Private Outlet is the first-ever European shopping club specially designed for new trends, brands and fashion fanatics. It organizes short sale events with some of the most famous brands around. With almost 30 years of investment experience, Gimv is a Belgium-based private equity and venture capital provider and a major European and international market player. Gimv has just announced that it is investing 4.9 million Euros in Private Outlet.
Private Outlet likes to call itself “private online shopping club†and boasts of 1.8 million members in 5 countries. They offer up to 70% discounts on fashion accessories and clothing from roughly 150 luxury brands including prestigious ones like Christian Dior, D&G, Chanel, etc. One feature of the site that distinguishes it from competitors is that a casual user can see which products and brands are on sale without having to become members. Though he will have to become a member if he decides to buy something.
There is a team of 105 professionals based out of Paris and Milan that runs Private Outlet. They had raised the first round of funding in 2008. They had raised a total of 7.3 million euros then from a variety of investors. It will be some time before it can hope to catch up with bigger competitors like Showroomprive who have a huge base of 6 million members.
Via: EU TechCrunch, en.vente-privee
