In an industry first, surfwear giant Quiksilver has revealed it will launch a number of online stores within Ebay's Fashion Gallery from November this year.
Quiksilver's women’s lifestyle brand, Roxy, will kick-off the new online partnership, followed by Quiksilver and DC brands later this year.
Quiksilver Australasia general manager Garry Wall said the move reflects the ongoing evolution of the online marketplace.
“It is important to understand that Ebay has evolved from an auction and secondhand marketplace to a serious full-price channel and today the majority of Ebay listings are fixed price and new product sales,” he said.
“EBay is one of the biggest online clothing sellers and customers have been purchasing our products on Ebay for many years but unfortunately from unauthorised sellers where we cannot guarantee authenticity of the product or appropriate customer service levels. By offering our authentic product on Ebay via our own stores we can guarantee to our customers that what they purchase is genuine product that meets our highest quality standards.”
However, despite the changing dynamic in the marketplace, Quiksilver has vowed to be respectful of its long term traditional bricks and mortar retail partners.
“We were the first in the industry to set up our own B2C ecommerce platform and sell to consumers directly,” Wall said.
“That way if our traditional retailers were unhappy with any activity they could communicate directly with the source.”
In particular, Wall said Quiksilver will continue to work closely with traditional, wholesale retailers; developing an Affiliates Program that will share revenue with wholesale partners on e-commerce sales.
“We’re very aware of the changes in the market, but we’re also very aware of our relationship with our traditional retailers and how important they are not only to us but also to the entire industry,” he said.
Quiksilver, developed from a 1970s boardshort company, is now a multinational apparel and accessory company. Its brands include Quiksilver, Roxy, DC, Moscova, and VSTR.