In an period the place style e-commerce is being reshaped by social media purchasing and big world platforms, Place des Tendances, the French multibrand retailer owned by Printemps Group, is betting on mid- to premium manufacturers, longtime buyer loyalty and speed-focused logistics to gas its European enlargement.
For Guillaume Grimbert, who quietly stepped into the chief govt officer function in February, it was a return to his roots. Because the platform’s very first worker when it was a startup again in 2008, he helped the cofounders launch the e-commerce pioneer earlier than embarking on a 20-year profession in luxurious style and actual property tech.
He understands the potential of his origin story. “So far as storytelling, it’s fairly good,” he joked.
Now on the helm of the corporate the place he began his profession, he’s centered on enlargement in a market butting up towards reducing shopper confidence. Grimbert emphasizes a data-driven method.
“We’re not right here to be all the pieces for everybody,” he stated.
Meaning pulling again from the house and decor class, which had been examined in recent times as a possible way of life play. Dwelling will now be left to Made in Design, a sister firm inside Printemps Group.
“Our clients come to us for style and wonder,” Grimbert stated. “It’s not a second to go in a special course. We need to deal with the place we’re very robust, and that’s style, equipment, footwear and wonder.”
As a substitute, the corporate is increasing its supply inside its two core verticals. In ladies’s style, Place des Tendances has added widespread and up-and-coming names like Farm Rio, whereas additionally in search of out rising labels from the Nordic nations and Spain — inventive hubs Grimbert believes are “underexposed” to French shoppers.
“We’re going to proceed to look, like detectives, throughout Europe for brand new unbiased, fashionable manufacturers to suggest to our clients,” he stated. The workforce repeatedly travels to Barcelona, Berlin and Brussels — simply to call a number of cities off the overwhelmed style observe — searching for new labels.
However Grimbert isn’t betting the home on Gen Z. The location’s core buyer is a girl between 40 and 50 who lives exterior of Paris and desires entry to the newest style traits and types from the capital — and even additional afield, like Scandinavia or South Korea.
It presently hosts greater than 400 manufacturers from French stalwarts like Sandro to rising Scandi names like Rotate and Rue de Tokyo.
Latest additions embrace British model Damson Madder, Danish labels Tiny Huge Sister and Minimal, and indie French manufacturers together with Hod Paris, Rouge Edit and Socque. Different Nordic names together with Filippa Ok and Baum und Pferdgarten; Spanish manufacturers Laagam, Toral and Bibi Lou, and Korean males’s model Strong will launch quickly. Nars will quickly be added within the magnificence class.
Whereas Amazon has entered the style class — to not point out the low-cost quantity play of Shein and Temu, that are dealing with political blowback and potential regulation in France — Grimbert sees restricted competitors from the worldwide giants, significantly within the accessible luxurious and premium segments.
“Some manufacturers simply don’t need to be on Amazon. It doesn’t align with their model id,” he stated. “Or they don’t need to be seen with too many wholesalers on the similar time and be [overexposed].” Living proof is French label Sandro, which prefers to be on a curated platforms that displays its positioning as accessible luxurious.
Males’s style, presently only a 10 p.c slice of the enterprise pie, can be receiving recent funding with the addition of latest manufacturers. “It’s one of many large white areas within the French market,” he stated. A renewed deal with footwear, equipment and premium manufacturers for males is a part of the enlargement plan, as is including extra manufacturers for youngsters down the road.
Many have been purchasing on the positioning for greater than a decade — and Grimbert intends to maintain them.
“A few of our clients have been with us since 2008. They place 50 orders a yr. That’s about one every week,” Grimbert stated. He’s constructing new methods round these frequent consumers.
The workforce has launched segmented loyalty ranges, together with a VIC tier, and is rolling out unique companies akin to invitation-only gross sales and bespoke gifting. “We take into consideration our buyer each minute,” he stated. “I inform my workforce: see your buyer, name them, hearken to them.”
Grimbert’s first focus has been on “fast wins,” together with a revamp of the positioning to make it extra intuitive for customers, worldwide rollouts and increasing the model portfolio. Following the tech upgrades, Grimbert has set a transparent goal of reaching 100 million euros in turnover inside his first yr whereas strengthening revenue margins.
He emphasised the necessity to develop income effectively through the use of a lower-risk market mannequin to check new manufacturers, concentrating on high-value clients by way of the brand new loyalty perks and increasing outlet choices for price-sensitive customers.
“We wish everybody who visits our web site to have the ability to purchase one thing, whether or not it’s a ten euro accent or a 500 euro jacket. That’s our imaginative and prescient,” he stated. The present common basket is 200 euros.
Place des Tendances has its personal warehouse simply exterior of Paris, which handles all the pieces from product images to order success. “We are able to usually shoot and launch merchandise earlier than the manufacturers themselves,” Grimbert stated.
Workers can triple in measurement throughout peak months, and each workforce member makes use of tablet-based instruments to select and ship merchandise in underneath 24 hours, with one-day supply in Paris for its VIPs.
“We constructed our personal logistics software program from the start,” stated Grimbert, of the corporate’s proprietary warehouse administration system.
Grimbert intends to leverage this logistical edge to scale internationally, with a test-and-learn method concentrating on the U.Ok., Belgium, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
The location now ships to fifteen nations. Worldwide development is already up greater than 20 p.c year-over-year, and anticipated to be a key development driver for his income aim. French market gross sales have grown within the single digits — which Grimbert framed as “nonetheless fairly good” contemplating the present macroeconomic local weather.
Grimbert’s three-year roadmap consists of launching new companies and constructing out each the lads’s and youngsters’s classes. He additionally plans to broaden each the full-price and the outlet choices to broaden the client base and elevate the client expertise.
Marine Vignes
MAX LEYRAVAUD / Courtesy Place des Tendances
Increasing Social Campaigns With Influencers
Place des Tendances will launch a brand new marketing campaign with French TV host Marine Vignes. The 52-year-old is widespread with the model’s core demographic, and the marketing campaign is timed with France’s rentrée, a interval the place the nation roars again to life after the standard August trip — and a key purchasing season.
Vignes will curate a choice of seems that shall be obtainable on the positioning, structured round an elegant day-to-night wardrobe. The marketing campaign will roll out throughout each Place des Tendances and Vignes’ private social platforms, and those that come to the positioning from Vignes’ social channels could have particular low cost codes.
“Marine Vignes is de facto inspirational for our buyer, and represents the life-style of our group,” he stated, noting that it displays the corporate’s new influencer-focused content material technique. “We need to use personalities who characterize our clients. We’ll proceed to do extra activations like this.”
The marketing campaign with Marine Vignes
MAX LEYRAVAUD / Courtesy Place des Tendances
