In an era where fashion e-commerce is being reshaped by social media shopping and massive global platforms, Place des Tendances, the French multibrand retailer owned by Printemps Group, is betting on mid- to premium brands, longtime customer loyalty and speed-focused logistics to fuel its European expansion.

For Guillaume Grimbert, who quietly stepped into the chief executive officer role in February, it was a return to his roots. As the platform’s very first employee when it was a startup back in 2008, he helped the cofounders launch the e-commerce pioneer before embarking on a 20-year career in luxury fashion and real estate tech.

He understands the potential of his origin story. “As far as storytelling, it’s pretty good,” he joked.

Now at the helm of the company where he started his career, he’s focused on expansion in a market butting up against decreasing consumer confidence. Grimbert emphasizes a data-driven approach.

“We’re not here to be everything for everyone,” he said.

That means pulling back from the home and decor category, which had been tested in recent years as a potential lifestyle play. Home will now be left to Made in Design, a sister company within Printemps Group.

“Our customers come to us for fashion and beauty,” Grimbert said. “It’s not a moment to go in a different direction. We want to focus on where we are very strong, and that’s fashion, accessories, shoes and beauty.”

Instead, the company is expanding its offer within its two core verticals. In women’s fashion, Place des Tendances has added popular and up-and-coming names like Farm Rio, while also seeking out emerging labels from the Nordic countries and Spain — creative hubs Grimbert believes are “underexposed” to French consumers.

“We are going to continue to search, like detectives, across Europe for new independent, trendy brands to propose to our customers,” he said. The team regularly travels to Barcelona, Berlin and Brussels — just to name a few cities off the beaten fashion track — in search of new labels.

But Grimbert is not betting the house on Gen Z. The site’s core customer is a woman between 40 and 50 who lives outside of Paris and wants access to the latest fashion trends and brands from the capital — and even further afield, like Scandinavia or South Korea.

It currently hosts more than 400 brands from French stalwarts like Sandro to rising Scandi names like Rotate and Rue de Tokyo.

Recent additions include British brand Damson Madder, Danish labels Tiny Big Sister and Minimum, and indie French brands including Hod Paris, Rouge Edit and Socque. Other Nordic names including Filippa K and Baum und Pferdgarten; Spanish brands Laagam, Toral and Bibi Lou, and Korean men’s brand Solid will launch soon. Nars will soon be added in the beauty category.

While Amazon has entered the fashion category — not to mention the low-cost volume play of Shein and Temu, which are facing political blowback and potential regulation in France — Grimbert sees limited competition from the international giants, particularly in the accessible luxury and premium segments.

“Some brands just don’t want to be on Amazon. It doesn’t align with their brand identity,” he said. “Or they don’t want to be seen with too many wholesalers at the same time and be [overexposed].” Case in point is French label Sandro, which prefers to be on a curated platforms that reflects its positioning as accessible luxury.

Men’s fashion, currently just a 10 percent slice of the business pie, is also receiving fresh investment with the addition of new brands. “It’s one of the big white spaces in the French market,” he said. A renewed focus on shoes, accessories and premium brands for men is part of the expansion plan, as is adding more brands for children down the line.

Many have been shopping on the site for more than a decade — and Grimbert intends to keep them.

“Some of our customers have been with us since 2008. They place 50 orders a year. That’s about one a week,” Grimbert said. He is building new strategies around these frequent buyers.

The team has introduced segmented loyalty levels, including a VIC tier, and is rolling out exclusive services such as invitation-only sales and bespoke gifting. “We think about our customer every minute,” he said. “I tell my team: see your customer, call them, listen to them.”

Grimbert’s first focus has been on “quick wins,” including a revamp of the site to make it more intuitive for users, international rollouts and expanding the brand portfolio. Following the tech upgrades, Grimbert has set a clear target of reaching 100 million euros in turnover within his first year while strengthening profit margins.

He emphasized the need to grow revenue efficiently by using a lower-risk marketplace model to test new brands, targeting high-value customers through the new loyalty perks and expanding outlet offerings for price-sensitive shoppers.

“We want everyone who visits our site to be able to buy something, whether it’s a 10 euro accessory or a 500 euro jacket. That’s our vision,” he said. The current average basket is 200 euros.

Place des Tendances has its own warehouse just outside of Paris, which handles everything from product photography to order fulfillment. “We can often shoot and launch products before the brands themselves,” Grimbert said.

Staff can triple in size during peak months, and every team member uses tablet-based tools to pick and ship products in under 24 hours, with one-day delivery in Paris for its VIPs.

“We built our own logistics software from the beginning,” said Grimbert, of the company’s proprietary warehouse management system.

Grimbert intends to leverage this logistical edge to scale internationally, with a test-and-learn approach targeting the U.K., Belgium, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

The site now ships to 15 countries. International growth is already up more than 20 percent year-over-year, and expected to be a key growth driver for his revenue goal. French market sales have grown in the single digits — which Grimbert framed as “still pretty good” considering the current macroeconomic climate.

Grimbert’s three-year roadmap includes launching new services and building out both the men’s and children’s categories. He also plans to expand both the full-price and the outlet offerings to broaden the customer base and elevate the customer experience.

Expanding Social Campaigns With Influencers

Place des Tendances will launch a new campaign with French TV host Marine Vignes. The 52-year-old is popular with the brand’s core demographic, and the campaign is timed with France’s rentrée, a period where the country roars back to life after the traditional August vacation — and a key shopping season.

Vignes will curate a selection of looks that will be available on the site, structured around a chic day-to-night wardrobe. The campaign will roll out across both Place des Tendances and Vignes’ personal social platforms, and those who come to the site from Vignes’ social channels will have special discount codes.

“Marine Vignes is really inspirational for our customer, and represents the lifestyle of our community,” he said, noting that it reflects the company’s new influencer-focused content strategy. “We want to use personalities who represent our customers. We’ll continue to do more activations like this.”