Gilt Groupe
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Gilt Groupe is an American online shopping site launched in 2007.[1] In 2016 the company was sold to Hudson's Bay Company for approximately $250 million, which was less than the $268 million taken from investors. Prior to the Hudson's Bay acquisition, sales were exceeding growth projections but the firm had not been profitable yet.[2][3][4][5] In 2018, Boston-based Rue La La acquired Gilt from Hudson's Bay.[6]
History
Gilt Groupe is based in New York City with warehouses in Brooklyn, New York City; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Shepherdsville, Kentucky.
The company was co-founded by Kevin P. Ryan, Michael Bryzek and Phong Nguyen, with Alexis Maybank, and Alexandra Wilson joining shortly after the company's inception;[7] who modeled Gilt after Vente-Privee, an online fashion retailer in France. The original business plan consisted of "flash sales," selling a limited number of luxury designer items at steep discounts for brief periods.[2]
The company launched women's clothing and accessories in November 2007 and menswear in April 2008. It added Gilt Groupe Japan, Gilt Fuse, and travel site Jetsetter in 2009.[8] It later added, Gilt City and Gilt Home in 2010 and Gilt Taste in 2011.[9]
In 2009, growth equity firm General Atlantic led a series C funding round, joined by previous investor Matrix Partners.[10][11] By February 2014, Gilt Groupe was preparing for an IPO.[12]
In 2010, Gilt acquired luxury deal-of-the-day site Bergine.[13] This was the first of several acquisitions.
According to Business Insider, during its "hyper-growth years, the company overextended itself and lost focus", as the expanded business segments such as "Full-price retail, travel, and food were sucking resources from Gilt's core categories — discounted women's fashion", and Gilt was forced to sell these non-core businesses at a loss. Flash sales companies were also seeing slower growth, thanks in part to e-mail fatigue (the key means for flash sales to be promoted) with e-mail providers increasingly classifying these messages as spam). The IPO kept getting delayed and ending up never happening, while the firm never reached profitability.Script error: No such module "Unsubst". By 2015, Gilt was raising money "at a lower valuation than the $1 billion at which it reportedly raised $138 million in 2011". Such a cash infusion is known as "down round" which hurts employee morale and devalues the founders' stakes.[2][3][4][5]
On January 7, 2016, Gilt Groupe announced its acquisition by Hudson's Bay Company, owner of luxury department store chains Hudson's Bay, Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue, for $250 million.[14]
In June 2018 it was announced the HBC would be selling Gilt to Rue La La.[15][16]
On October 2, 2019, Gilt Groupe and Simon Property Group announced a joint venture for ShopPremiumOutlets.com, an online shopping platform focused on its outlet malls, to create a new e-commerce platform dedicated to value shopping.[17]
Business
Gilt Groupe visitors must be members in order to view sales. Sales last 36–48 hours and feature merchandise from a single brand or small groups of brands. The firm purchases vendor inventory at an extreme discount, adding a margin in order to make a profit. On August 22, 2011, Gilt Groupe added a Facebook shopping section.[18] Android and iPhone apps allow mobile shopping, and access is also available for other smartphone and tablet devices.
Book
Penguin Group printed a history of Gilt Groupe in 2012 written by two of its founders, Alexis Maybank and Alexandra Wilkis Wilson. By Invitation Only: How We Built Gilt and Changed the Way Millions Shop was published before Gilt was bought out by Hudson's Bay;[19] At that time the firm was valued at more than $1 billion,[20] over four times greater than its eventual selling price.
References
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- ↑ August 22, 2011 Gilt goes after Facebook shoppers internetretailer.com
- ↑ Essential Business Reads Business Week 2012-04-13
- ↑ Alexis Maybank and Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, By Invitation Only: How We Built Gilt and Changed the Way Millions Shop Penguin Group, 2012
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External links
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