When you’re surfing and you come across a website called FarFetch, you do a retake. Is that for real? Farfetch.com is for real, as it happens. It is an online luxury superstore that connects the consumer with more than 250 multi-brand designer boutiques the world over. It boasts over 105,000 products and 2000 plus, brands. All of this, at the click of a button. Susanne Tide-Frater, its Brand and Strategy Director who was recently in town with Paul Brine, Marketing Director, corrects the popular notion of farfetch.
“Farfetch, in this context, means fetching from afar.” Founded by Jose Neves, from Portugal, the project was launched in 2008, when he married both his passions, technology and fashion, to produce a global fashion destination online.
The logistics of connecting 250 boutiques worldwide could turn into a nightmare for most, but they seem to have got past it. “Selling from brick and mortar to web, is hugely different, and yet, similar,” says Paul Brine. It has the same rigorous quality control and variety of brands (in fact much more), but delivery is the key when you shop online. Essentially, when you order a product, a seamless backend system will ensure it is delivered within the specified time.
So what can a consumer expect from FarFetch? “The idea behind FarFetch,” says Susanne, is to support creativity and diversity in fashion. We look for individualistic stores, which is immediate gratification for consumers.” This is how our very own India-based LeMill has joined FarFetch as one of its boutiques. “The criterion worldwide in choosing our boutiques is very simple,” she says, “we look for forward thinking and independent fashion houses who are constantly pushing the boundaries., who lead more than follow.” And LeMill has apparently met with all these criteria for the online superstore. In a way, it is wonderful that stores from India will now reach out to a global audience.
As for consumers, they now have a broader field to treasure hunt.
