7 facts behind Sézane success: Parisian fashion goes worldwide

  • BRAND FOCUS
  • 3 min read
  • 7 février 2019
7 facts behind Sézane success: Parisian fashion goes worldwide

The queue line to enter Sézane goes around the whole building this afternoon before Christmas. And it’s like that almost every Saturday.

From selling vintage products on eBay to opening big retail stores in Paris, London and NY, Sézane is one of the best French fashion success stories of the past five years. From mass market brands to the fashion-forward creative studio, every fashion professional wants to know the secret of their retail magic.

But what is behind Sézane’s success ? Thanks to RETVIEWS data, here is the explanation.

 

IT’S ALWAYS ABOUT PRICE

Considering its brand identity and product offering, Sézane is positioned on the affordable-luxury market along with other French brands such as Sandro, Maje and The Kooples.

Price is often a reason cited by consumers who turn to Sézane instead of institutional brands. Below is a price comparison of Sézane against its direct competitive brands.

 

 

Sézane’s products price, on average are half as compared to its competitors. It’s a huge difference.  More than half of their products are priced below €100 while it’s only 15% for other brands on average.

The maximum price you can find in Sézane’s collection is €390, this creates a feeling of affordability for consumers. One major reason is that they have way less brick and mortar stores which reduce costs.

 

DISCOUNT OR NOT ?

Looking at Sézane’s lower price positioning than other brands, we’ve analyzed how they deal with discounting. These rates include all price decreases even if not shown as a discount to customers.

 

Sézane average discount rate graph

 

As many people may know, Sézane does not rely on discounts. The above chart informs us that average discount rate over the last semester was only 5%. It’s in fact price adjustments to optimize sales rather than traditional discounts.

Recently, Sézane offered unsold products under the name Archives. This is one of the few tricks the brand cleverly uses to maintain desire, a core knowhow.

 

 

THE DROP STRATEGY

Sézane’s offering strategy is based on a mix system of product delivery : a permanent collection and regular limited-edition drops.

The limited-edition drops are discounted products available for a short period of time. The message is clear : buy it while it’s hot, soon it will be gone ! The brand uses this strategy to quickly sell remaining stock and bring new products to customers.  

This strategy is often used by luxury brands to help maintain desire. In that sense, Sézane is unique compared to direct competitors by applying a successful strategy from other markets.

 

 

THE COLOR PALETTE

One might think that black would be a significant share of Sézane’s color selection for its products. But interestingly, this is not the case. The French brand’s collection is colorful with only 10% of black compared to an average of 30% for other brands.

 

 

LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT PRODUCT CATEGORIES

Using RETVIEWS, you are able to quickly see the assortment structure. Here are the results.

Sézane variety assortment graph

 

The most significant difference between Sézane and other affordable-luxury brands in the smaller share of outerwear : 4.4% vs. average of 11.8% for competitors. On the contrary, accessories represent more than 38.8% of the collection, the first highest proportion followed by Maje.

 

 

 

SIZE INCLUSIVITY : FASHION HOTTEST TOPIC

On this very trending topic, Sézane is much more successful than the rest of the market with an average of 4.5 sizes available while the average is only 2.5.

 

Sézane average number of sizes available graph

 

This is reflected in significant products available in small and large sizes. Sézane offers five times more of size 34 and is the only brand proposing a consistent selection of size 44.

 

THE BOTTOM LINE

All in all, Sézane maintains a high desire by quickly taking products off the shelves and limiting discounts on the permanent collection. Products are colorful and half price compared to direct competitors. They offer a wide size range so that every customer is able to purchase the product they want to wear.

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