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The queue line to enter ³§Ã©³ú²¹²Ô±ð goes around the whole building this afternoon before Christmas. And it’s like that almost every Saturday.

From selling vintage products on eBay to opening big retail stores in Paris, London and NY,  is one of the best French fashion success stories of the past five years. ³§Ã©³ú²¹²Ô±ð puts parisian fashion on the top of the industry. From mass market brands to the fashion-forward creative studio, every fashion professional wants to know the secret of their retail magic.

But what is behind ³§Ã©³ú²¹²Ô±ð’s success ? Thanks to RETVIEWS data, here is the explanation.

Considering its brand identity and product offering, ³§Ã©³ú²¹²Ô±ð takes the niche of the affordable-luxury market along with other French brands such as Sandro, Maje and The Kooples.

Price is often a reason why consumers turn to ³§Ã©³ú²¹²Ô±ð instead of institutional brands. Below is a price comparison of ³§Ã©³ú²¹²Ô±ð against its direct competitive brands.

³§Ã©³ú²¹²Ô±ð’s products price, on average are half as compared to its competitors. It’s a huge difference.  More than half of their products are priced below €100 while it’s only 15% for other brands on average.

The maximum price you can find in ³§Ã©³ú²¹²Ô±ð’s collection is €390, this creates a feeling of affordability for consumers. One major reason is that they have way less brick and mortar stores which reduce costs.

Looking at ³§Ã©³ú²¹²Ô±ð’s lower price positioning than other brands, we’ve analyzed how they deal with discounting. These rates include all price decreases even if not shown as a discount to customers.

As many people may know, ³§Ã©³ú²¹²Ô±ð does not rely on discounts. The above chart informs us that average discount rate over the last semester was only 5%. It’s in fact price adjustments to optimize sales rather than traditional discounts.

Recently, ³§Ã©³ú²¹²Ô±ð offered unsold products under the name Archives. This is one of the few tricks the brand cleverly uses to maintain desire, a core knowhow.

³§Ã©³ú²¹²Ô±ð’s offering strategy is based on a mix system of product delivery : a permanent collection and regular limited-edition drops.

The limited-edition drops are products on a discount available for a short period of time. The message is clear : buy it while it’s hot, soon it will be gone ! The brand uses this strategy to quickly sell remaining stock and bring new products to customers.  

This strategy is familiar to luxury brands to help maintain desire. In that sense, ³§Ã©³ú²¹²Ô±ð is unique compared to direct competitors by applying a successful strategy from other markets.

One might think that black would be a significant share of ³§Ã©³ú²¹²Ô±ð parisian fashion color identity for its products. But interestingly, this is not the case. The French brand’s collection is colorful with only 10% of black compared to an average of 30% for other brands.

Using Retviews, you are able to quickly see the assortment structure. Here are the results.

The most significant difference between ³§Ã©³ú²¹²Ô±ð and other affordable-luxury brands in the smaller share of outerwear : 4.4% vs. average of 11.8% for competitors. On the contrary, accessories represent more than 38.8% of the collection, the first highest proportion followed by Maje.

On this very trending topic, ³§Ã©³ú²¹²Ô±ð is much more successful than the rest of the market with an average of 4.5 sizes available while the average is only 2.5

This is reflected in significant products available in small and large sizes. ³§Ã©³ú²¹²Ô±ð offers five times more of size 34 and is the only brand proposing a consistent selection of size 44.

All in all, ³§Ã©³ú²¹²Ô±ð maintains a high desire by quickly taking products off the shelves and limiting discounts on the permanent collection. Products are colorful and half price compared to direct competitors. They offer a wide size range so that every customer is able to purchase the product they want to wear.