overall (behind Google and iPhone, but
ahead of Chanel and Nespresso).
• France’s favourite fashion distributor
In a study conducted by OC&C strategy consultants measuring the
popularity of retail distributors, vente-privee.com emerged as the No.1
clothing distributor in France, ahead of Zara and Etam and the No.6
most popular retailer overall behind Ikea and Amazon (but ahead of
Leclerc and FNAC).
• ‘Customer Service of the Year 2011’
For the second year running, vente-privee.com was voted French
‘Customer Service of the Year’ in the ‘events selling’ and ‘distance
selling’ categories by BVA, the No.4 French marketing studies institute2.
ExactEtudes Institute Study in France, conducted June-July 2010 among a sample of 4,166
vente-privee.com members. Quotas applied to age, social demographic group, length of membership,
purchase and last purchase.
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2
Using a ‘mystery shopper’ methodology, this study tested, via email, phone and letter, commercial,
IT and support functions based on 17 criteria including: availability, quality of responses and degree
of personalisation.
• ‘vente-privee.com is consumers most recommended
e-brand’
According to the international brand equity study, BrandZ, conducted by
the Millward Brown Institute, the French rank vente-privee.com:
9
Unique savoir-faire
Member and brand satisfaction rely on the efficiency of the buyers,
member relations advisors, logistics teams, developers and product
managers, as well as on the expertise of the sale production
specialists.
Buyers
vente-privee.com provides a structure that allows brands to sell large
amounts of stock (60% of products are sold in the first hour).
Sales Coordinators:
a unique vente-privee.com role
The coordinators organise the different elements of a sale and are the
key contact point for brands. Above all, they ensure that the brand’s
image is respected and enhanced. The 140 sales coordinators offer
personalised business and marketing advice before, during and after
the sale, including a vente-privee.com performance report and help
understanding the results.
A unique image centre serving
brands
The Digital Factory by vente-privee.com:
No.1 European image production centre (3,800 m²) & top
modelling agency client
To create beautiful shop windows for brands, 260 team members carefully
prepare creative online events (the modular space divides into 60 photo
and film studios which produce 15,000 photos a day).
60 musical soundtracks are composed each month in the five sound
studios.
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Logistics
The six logistics platforms in France and three sub-contracted centres in
Spain, Germany and Italy prepare and dispatch 75,000 parcels a day. The
160,000m² of warehouse space (25 football pitches!) house 390
team members.
Member Relations Service: more than 100 team members
respond to member requests in five languages
vente-privee.com makes a point of not outsourcing its contact centres in
order to guarantee members a friendly, accessible and reactive service. The
in-house Member Relations Service is a unique selling point, ensuring
the high quality customer service, central to the company’s performance
and development (elected French ‘Customer Service of the Year
2011’ in the ‘events selling’ and ‘distance selling’ categories for the
second year running by BVA-Viséo Conseil1).
The Member Relations Service deals with more than 100,000 emails
and calls each month.
1
Human resources:
a start-up-spirit serving a shared ambition
A young (average age of 31 years) and multicultural (40 nationalities)
company, vente-privee.com has more than 1,322 team members in
Europe. At the heart of vente-privee.com lie the core values of innovation,
creativity, diversity and exchange.
Training and education are fundamental to the company which welcomes
many young people from the Seine St-Denis area and offers teams
specialised training to accompany their development and are an equal
opportunity employer.
Marketing: state-of-the-art techniques
The department is driven by three key aims: serving brands, remaining
close to members and offering a high-quality customer experience.
Teams guide brands in their strategy giving sale feedback in terms of
performance and member profiles.
BVA-Viséo Conseil study for French ‘Customer Service of the Year 2011’
Processes complètement
in-house
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A European tour de force
vente-privee.com: a trusted brand partner wherever it
sets up shop
• 2006-2007 - German and Spanish sites were launched (& will
celebrate their fifth anniversary in 2011).
Since September 2006, vente-privee.com has quickly developed in
Europe.
• 2008 - The Italian and UK sites were launched.
Open in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, UK, Austria and Belgium,
vente-privee.com will continue its European expansion in 2011.
• 2009 - Subsidiary offices were created in Barcelona (Spain), London
(UK) and Düsseldorf (Germany).
• 2010 - A subsidiary office was created in Milan (Italy). The vente-privee.com
Following the launch of national websites, subsidiary offices have been
created with in-country teams to help develop an even closer relationship
with local brands, whilst simultaneously sharing the international savoirfaire of the teams based in France.
website opened to Belgium and Austria.
• 2011 - Offices will be opened in Madrid. The website will open its sale
doors in The Netherlands.
vente-privee.com relies on logistics platforms in Germany (Germersheim),
Spain (Madrid) and Italy (Turin), which are key links in its European supply
chain. This strategy enables vente-privee.com to better serve local
markets, optimise operations and make economies of scale at all levels:
dispatch, reception and packaging.
