This week, a look at the luxury e-commerce companies reporting positive news amid the landscape’s implosion. Scroll down to use Glossy+ Comments, giving the Glossy+ community the opportunity to join discussions around industry topics.
Thanks to social media offering new levels of transparency and accessibility, the average consumer has never been more knowledgeable about fashion, or marketing. Luxury e-tailer Ssense spotlighted both of these truths with its viral spring 2024 kidswear campaign.
The eight-video campaign rolled out on Ssense’s Instagram account throughout the week of March 18. Each features a kid in a solo spelling bee, with their assigned word being the designer brand they’re wearing. Before spelling out Thom Browne, Rick Owens or Eckhaus Latta, for example, they ask a question or two typical of the scenario, like, “What’s the country of origin?” and “Can you please use it in a sentence?” The narrator replies with answers pointing to signatures of the respective brand: “I can spot a Thom Browne short suit from a mile away,” or “That girl wearing full Collina Strada is giving hyperpop fairy in the best way possible.”
“We wanted to riff on how fashion’s role has changed in people’s lives,” said Thom Bettridge, head of creative and content at Ssense, regarding the creative concept. “When you look back to the ’90s — the ‘Zoolander’ era — fashion was a very inaccessible, obscure elitist thing. Now, a lot more people, including more kids, know who designers are.”
This ongoing cultural shift aligns with Ssense’s overall mission, which is to “turn everyone into a fashion fan,” as Bettridge described it.
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The business goal of the campaign was to bring awareness to the 21-year-old company’s kidswear category, which launched in 2021 and is curated by its head of womenswear, Brigitte Chartrand. Ssense is the exclusive retailer of kidswear by Collina Strada and Eckhaus Latta, among other ready-to-wear designers. Spotlighting those well-known brands with a mini-me counterpart was a strategic move.
“It’s exciting for people who are fans of those brands and don’t even realize they make kidswear to see that we carry it,” Bettridge said.
The campaign decidedly sparked interest, with the Instagram videos widely shared and organically approaching a cumulative 14 million views as of Tuesday afternoon. According to Launchmetrics, in the campaign’s first four days, it drove $352,000 in total media impact value via 16 posts across social media platforms. The first, Thom Browne-focused Instagram post drove the most value, at $105,000. Brands including Thom Browne, Eckhaus Latta and Collina Strada collaborated on the Instagram posts featuring their brands, surfacing the campaign to their respective followers.
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“It’s been a very highly engaged internet moment for us,” said Bettridge. “A major goal [of the campaign] was awareness, and we checked that box.” It’s too early to gauge the impact on site traffic and sales, he said.
Despite the desired focus of Ssense’s kidswear offering, the videos’ ability to cut through the media noise — on Instagram, no less — drove much of the surrounding buzz. The posts’ comments sections were flooded with feedback, including, “Marketing genius,” “Dope advertisement,” and “Y’all ATE with this campaign.”
“There’s an inherent joy when you see a kid doing something that maybe they’re not old enough to be able to do, but they’re super good at it,” Bettridge said, explaining the videos’ popularity. “There was also [the factor] of bringing the worlds [of kids and designer fashion] together in an unexpected way.”
To secure the featured talent — licensed child actors ages 6-10 — the Ssense team worked with casting director Nafisa Kaptownwala. Driven by Bettridge’s very specific vision for the campaign, the project served as his directorial debut.
“We have a strong visual DNA as a brand,” Bettridge said. “So when we’re doing things that feel very Ssense-coded, it’s great to try to do those in the house.”
That DNA is rooted in minimalism, which is reflected in the aesthetic of its website, he noted.
“Even though the campaign had a big impact, attention-wise, it’s a pretty simple and bare-bones kind of production: It’s just a white wall, a camera, good lighting and cute kids,” he said.
Still, the videos effectively deliver brand storytelling, which is another Ssense priority and has helped it to differentiate within the crowded, struggling multi-brand luxury e-tailer sector.
“Storytelling is crucial to how we approach the assortment we carry,” Bettridge said. “Every brand has a story and every garment has a story. And if you don’t unpack that context, you’re just like another page with a product for sale.”
In 2021, Montral-based and family-owned Ssense took on its first outside investment, from Sequoia Capital China, valuing the company at $4.1 billion. At the time, it was reported that the company had been profitable since its launch.
By the numbers
$20 million: The sum of Galliott Capital Advisors’ investment in luxury e-tailer Olivela
According to Stacey Boyd, founder and CEO of the 7-year-old online luxury retailer Olivela, her company is thriving — and its differentiated approaches to marketing and brand partnerships are key factors.
Ninety-five percent of Olivela’s brand partnerships are based on the drop-ship model, alleviating the company of high inventory costs and allowing it to scale quicker than competitors, Boyd said. As for marketing, its messaging largely centers on the causes it supports using 20% of the net proceeds from each sale. Olivela has maintained 20-30% month-over-month revenue growth over the last year, Boyd said.
“Given all that’s going on in the [luxury e-commerce] sector, I’m excited about the [status of the] business,” she said. “Old marketing strategies have gotten a lot more expensive, and the advantages and disadvantages of different strategies are playing out in the numbers.”
In February, Olivela announced a Series A funding round from Galliott Capital Advisors, leaders of which have since joined Olivela’s board. Boyd shared with Glossy that the investment totaled $20 million — but, seeing as the company secured a $35 million investment led by Morgan Stanley in 2019, it was a down round. “The world is in a different place,” compared to five years ago, Boyd said.
Olivela’s high level of customer loyalty was no doubt a selling point. “The world is very broken right now. And if someone has the option to buy the same [style] somewhere else or through us, they’re increasingly choosing the option where they can send a girl to school for a year or help save a species,” Boyd said. Olivela sells brands including Moncler, Rabanne and Simone Rocha. Among the charities benefitting from its donations are Care, providing education access to women impacted by poverty, and Save the Children, supporting families at the center of global crises.
With the new cash injection, Olivela is targeting growth by upping the marketing around its elevated product assortment under chief merchant Maria Milano, who joined the company in late 2021. In addition, after growing in the U.S., the company plans to expand to Europe and potentially the Middle East. Launching an app, allowing for greater shopper personalization and also push notifications, is among the immediate next steps. Currently, Olivela has a team of 60, largely concentrated in the areas of engineering, marketing and merchandising.
According to Boyd, the company’s most challenging moments to date have included the start of the pandemic and the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. Both prevented the company from growing as fast as she would have liked. During the bank collapse in March 2023, the company had two incoming investments totaling $15 million that fell through “at the 11th hour,” she said.
Olivela has since found its groove — and, according to Boyd, it’s now picking up where one-time competitors left off.
“We’re seeing [a wave of] their customers and their brands come to us — especially brands that sold through Matchesfashion. Many had buys that were made and production that was started before [product orders were] canceled. The impact on their business has been significant, and they’re now exploring ways to put that inventory to work. And if it’s the right brand for our portfolio, wonderful.”
She added, “We’re being careful and curated, in terms of [the brands] we’re bringing on. Those that are winning in this category know who their customer is and curate their brands for that customer, versus featuring 3,000 brands on their site.”
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