European Fashion Favorite FarFetch Tackles the US Market

Boutique fashion shops often have no online presence, an idea that seems foreign in the age of internet retail where stores that are exclusively online attract just as much attention as traditional shops.

The reason lies in boutique shops’ often limited resources that cannot handle the cost of creating and supporting a high quality site along with the challenge of processing deliveries and returns. Additionally, fashion products appear on the Web in such overwhelming volumes that attracting customers can be challenging for a small boutique. {The Business of Fashion}

If you’ve tried surfing the Web for your favorite boutique or indie brands but discovered their products were nowhere to be found on the net, here’s a piece of good news: the recently launched US division of FarFetch could change that. {Fashionista}

FarFetch, the site that aggregates inventory from lots of independent (but highly regarded) boutiques, always shipped to the US and gave a dollar option for prices, but this marks a move towards working directly with US merchants. Previously focused on UK and European stores, the move will now make inventory from stores on this side of the Atlantic available through a single site, and allow boutique brands and small retailers an easier entrance into the online market.

Michael Mente and Michael Karanikolas, who’ve led the company behind RevolveClothing.com, ForwardForward.com and ReverseReverse.com, have partnered with FarFetch to create the online retailer’s US site, which will feature items from New York and Los Angeles stores including American Rag, EVA New York, Manhattan indies Assembly New York, Fred Segal Man and BBlessing. Labels like C. Neeon, Manish Arora and Camilla Skovgaard are among those to be highlighted. {Los Angeles Times}

A launch party, headlined by recording artist Angel Taylor, was held this Thursday evening at American Rag’s South La Brea Ave. store.

“We chose to launch FarFetch because so many of the best brick and mortar stores in the world don’t have Web sites,” Mente told Fashionista. “We’re able to … use our experience and skills to build individual Web sites for amazing stores that may not have been able to do so on their own [and] put all the products from these great stores on one site, which is unlike any other shopping experience out there.”