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A portrait
of Jacques-Antoine Granjon
Jacques-Antoine Granjon, CEO and founder of vente-privee.com, was
born in Marseille on 9 August 1962.
After four years studying at the European Business School (EBS), full of
entrepreneurial spirit he founded Cofotex S.A. in 1985, with EBS friend
Julien Sorbac. The company specialised in selling excess stock.
In 1996, Jacques-Antoine Granjon bought and renovated the former
printing house of national French newspaper Le Monde in La Plaine
Saint-Denis (93), just outside of Paris, to set up the HQ of the Oredis
group.
Jacques-Antoine Granjon came up with a completely new and visionary
concept: a website dedicated to private sales of branded overstock.
In January 2001, Jacques-Antoine Granjon and his seven business
partners launched vente-privee.com. They put all their fashion and
homeware brand overstock expertise online with a customer-centred
concept that combined exclusivity and an ‘event’.
A visionary figure in European
e-commerce
©
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vente-privee.com, like its founder, is a company ‘with a conscience’:
sustainable growth, training, employability and a wider social role.
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Award-winning
savoir-faire
Prizes and trophies galore
2011
• Jacques-Antoine Granjon voted ‘Businessman of the Year 2010’ by
GQ readers (France).
• ‘Prix des prix du Sens du client’, from the French blog ‘Sens du
client’ as the company with the best customer service (France).
• Elected ‘Customer Service of the Year 2011’ in France in the ‘event based selling’ and ‘general distance selling’ categories by BVA-Viséo
Conseil (France).
• ‘Les Pierres d’Or 2010’, in the ‘Users’ category, Immoweek magazine,
which recognises the contribution of professionals and users in company
real estate (France).
• Elected ‘Customer Service of the Year 2010’ Awards’ in France in
‘event-based selling’ and ‘general distance selling’ categories by
BVA-Viséo Conseil (France).
2009
• Jacques-Antoine Granjon awarded ‘Chief Marketing Officer of the
Year’, by global management consulting firm Booz & Company.
2010
• ‘Editor’s Choice Award 2010’ from Sportswear Magazine in the
‘E-commerce’ category (Germany).
• Winner, ‘Internet User’s Favor’i’, fashion category, FEVAD’s (French
Federation for Distance Selling Companies) (France).
• ‘Innovation award 2010’ at the third customer relationship award
ceremony organised by L’AFRC (French Customer Service Association).
• Second prize, E-Commerce Trophy (E-Commerce Magazine), ‘Design/
Ergonomics’ category (France).
• The site wins four out of seven prizes at the prestigious ‘Media
Momentum Awards’, a first in the history of the GP Bullhound awards
(UK).
For a complete list of the prizes received by vente-privee.com since
2005 visit: http://pressroom.vente-privee.com
• The best ‘Pure Player’ award for the ‘ACSEL du numérique’ awards
organised by the French Association of Digital Business (France).
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Out of the ordinaire VP facts
• £8.5 million: Highest turnover for a single sale.
• 2,000 : Models worked for vente-privee.com in 2010.
• 470 ,000 products: Record stock sold in one sale.
• 160,000: Square metres of warehouse space, equal to 25 football
pitches (70m x 100m).
• £18,700: The most expensive item (a necklace) ever sold, excluding
car and apartment sales.
• 1.2 million: Highest number of members signed up for a 2-day sale
= 15 times the total capacity of Wembley Stadium (82,000 people).
• 2,500: Watches from a prestigious brand sold in just 48 seconds.
• 100,000: Roses sold in three days.
• 50,000: Sex toys sold in three days.
• 3,400: Swimming pools sold in one sale.
• 1 million: Bottles of wine and champagne sold on the site each year.
vente-privee.com has become the No.1 wine distributer in France.
Data updated: March 2011
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A success story
à la française
Created 10 years ago by Jacques-Antoine Granjon and his seven
business partners, vente-privee.com has become a major European
e-commerce player.
The innovative concept from the inventor of the online event sale has
had a global impact with numerous sites replicating vente-privee.com’s
business model over the last five years.
In 10 short years, vente-privee.com has become one of France’s most
recommended brands with more than 12.3 million members, 41 million
items sold in Europe in 2010 and 75,000 parcels dispatched every day.
As France’s most visited website, vente-privee.com is far more than
an end-of-line distributor. Visiting the website has become a daily
ritual for members thanks to its easy-to-use layout, no-advertising policy,
fantastic customer service and irresistible offer: must-have brands
at heart-fluttering prices (50-70% off RRP) for très limited periods of
time.
vente-privee.com adds value as a media and distribution channel for
partner brands in an ever wider variety of sectors including: prêt-à-porter,
accessories, homeware, toys, sports equipment, electronics, fine foods,
cars, as well as theatre tickets and travel.
