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~ Drestige ~

Italians and fashion - they are inseparable. However, an economy that isn’t always flourishing

comes with its challenges, especially with increasing demands for high-end fashion. There
have been numerous initiatives to give the Italians what they want: an outlet containing high-
end fashion that matches their purchasing power. 4eCom Cross-Border Award-winning
e-commerce business, Drestige, offers consumers exactly that. We talk to Joseph Balice,
Founder of Drestige, to learn about the growth and cross-border ambitions of the company.

The ‘outlet’ world stock up. “We choose the boutiques that have a style we consider
Drestige is the natural result of an evolving family company that appropriate and fair compared to what we think the end consum-
has been around for more than sixty years. The family business, ers require,” explains Balice. “Our demand is very varied, as our
covering three generations, has always been focused on fashion. customers potentially come from all over the world. That is one of
The first shop founded focused on local markets, selling socks. the positive aspects of an e-commerce platform. Many customers
Later, a boutique with high-quality garments opened. outside of our Italian home market are interested in articles and
styles that Italian consumers do not seek.”
In the late nineties and early 2000s, the business found its way
into the ‘outlet’ world. While the Italian economy soared and the Setting up an international business
spending power of families decreased, the desire to remain able to Drestige offers its large range of products across borders.
dress fashionably increased. Following the latest fashion trends, It, for example, set up shop in France and Germany and
created by the globalising world, was a boost for the world of pres- localised its web shop platform in seven languages. Despite
tigious fashion outlets. At the same time, e-commerce started its that, the strategy of the business has never been to reason
exceptional growth. With a responsive mar- geographically. “For us, opening up shop
an online outlet shop. “We pioneered in 2012 “OPENING UP SHOP outside of Italy has been an obvious
ket, the Balice family pursued the target of
step. I believe that every e-commerce
without positive results,” says Balice. “The real OUTSIDE OF ITALY platform should sell all over the world.
and 2015 to set up shop online, unfortunately
That is the great potential a web shop
Many took the e-commerce path in the early HAS BEEN AN OB- has to offer. The fact that there are no
obstacle we faced was the time we had lost.
physical borders provides you with
VIOUS STEP.”
2000s, while we achieved great results in a so many opportunities to seize,” says
young and competition-free market. Now, we Balice. “For us, it meant we were able to
have to keep up with what we have and think enter European markets where e-com-
bigger, making up for the time we lost.” merce is much more popular than it is in Italy. For technical
reasons, we started in neighbouring countries, but we will
The third time was a charm. With the knowledge Balice collected continue to expand further and further.”
from earlier attempts, he founded Drestige in 2017. The company
digitalised itself completely and reinvented its way of working. Along the way to becoming an international operating online
The investments paid off, and positive results were seen in 2019. business, Drestige faced some challenges. Two main hurdles
“We implemented a broad investment plan on several fronts. Our that had to be taken were offering multilingual customer
logistics department now covers over 600m2 dedicated completely service and finding an efficient global carrier. “Facing these
to all twelve of our Drestige-collaborates. Meanwhile, we set up an challenges was tough, but we find suitable solutions for both.
in-house marketing office and two photographic studios. Here, we We set-up our own customer service department and found
prepare more than 200 article shoots every day so products can be a partner in Salesupply to help us with a logistical return
published on our sales channels within 24 hours.” solution, which really made our operations easier. Our inter-
national customers now can return their products locally, for
Over 900 brands example, in Germany, Denmark, Spain and France. Creat-
“To offer a wide assortment of high-end fashion products, Dres- ing these solutions was part of keeping up with our online
tige buys high-season goods from the best Italian boutiques. “We competitors.”
are stockists. At the end of a purchasing campaign, we can put
together a collection of over 50.000 articles, varying in product Finding the right channels
type and price, coming from a wide range of established and “Maybe our biggest challenge was not if we should expand
upcoming brands.” across borders, but when! We tried to do that in the shortest
time possible, looking for the best channels to be able to enter
As a stockist, Drestige does not order directly from the brands. foreign markets as successfully as possible,” says Balice when
Their choice falls on the picks of the boutiques from which they we are talking about international challenges. To find the right

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