GSI Grabs RueLaLa/SmartBargains for $350 Million

Exciting e-commerce fusion in the US: For $350 million, GSI Commerce has taken over Retail Convergence, the operator of private shopping club Ruelala (approx. $100 million revenues) and the bargain shop Smartbargains (approx. $60 million revenues). GSI Commerce is a full service e-commerce provider serving large (fashion) brands.

Besides the detailed press release, Internetretailer has a written up a good background article.

We at Exciting Commerce commented recently on the changes occurring in the fashion industry, which is again underlined by this particular deal:

“According to our estimates, parallel to services such as Yoox, DePauli/Herrenausstatter or Design3000 (and their exclusive branded shops), in particular logistic service providers (such as Dohmen Solutions and Hellmann) will be cutting a larger piece of the fashion pie and in effect increasingly become competition for the established (mail-order) businesses.”

GCI Commerce, which is making its way to Europe, is expanding its service offering for branded manufacturers and can now start offering targeted clearance sales.

Source: GSI Commerce Webcast

P.S. Naturally, we are at Optaros very proud that we develop Ruelala as one of the first American private shopping clubs for Retail Convergence/SmartBargains - and are able to kit them out with a full set of sales supporting elements.

Related posts:

• Three US Online Shopping Clubs Want To Exceed $100 Million
• The Shop Exchange: $40 Million for US Shopping Club Gilt Groupe
• Onestop Internet Nabs $13 Million for Billion Dollar Babes (Club)

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, adapted for excitingcommerce.com by Jason Soo.