NATIONAL: Private e-tailers are recording a boom in membership numbers as designers move to sell stock at up to 80 per cent off retail prices.
Alex Perry, Toni Maticevski, Karen Walker and Josh Goot are among the latest luxury designers to offer heavily discounted merchandise through member-only portals. The sites, which include the recently launched estile.com, cocolee.com.au, ozsale.com.au and brandsexclusive.com.au, are constructed to clear excess inventory and product samples through “discreet” sales.
According to internet measurement firm Hitwise, Ozsale was the market leader in its category with a 94 per cent increase in traffic from 2008/2009. Lifestyle data suggested “academic achievers” – wealthy areas of educated professional households – made up the largest portion of visitors.
High-profile sales featured on Ozsale included garments from Rock & Republic, Zara, Gap, Tigerlily and Perry, with the latter slashing evening gowns from $1000-plus to $250. The service clears overstock products within a 72-hour period by either purchasing collections outright or collaborating with brands on sale.
Ozsale currently has 200,000 members across Australia and New Zealand, with growth of around 300 to 500 members per day through referrals. Marketing director Jim Lees said this was a marked shift from its launch two years ago, when it had just 1000 registered users.
“Our process is controlled to protect a brand’s image – consumers get an email every morning directly and it’s not put on the open internet, television or press,” he said. “We are known in the industry for this with the majority of brands approaching us.”
Invitation-only website Estile has also recorded a strong growth in membership numbers, despite having no advertising or marketing campaigns in place. The site had seen a 200 per cent month-on-month growth in registered users since launching in January 2009.
Limited-edition sales have included Toni Maticevski, Josh Goot and Karen Walker. Founder Abbey Turnbull said most sales ran for between 45 and 72 hours and featured stock from previous seasons, samples or excess mid-season inventory.
“Generally we source past seasons’ products direct from various luxury brands, put them on sale for a specific and limited period of time and open it up to members. We are a private site [and] luxury labels appreciate this level of discretion.”
Sydney-based fashion agent Faith Agugu said the recent surge in private websites could provide designers with added benefits.
“Production costs are a huge expense for most designers and production costs come down to quantity. Taking a risk and increasing production by 10 per cent will bring costs down if designers think outside the box and offload stock through fashion auctions and online sales.”
Upmarket jewellery designer Zoe Sernack, who has sold her Zoemou line through Estile and Cocolee, said she had reached new customers as a result of listing her products online.
“I’ve sold items that weren’t part of my ranges so this gave customers an opportunity to buy something in a unique style or colourway. I make sure each sale is different with different stock and exclusive designs.”