Ventes privées.com

Ventes Privées proposes to join a club of smart buyers. It works through membership and offers luxury products for cheaper prices to members. Membership can only be obtained through invitations from members. The system proposes special brands day selling overproduction of one brand on a special day for a special price.

Customers then get trendy and luxury product for very cheap prices, feeling they are part of the community of smart buyers: they found the way to buy valuable goods not with their money only but also by being alert. It solves the problem of inaccessibility of luxury good and the problem of money frustration: “I can compensate my money lack by being alert on good deals and by being part of the smart buyers club”. Buy smartly is fashion today. So ventes privees proposal is twice trendy: through the purchase act itself and through products it offers.

Suppliers of this business are luxury brands. With this type of business they can sell overstocks in a safer way for their brand image: In their stores network they can’t sell their product at too low prices because the proximity for very high prices and very low prices devaluates brand image: there is no reason that you consider that a suit worth 500€ if you see a similar one in the same store for 50€. So overstocks have to be sold on other channels. And ventes privees is a wise one because it works on VIPprinciple also (even if VIP is not based on money but on trendy behaviour).

Thank to the number and the fashionable aspect of offers, the owners of the business attract a lot of customers and develop high turnover. They first attract people through the cheaper and the most efficient marketing mean which is “ear to mouth”, they make them buy with the promise of a clever purchase and finally, they causes compulsive purchase from their customer since they are sending e-mails announcing good deals almost every day. The main revenue source is sales but there are also premium services like alerts on mobiles and ventes privees certainly gets some revenues from selling data from their customer database.

The main target is customers attracted by fashion and as fashion is always moving, those people want to be able to buy a lot of things. Whereas fashionable goods are often luxury and very expansive products. So that’s people willing to buy a lot. If they are caught by the model, they can become very valuable customers.

Competitors of the model are as well offline than on-line. If we focus on models addressing same customers, online competitors are “privateoutlet.com”, brandalley.fr”, or “surinvotation.com”. Off-line there are less big models but stocks are showroom exactly propose the same service to customers. On a basis of ear to mouth and membership, they propose overstocks from fashionable and luxury brands at cheap prices.
The link between online and offline is made by websites like “shoppingactu.com”
I would say that on-line a big competitor is also e-bay. The model is a little bit different, but the idea of good deal and clever purchase is still there. And prices are similar.

According to me the main concerns linked to purchases on ventes privees are first the fact that you can’t try clothes and then the number of mails that you get when you are on their list.
Then a way to increase business would be to lot the model into different kind of services: one for low buyers, choosing the brands for which they accept to get e-mails, and one for premium buyers, who could get additional sales days by paying membership fees.

Expend revenue sources could be done through heavily advertised partnership with new brands. I think designers would pay to be sold through ventes privees at it is now labelled as a fashionable sho. If Ventes Privees chooses smartly those partners they can become a stepping stone for new brands willing to become a fashionable and luxury brand.