Move over, 24 Sèvres: Printemps is the latest retailer to dive into the increasingly crowded field of luxury e-commerce with the planned launch of a website dedicated to top-end brands by 2020, CEO Paolo De Cesare said Tuesday.
“We want to create an offer for luxury and designer, which will be under the banner of Printemps.com,” De Cesare told a press conference held at Perruche, the new rooftop restaurant at the Printemps flagship on Boulevard Haussmann in Paris.
The Qatari-owned department store chain is targeting a launch date of late 2019 or early 2020 for the site, which will complement its e-commerce platforms: Place des Tendances, which sells contemporary and high-street brands, and Citadium, its young and sporty retail banner.
“What we see in e-commerce is similar to retail: We are moving from generalist websites like Amazon, which sells absolutely everything and tries to go higher in the market, to specialized websites that are very focused on specific target groups — and that’s what we believe we will do,” he explained.
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Printemps, which is on track to post record revenues in 2018 despite a backdrop of declining clothing sales, plans to invest more than 6 million euros ($6.98 million) to upgrade its existing e-commerce facilities in Pantin near Paris, with a view to capturing a global audience, De Cesare said.
While Place des Tendances competes against the likes of Asos and Zalando, “on the luxury, we will be more positioned against Net-a-Porter and Matches,” he added.
This story was reported by WWD and originally appeared on WWD.com.
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