By Maija Palmer
Inside a former Le Monde print plant in the suburbs of Paris, a stone’s throw from the Stade de France, is a riot of bubble-gum pink and candy-coloured accessories. If there is a heaven for pop-culture mavens and fashionistas, the offices of Vente Privée, the French internet shopping company, could be it.
The foyer is dominated by a David Mach wire hanger sculpture of a giant reclining nude woman and an installation of a life-sized bear wielding a chainsaw. Pop art hangs on every wall of the giant warehouse.
“I have been buying art since I was 22; it is something that I have always done,” says Jacques-Antoine Granjon, the company’s 46-year-old chief executive. “I am lucky to have a lot of walls.” With his flowing hair, casual jeans and T-shirt, Granjon could be an artist himself. Instead, he is one of France’s biggest internet cut-price retail success stories.
Vente Privée is a French pioneer of one of Europe’s biggest internet trends - private buying clubs which sell deeply discounted designer goods to their members over the internet.
The company has about 9m members and sells 40m items a year - which it buys at cost price - at about a 50-70 percent discount off the normal retail price.
The cut-price fashion revolution started with Milan’s Yoox.com, which convinced big Italian brands to sell end-of-season products online.
The scale of the company’s success only becomes apparent, however, on seeing its vast operations. Endless racks of winter coats, blouses, evening dresses, baby clothes, men’s sweaters, shoved into every available space, in the hallways, between desks, on stair landings. Where there are no garments, there are boxes of shoes in precarious piles, children’s toys, kitchen blenders, down-filled duvets, angular sofas, lamps.
Samples are sent by designer brands to be photographed, modelled and marketed to the company’s members. Each item gets the VIP treatment from an army of mostly 20-to-30-something slim women clad in no-nonsense black - the kind you see backstage at fashion shows. They are ironing clothes, making notes and dressing models for photo shoots.
About 9,000 photos are taken every day in the warehouse that accommodates five film studios, 18 photo studios, with a further40 planned.
In five music studios, sound engineers are recording music for the internet movies that will be used to promote the sales. Theyaudition singers and pay attention on the tiniest detail.
The company also produces Rosebuzz, a luxurious magazine full of art-house photography, which is sent to the designer brand suppliers.
This is all about as far away as you can imagine from taking a blurry photo of a bunched-up jumper and posting it on eBay.
“Everything is done to bring back life to products that are languishing in warehouses,” says Granjon. “All the marketing and campaigns are free for [the brands].”
The group was founded eight years ago, has been profitable since 2004 and expects to make about €650m ($960m, £580m) in revenues this year. It has relationships with about 850 brands and employs more than 1,000 people.
A number of similar businesses has recently started up in Europe, including BuyVIP in Spain, Brands4Friends in Germany and KupiVIP.ru in Russia, as well as US companies such as Gilt, Ideeli and Rue La La.
Granjon has a long pedigree in fashion discounting, having started in the business almost 25 years ago, when it was all about factory outlet stores and half-yearly sales.
