Instagram and its 2 billion users are no longer enough for Balzac Paris. The women’s fashion brand founded in 2014 inaugurated, on Wednesday September 7, a first store under its brand, rue d’Hauteville in the 10e district of Paris. The idea of running a boutique “has been trotting for a long time” in the minds of the founders, Chrysoline de Gastines, her husband, Victorien, and her brother-in-law Charles Fourmaux. Because, explains the 30-something entrepreneur, “a large part of the clientele wants to touch the clothes and try them on” before buying.
And this child of the Web must now face fierce competition on social networks to promote its limited editions, its leopard prints and its handbag, the César, the best of its sales. On Instagram, on which 445,000 subscribers follow his account, “the algorithm is getting more and more ferocious”explains M.me of Gastines. Among its 70 employees, the 15 assigned to advertising on social networks must now ” jostle “ for posts to show the best possible ROI and get fans buying right away.
According to him, the operation of this 400 m² shop should contribute to the development of the brand in France and abroad. The leader did not skimp on the decoration, which cost more than a million euros. Balzac also plans to open boutiques in Lille, Lyon, Bordeaux and London. Rue d’Hauteville, where the store received the visit of 2,500 people in two days, Charles Fourmaux expects “3 to 4 million euros” turnover.
Dramatic success
Balzac is not the only brand born on the Net to cross the Rubicon. For several years, Sezane, another dazzlingly successful e-commerce figure, has been opening “apartments” or some « conciergeries », understand stores. The brand, whose sales have jumped by 30%, to 250 million euros in 2021, should benefit from new liquidity to open more points of sale – it operates around ten units to date, in Paris, Lille, New York, London and Madrid among others. Because, Morgane Sézalory, the 34-year-old founder, announced on 1is September, the entry into its capital of Téthys Invest, holding company of the very wealthy Bettencourt-Meyers family, shareholder of the L’Oréal group, alongside the American fund General Atlantic, shareholder since 2018.
“Because profitable since its inception”, Balzac Paris “does not envisage this type of operation” in order to “remain a family company”, says Charles Fourmaux. The company’s minority shareholder is Generis Capital Partners, a fund specializing in SMEs. Its activity reached 19 million euros in 2021, after a 50% jump. The 2022 financial year is expected to grow by 30%. A performance that many of its competitors dream of, battered by the trade crisis.