SYDNEY — There’s a new digital B2B marketplace in town.
This week, 2,650 retailers in 543 cities across 93 countries will each receive their password for a new online wholesale buying platform called Ordre.com. The pre-fall collections of up to 60 international designers will be loaded onto the Web site in the coming weeks.
Headquartered out of Hong Kong, the invitation-only platform is the brainchild of Australian Fashion Week founder and former IMG Fashion Asia Pacific managing director Simon Lock, who spotted an opportunity in the burgeoning B2B wholesale buying arena pioneered by start-ups such as Joor and NuOrder.
Early-stage investment has been led by Jefferies Hong Kong Ltd. chief executive officer Michael Alexander, who is also advising on Ordre’s Series A funding round, which Lock expects to close within weeks, bringing total funding to $10 million. Ordre’s point of difference, according to Lock: The e-commerce site is more curated and globally focused.
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Sitting alongside high-profilers such as Marni, Jason Wu and Jonathan Saunders is a raft of emerging talent from regional markets, including Australia’s Strateas Carlucci, China’s Helen Lee and Nicole Zhang and South Korea’s Kye, Heich es Heich and Kaal E.Suktae.
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“From Day One, we have a global footprint — Joor and NuOrder are very U.S.-focused,” said Lock. He hopes to expand to 150 to 200 designers by the end of 2015 with the help of his retail team, helmed by creative director Kirsten Lock, his wife and business partner, and including global retail director David Bush, the former general merchandise manager for Australian luxury department-store chain David Jones, and two consultants, New York-based Julie Gilhart and London-based Yasmin Sewell.
“If you look at our global retail network, we are as strong in Asia as we are in Europe [and] as we are in North and South America and the Middle East,” added Lock. “We’re launching [in early 2015] in Mandarin, as well. There are a lot of designers in Europe and North America who are looking to develop retail networks in China, and there is no showroom structure in China whatsoever. This is going to allow them to directly engage with department stores and retailers across something like 43 major cities in China.”
Loaded into each designer’s virtual showroom are product images, product video, fabric-swatch scans and line-sheet PDFs.
The platform converts currencies and tracks the delivery process and payment pathway, taking a flat sales commission of 7.5 percent.
Ordre also boasts country managers on the ground in eight global cities — a key selling point for Alexandra Smart, of Sydney-based label Ginger & Smart, which sells on Ordre. Smart said she believes the platform will complement her existing agency arrangements in London and Paris.
“I know NuOrder and a couple of the others [wholesale marketplaces] because we buy for our stores through Europe. What I like about Simon’s offer [is that] it’s still very people-focused. It’s not just digital,” said Smart. “So, if you take an order, there is a person who helps facilitate ongoing relationships between designers and retailers. I think he’s thought that through really well, actually, because that is often the missing link.”