The priority is offering brands a complete and personalised solution
drawing on the expertise of the ‘Digital Factory by vente-privee.com’,
Europe’s largest image production centre.
Excellence is à l’ordre du jour from the moment stock is received to
when members excitedly unwrap their parcel. Logistics and member
relations are managed entirely in-house to ensure the highest standards
of quality.
In just 10 years, vente-privee.com has come into its
own as a strong international brand to earn numerous
different prizes:
• ‘France’s fifth recommended brand, all sectors combined’,*
• ‘The most recommended e-commerce brand in France’,*
• ‘France’s preferred clothing distributor’.**
With virtual shop doors open in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, UK, Austria
and Belgium, vente-privee.com continues to grow rapidly.
The company, which generated £823.7 million in gross turnover in
2010 and employs 1,322 people, will continue to innovate, opening to
more European countries in 2011.
* Brandz / Millard Brown Institute study 2010
** OC&C study 2010
Press contact:
venteprivee@open2europe.com
Data updated: March 2011
Jacques-Antoine Granjon, CEO and founder, vente-privee.com
© Nicolas Guerbe
Day after day, e-commerce is growing as a force to be reckoned
with. As a leading e-retailer, vente-privee.com is always
looking to innovate and be where we’re least expected.
Figuring out
vente-privee.com
Activity and objectives
Traffic*
• £823.7 million gross turnover in 2010 (+15% vs. 2009).
• 1.8 million daily unique visitors >> no.1 non-specialist French e-retailer.
• 2,500 sales events organised in Europe in 2009 for 1,200 loyal brands.
3,500 sales in 2010 and 3,770 planned for 2011.
• More than 50 minutes spent on the site per member each month (average)
>> no.1 non-specialist French e-retailer.
+ 14 %
+ 15 %
Gross turnover in £
+ 34 %
940 950 000
823 650 000
• An average of 172 page views per person >> no.1 non-specialist French
e-retailer.
716 975 000
+ 44 %
• 7.5 million monthly unique visitors >> no.7 non-specialist French
e-retailer.
536 302 000
+ 52 %
+ 125 %
371 214 000
* Source: Médiamétrie // Net Ratings, Panel France – Mass Merchandiser sector – All connections,
November 2010
243 973 800
+ 417 %
555 000
2002
+ 500 %
+ 531 % 108 584 100
Logistics
2 869 000 18 114 800
2003
2004
2005
• 65 million total monthly visits and an average of 9 monthly visits per
member >> no.1 non-specialist French e-retailer.
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
Members
• More than 12.3 million members including 8.8 million in France.
• 7,300 new members sign up every day, including 4,200 in France.
• 41 millions products sold in Europe.
• 75, 000 parcels dispatched per day (average), with a peak of 109,827
parcels on 2 December 2010.
Human resources
• Average age of French members: 36 years old.
• 1,322 team members.
• 64% of vente-privee.com clients are women.
• 350 new job positions in 2009, as well 350 new positions in 2010. 145
recruitments forecast for 2011.
Data updated: March 2011
vente-privee.com in Europe
UK
June 2008: launch of vente-privee.com in the UK.
Offices in London.
THE NETHERLANDS
2011, launch of vente-privee.com in
The Netherlands.
• £6.4M turnover (including tax) in 2010
• 19 people dedicated to VP UK
• 292 sales produced in 2010
• 180,000 products sold in 2010
• 70.9M€ turnover (including tax) in 2010
• 52 people dedicated to VP Germany
• 579 sales produced in 2010
• 2.5 million products sold in 2010
FRANCE
vente-privee.com launched in 2001.
• 795M€ turnover (including tax) in 2010
• 1,603 sales produced in 2010
• 34.8 million products sold in 2010
.
November 2010: launch of vente-privee.com in Belgium.
.
• 91 sales produced in 2010
September 2006:
launch of vente-privee.com in Spain.
Offices in Barcelona and Madrid.
• 74.6M€ turnover (including tax) in 2010
• 48 people dedicated to VP Spain
• 553 sales produced in 2010
• 2.7 million products sold in 2010
.
. .
.
Belgium
SPAIN
GERMANY
September 2006: launch
of vente-privee.com in Germany.
Offices in Dusseldorf.
.
.
Austria
November 2010: launch of
vente-privee.com in Austria.
.
.
• 55 sales produced in 2010
ITALY
April 2008: launch of vente-privee.com
in Italy.
Offices in Milan.
• 21M€ turnover (including tax) in 2010
• 31 people dedicated to VP Italy
• 365 sales produced in 2010
• 609,000 products sold in 2010