Launched in November 2007, Gilt Groupe is a leading online fashion and travel retailer in the US. It curates a broad range of daily sales for its "exclusive, invitation-only" membership. Each sale lasts just 36 hours and features many of the world's sought-after designers.
Christian Leone, vice president, brand relations at the NY-based Gilt Groupe was in Mumbai recently, and Campaign India took the opportunity to ask him a couple of questions about their business model and whether people want to buy luxury products online.
Regarding the question on how luxury fares in e-commerce, Leone responded, "The traditional sense of retail has been 'I need that experience of going to the store, to touch and feel everything'. There are a lot of sceptics out there, but we have 5 million members and 400 million USD in revenue in 2010. So I think that people want to shop, and they want to shop online. People don't always have time to go to the store." He also added that cities outside of New York and Chicago have potential for The Groupe in terms of customers being excited about the sales, because they may not have the fashion exposure in their own cities.
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