Loogic English

Seeing the success of the private shopping clubs in Europe, it is logical that the model goes to Latin America as well. For now, Geelbe is functioning in Argentina and thanks to the efforts of Gaston Bercun, has successfully completed its first round of funding.

The investment in Geelbe comes from the club of business angels of Inversor Global (IG) and as Gaston Bercun puts it, the money should serve for strengthening the team and start with the regional expansion of the company. We understand that this regional expansion will be to other Latin American countries where, as far as I know, there are no such online outlets of this kind.

Let me also take this opportunity to say that recently I had a talk with the founder of one of these online outlets that function in Spain and the impression I got was that with the existing competition, the optimization of resources is going to be key in these companies that are growing at a fast pace and have received important rounds of financing. What I still don’t see very clearly is if one of the companies that have received the most amount of investment will consider purchasing one of its competitor to consolidate its leadership position.

After the review of classifieds and flash game sites, I think it would be worth it to devote some time to look at the situation of the private shopping clubs or online outlets that are proliferating on the internet.

Now we can say that ecommerce is functioning well in Spain and I think that, to a great extent, it is because of the success of these kinds of sites that have become an obsession with a lot of people (waking up at 7 in the morning to enter a promotion of Privalia is something not very normal).

No surprise that this success is not only a phenomenon in Spain. In France, for example, there’s a real rage and they have Vente Privee as the best example of this business. This company has made a strong arrival in the Spanish market and already accounts for a few million clients all over Europe. On a European level, there’s another company, Private Outlet with versions for five countries.

So that’s the panorama of the Online Outlets in Spain and Latin America. I have found 10 projects of this kind, 9 developed in Spain and one in Argentina. Of the 10 projects, there are 3 (Privalia, BuyVip and Vipventa) that have received investment and compete directly with each other. There are two others that are beginning to stand out (DreiVip and Ofertix) and another 5 that are in their initial stages. Let’s take a further look at each one of them:

The leaders:

Privalia

Founders: Lucas Carné, José Manuel Villanueva and Bruno Coffre
Founded: 2006
Investors: Luis Martín, La Caixa and Nauta Capital
Funding: around 7 million euros
Access: does not require invitation
Headquarters: Barcelona (Spain)

Buyvip

Founder: Gustavo García
Founded: 2006
Investors: DAD, 3i, MCI, Michael Kleindl, Bertelsmann, Grupo Intercom
Funding: around 17.5 million euros
Access: invitation required
Headquarters: Madrid (Spain), Milan (Italy), Frankfurt (Germany)

Vipventa

Founder: David Ducos
Founded: 2006
Investors: Mobius
Funding: 2.75 million euros
Access: invitation required
Headquarters: Madrid (Spain)
Notes: the blog of Sonia

The aspirants:

Dreivip

Founder: Margarita Olivares
Founded: 2006
Investors: unknown
Funding: unknown
Headquarters: Badalona (Spain)

Ofertix

Founder: Antonio Alcantara
Founded: 2007
Investors: unknown
Funding: unknown
Headquarters: Barcelona (Spain)
Notes: Revelation Web Yahoo 2007

The recent arrivals: Geelbe (Argentina), Glamounity, Sinempujar, Compralia and Vipcompras

Do these newcomers have any possibilities to compete with the other five companies that enjoy a huge competitive advantage and with other companies that have already arrived from other parts of Europe?

As far as the competition between the three big ones (Privalia, Buyvip and Vipventa) with the figures of investments and business that they manage, the leadership is going to be closely related with the creation of a brand, with obtaining the best products at the best prices and with offering the best customer service possible.

An idea for these companies looking to increase their user base: can you imagine if one of these companies reaches an agreement with Tuenti to publish their campaigns of branded clothes in form of an event inside the preferred social network for young people?