An innovative e-commerce platform set to “change the future of online shopping” is gearing to enter the market next month, offering online shoppers a new and convenient way to browse and purchase.
The Ivory Room site, set to launch in March, will be Australia’s first dedicated pre-season order service and is the second online shopping venture for local entrepreneurs Brett and Kelly Gaunt, who also own and operate exclusive designer sale website Estile.com.
The Ivory Room allows users to view upcoming designer collections ahead of time, via pre season online showings, and then allows its members to purchase selected fashion pieces, which are then custom-made by designers and delivered to their door.
The site, which took design firm T Bone Productions 18 months to build, will include an array of features such as designer profiles, pre-season collection shopping events, guest bloggers, and campaign imagery shot by photographer Lyndel Yeo from 35mm Fashion Photography.
The Ivory Room co-founder Brett Gaunt said the fledgling site has also already signed a number of high profile and up-and-coming Australian designers for the launch, and will offer online shoppers an exclusive opportunity to not only purchase but also lay-buy their favourite pieces pre-season.
“We are excited to be unlocking fashion's future for our members. In The Ivory Room it's as simple as lay-buying the pieces you want. Orders are shipped to our members at the beginning of the season, and with designers having various collection seasons and launch dates throughout the year we will constantly have something new and exciting to showcase in The Ivory Room.”
According to The Ivory Room co-founder Kelly Gaunt, membership to the site will operate in a similar way to the couple's pre-existing fashion venture – Estile – as a private shopping network, where membership is by invitation, with no joining or membership fees.
However, Kelly Gaunt said that unlike Estile, The Ivory Room will also work for up-and-coming designers seeking extra exposure for their collections.
“We saw this as an opportunity to provide an innovative platform for both designers and consumers. Given the current retail environment, we felt that the timing was perfect in providing a unique solution for designers to increase sales and margin whilst enticing consumers to increase their spend in an environment they had not experienced previously,” she said.
“Categories featured at The Ivory Room will include complete collections of high-end-high-street and luxury clothing and accessories and it will essentially also provide designers the opportunity to showcase their collections pre-season.”
Through reporting provided by The Ivory Room, designers will also receive feedback directly from consumers prior to the collection going to production helping to reduce overstock commitments, and previously untapped sales opportunities for designers and their retailers.
“While the concept clearly differs from retail, traditional online stores, Estile and competitors, it provides a natural conduit and pathway for the life cycle of each collection for designers that is currently missing from the market,” Kelly Gaunt said.
“We are targeting growth of 50 per cent year-on-year, and our short term goals are to secure seed funding, establish The Ivory Room as the online fashion destination for the fashion-forward consumer, and to demonstrate the real benefits to our Australian designer partners of booking an event with The ivory Room as a standard activity when launching each collections sell in cycle.”