‘Flash’ new strategy: Vente Privee seeks shelter in Europe

Vente Privee draws its new strategy after becoming Veepee. The company sold yesterday Privalia’s business in Mexico, a country that, although profitable for the Spanish company, was never on the radar of the French company. Paris thus establishes its strategic vision on the group, after announcing a new name in January and in a context in which its model is in full transformation.  

Although group sources explain that the decision does not respond to the desire to focus on Europe, the truth is that Vente Privee never considered Latin America as a strategic market.  After years of criticizing what Jacques Antoine Granjon, founder of Vente Privee, called copycuts (copies of his flash sales model on the Internet), he suddenly bought them all. In 2016, the group acquired its counterparts in Poland, Belgium, Switzerland and Spain.

But, at least in Spain, it was the bought company, Privalia, and not the buyer, who imposed after the operation. Vente Privee closed its offices in Madrid and Barcelona and moved its team to the Privalia headquarters in the 22@ technology district of Barcelona.

Vente Privee never considered Latin America and strategic market

At the head of both businesses in the Spanish market was Albert Serrano, general director of Privalia. The same thing happened in Italy: after the merger, it was former head of Privalia in the country, Valentina Visconti, and not Vente Privee, Andreas Schmeidler, who remained in charge of the market.

In both countries, the two brands continued to coexist and in Mexico and Brazil, where Vente Privee did not have any presence, Privalia continued to operate independently. Unlike for Privalia and other Spanish companies such as BuyVIP, Vente Privee never considered Latin America as an strategic territory. The company did try to enter the United States, where in 2011 it created a joint venture with American Express that was dissolved three years later.  

But, at the beginning of the year, Paris hit the table. Vente Privee announced that it would change its name to Veepee, integrating the five e-commerce platforms, including Privalia, under this new brand.  Added to this move yesterday was the announcement of the sale of the Mexican business of Privalia to Grupo Axo, a distributor in the country of brands such as Guess or Tommy Hilfiger, for an undisclosed amount.

The model Vente Privee invented is now in full transformation

The change of strategy coincides with a moment of transformation for the model it invented, that of flash sales to liquidate stocks over the Internet. The massification of e-commerce platforms, the new online demands of consumers (fast deliveries, free returns) or the better stock management by brands have forced this format, born at the dawn of online fashion trade, to reinvent themselves.

Many platforms have been left along the way; others, like Showroomprive, fail to take the wave of profitability, and others turn their business model to focus more towards a traditional full price marketplace.