Vente-Privee, a French flash-sale retailer which launched in 2001 and now sells in eight countries across Europe, says its 2013 sales grew 23% to reach 1.6 billion euros (US $2.2 billion) from 1.3 billion euros (US $1.79 billion) a year earlier.
Vente-Privee.com, which created the concept of limited-time online sales to registered customers with its launch more than a decade ago, says it ran roughly 10,100 sales last year, 65% more than a year earlier. Those sales helped it sell more than 70 million products in 2013 and ship between 50,000 and 150,000 parcels a day. Its sales events attracted between 2.5 and 3 million daily unique visitors, helping the retailer sign up more than 20 million registered members.
Vente-Privee, No. 11 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Europe, says mobile commerce is also increasingly important to its bottom line. The retailer says that 35% of its revenue, about 560 million euro (US$770 million), stemmed from mobile devices last year.
The retailer, which sells in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, United Kingdom, Austria and the Netherlands, expanded to the U.S. in 2011 and says its 2013 U.S. sales rose 100% to $50 million in 2013. Vente-Privee held 800 U.S. sales in 2013, the retailer says.
In the U.K. the e-retailer hosted 973 sales in 2013 and revenue rose 22% in over the prior year. Great Britain is the retailer’s largest market in terms of mobile revenue, with 37% of sales and 41% of U.K. visits coming from consumers using mobile devices.
Vente-Privee hired 624 new employees last year, and doubled its staff from 1,000 to 2,000 over the past three years, it says. 66% of its employees are female.