PARIS — Call it a disruptive business model. Sensing the advent of a new era in mobile commerce, French label Faith Connexion is partnering with select boutiques around the world to create a virtual shopping community dubbed Circle of Faith.
Le Royal Eclaireur, the Paris-based specialist store, is the first to connect itself to the retail platform, which aims to speed distribution and create lasting relationships between specialty stores and vendors.
Stores joining the network are to receive direct access to the label’s complete stock and be rewarded with a commission when customers discover the collection.
“Imagine a woman comes into the store. She sees a piece she likes, but can’t find it in her size or preferred color,” explained Alexandre Allard, French entrepreneur, former Balmain shareholder and the label’s founder. “She can then scan the tag on the garment via the app we developed, which will show where the piece is available within the network, pay in the store and have it delivered to her home the same afternoon, or no later than 48 hours if the item has to be shipped from, say, Korea.”
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Thirty percent of the purchase price will go to Le Royale Eclaireur, which aided the woman in discovering the item.
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“This way we remunerate creativity and the people who promote it, and nobody gets screwed,” Allard deadpanned over a bowl of green olives at the Royal Monceau, which he also helped mastermind in tandem with French design guru Philippe Starck.
Allard projects that by 2025, 90 percent of all purchases will be done via mobile phones, disrupting retail as we know it. “[This virtual shopping space] is like a giant Avenue des Champs Elysées, which for now is totally empty. We are confident that [brick-and-mortar] stores will survive because the physical experience is important, but they need to be reinvented and be of quality,” he argued.
The concept is slated to launch at L’Eclaireur Wednesday, before spreading to Maxfield in Los Angeles, I.T. Hong Kong, Tom Greyhound in Korea and 66 in Beirut. Within two to three years it is expected to reach 50 stores.
“We want to select those retailers with the most experience in fashion and help them generate revenue while using their shops as a mental space,” said Allard, adding that he is not interested in opening his own flagships. “The best stores are stores like L’Eclaireur. They have allowed brands like Balmain to exist, and so I always thought that the model was wrong,” he said, alluding to the fact that the moment fashion brands set up their own retail outposts, those multibrand retailers that helped them on the map start losing customers — and sales.
The entrepreneur is planning to unveil the label’s collections, which currently generate 6 million euros, or $6.7 million, only when they are actually ready to be delivered, instead of six months ahead of the season, which is the usual formula.
“This is very important,” noted L’Eclaireur founder Armand Hadida, “because it helps protect the product from being copied.”
In addition, the Circle of Faith is to accept a group artists as members, willing to customize the collection, which retails between 500 euros, or $558, and 1,500 euros, or $1,673, to the customers’ liking.
“There are so many artists who are eager to show their creativity, but can’t because they need to pass through galleries, which is a tough process. Here, they can express their ideas and we share the profits,” Hadida said.
Concluded Allard confidently: “[The model] is a little crazy, but it will work.”