Secret Sales starts Europe move via Netherlands, Belgium, plans fast wider rollout

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Apr 4, 2022

Premium marketplace Secret Sales has been gearing up for international expansion in recent periods and that expansion has now begun with the business launching in the Netherlands and Belgium as the first step in a wider European rollout. It also has plans to move into another 12 European countries in the next two years.

An initial 450 international and regional “hero brands” are partnering with the premium e-commerce platform to sell discounted inventory in a “brand-enhancing and profitable way”.

The secretsales.nl and secretsales.be webstores are “fully localised for the customer, featuring local languages and payment methods with no additional duties, as well as offering free delivery and 60 day in-country returns”.

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Products are available at up to 70% off regular retail prices and brands and retailers digitally connect their supply chain and inventory systems to Secret Sales “to manage stock more efficiently throughout the year, reducing stock movements and costs, while increasing sales and driving greater margins”.

The company said that more than €700 million of inventory has gone live on both sites. 

As well as the launches, the company has also closed its latest investment round “to further accelerate growth” in other European markets. It wants to become “the largest marketplace for discount fashion in Europe”. 

CEO Chris Griffin — the entrepreneur who, along with Matt Purt, acquired the business two years ago — said the two new countries are “a natural fit for our first phase of expansion in Europe. Our marketplace is addressing universal challenges the retail industry faces and offers a long-term, clean and profitable solution. We are creating a new culture around non-full-price inventory.”  

Secret Sales has grown fast in the UK as it offers the chance for fashion, beauty and homewares brands and retailers to clear surplus stock “in an upmarket environment, and helps introduce new customers to individual brands’ full price channels via a GDPR compliant opt-in”.

While managed from Britain, it’s building a local team within the Netherlands to work with brand and retail partners and customers in both new countries.