Private shopping club
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An online private shopping club is a members only shopping club, where members can buy goods at high discounts.
Private shopping clubs organise sales events for its members that typically last 2 to 6 days. Because they are private they protect the brand owners distribution channels, brand and price points. True private shopping clubs source their products directly from the brands.
To become a member, one typically needs to be invited by another member or get waitlisted to get membership. There are several clubs where this show of exclusivity is only a show and everybody who seeks a membership does get it anyways. They are very close to be a general online shop or a public shopping site except for the fact that they cannot market specific brand deals in public.
The business model of private shopping clubs was started in France by the market leader vente-privee.com. It has since then been adopted by a variety of clubs globally: BuyVIP (Europe) [1], Brands4Friends (Germany)[2], Hautelook (USA) [3], Ruelala (USA) [4], Gilt (USA),[5], brandsExclusive (Australia), [6] Luxury4Less (South Africa) [7] SecretSales (UK) [8] FashionandYou (India) [9] BrandsClub (Brazil) [10] Beyond the Rack (Canada), [11]
Variations of shopping clubs are: - Free for members vs. Membership fee, - Different membership levels vs. One level for all - Premium brands vs. hard discount
Shopping clubs operate in various categories (fashion, travel, electronics etc) and segments (Premium brands, bargain basement, Gen Y, Gen X, etc).
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