Bluefly Lands on Flash Sales

The new player on fashion's flash-sales circuit has a familiar name: Bluefly.com.

The discount e-commerce site, which launched 12 years ago when the widespread use of the word e-commerce was more dream than reality, is strutting its Manolo Blahniks straight into the timed-sales arena with a separate site called Belle & Clive, which debuted Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. ET.

There are already a number of competitive players in flash sales, from Gilt Groupe to Vente Privée, which recently announced plans to bring the flash phenomenon it pioneered in France to the United States. But Bluefly CEO Melissa Payner tells Portfolio.com that Belle & Clive—sort of like "Bonnie and Clyde" getting a steal on designer goods—is well-positioned to succeed having learned from the mistakes of those already in the space.

“We’ve built strong relationships with top designer brands, and learned from our customers how they like to shop,” Payner says. “We’ve leveraged these relationships and learnings to launch what we believe is a unique experience.”

The first flash sale kicked off with a group of names that couldn’t be much more high end: Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Miu Miu, and Bottega Venetta, available at discounts for a 72-hour time period. Those A-list brands reflect the new site’s ability to offer a steady stream of brands that are "meaningful to the customer," at members-only prices, Payner says. Some vintage pieces and collections, such as the vintage Chanel and Louis Vuitton bags on day one, will be exclusive to Belle & Clive.

Discounts will vary by brand, but everything will be priced to elicit “an urgent reaction from the consumer who understands the product’s value,” Payner says.

In response to the new competitor, Gilt Groupe chairman Susan Lyne told CNBC.com that flash sales are "an easy space to get into, but it's a very difficult space to really scale unless it's your core business.”

That difficulty hasn’t deterred venture capital investors, who seemed riveted by such sites last week.

Time will tell if that trend will continue with Belle & Clive, which could bring fresh investor attention to Bluefly, which is publicly traded and after losing money through 2007, is trending toward profitability with last year’s revenue up $7 million to reach a total of $88.5 million, CNBC notes.

---

Get more business intelligence from Portfolio.com:

• The Backscatter Backstory: Good news for those who worry about "backscatter" scanners: The TSA is shifting to a new variety that's not supposed to emit as much radiation. But here's the bad news: Some form of "nude-o-scope" scanner is coming to an airport near you.
• VC-Backed Firms Get Shot at Federal R&D: Lawmakers reach a deal that opens Small Business Innovation Research grants to companies backed by venture capital firms.
• Holiday Shoppers: Are They Spent Already?: It was a Black Friday to remember for retailers, but November sales hardly dazzled, rising just 0.2 percent versus the 0.6 percent analysts expected. Meanwhile, another study suggests that this year’s early-bird shoppers are done shelling out.

---

Teresa Novellino writes for Portfolio.com