Vente-Privee Founder Thinks He Has the Secret to Flash Sales

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Step aside, US flash sale sites. Two years after entering the US market, Vente-Privee founder and flash sale pioneer Jacques-Antoine Granjon explains his unique strategy to dominate the flash sale landscape in America in Fortune. "Most of the copycats act like a business-to-consumer company. They think it's important to sell products. We think it's important to have the best brands," Granjon says.

Granjon's attitude is that deals on high-end labels, like Isabel Marant, will attract customers. And Vente-Privee's business-to-business approach will draw in the best brands. "When I look at a sale, I ask how many pieces did we sell for the brands? If the brand needs to sell 20,000 pieces, and we only sell 2,000 but make a lot of money, that is not good because the brand still has 18,000 more," he notes.

In the Fortune piece, Granjon also dishes on the US flash sale players. His reaction to Gilt: "Is there a great future for Gilt? I'm not sure. So who will take care of Gilt? Maybe they will sell it to the market? I won't buy shares." And he says his meeting with Jeff Bezos led directly to the creation of Amazon's flash sale site MyHabit.

I ask him about Amazon's MyHabit. "Do you know why Jeff Bezos created MyHabit?" he replies. "Because he met me in New York, and we spent three hours together because he wanted to understand my model. When I met Jeff, he was not in the apparel business. Apparel is a huge market. After our appointment, instead of saying what we could do [together in business], he decided to create MyHabit. MyHabit is exactly like Vente-Privee. What I don't understand is that Amazon is a model that sells all of the products of the world, to all the people of the world, at all times. It doesn't sell the products at normal price, and it doesn't sell the products at inventory [sale] price. I don't know if it's working."

Vente-Privee, which boasted global sales of $2.3 billion in 2013, expects US sales to grow to $100 million in 2015. Granjon tells Fortune that Vente-Privee has always been profitable, and forecasts worldwide sales to hit $11 billion by 2024.
· France's Rock and Roll King of Flash Sales Takes on America [Fortune]
· Will Gilt Be the Last Flash Sale Site Standing? [Racked]
· Vente-Privee is Banking on Joe Zee and American Express [Racked]