Le New Black is all new

By

Jean-Paul Leroy

Published
Jan 21, 2015

More than five years after its launch and three years after a new version, the virtual Le New Black trade fair launched an entirely revamped site this Wednesday, positioning itself as a BtoB platform.

To do so, founder Vidya Narine and her team of six collaborators called upon the Area17 agency. Major pressure in terms of the design of the sites since the agency had previously worked for Style.com, Theory, Ora-Ito, etc.

In parallel, Le New Black has launched its iPad app for ordering offline dedicated to fashion brands.
 
The aim of these developments is for Le New Black to take the next step since, according to Vidya Narine, the site now has a balanced net result.
 
There are currently 250 brands on the site, both via the Le New Black marketplace and private showrooms. The latter include nearly 30 brands, such as Paco Rabanne, from the Puig group, which just joined the site.
 
Among the brands represented by Le New Black visitors will find AMI Alexandre Matiussi, Jacquemus, Etudes Studio, April77, Bernard Willhelm, John Lawrence Sullivan, Harris Wharf London, etc.
 
As for buyers, some 10,000 professionals use Le New Black to prepare ther purchasing sessions and to see and order the collections. From department stores to purchasing offices to multi-brand retailers.
 
The geographic origins of the users are varied since they come from 85 different companies. In detail, 48% are European (30% French, 27% Scandinavian, 21% British,...). Some 20% are American and 32% are from the rest of the world.
 
For Vidya Narine, although there was groundwork and convincing to be done at the beginning of Le New Black, today the system is a lot more understood. "The physical act of purchasing has dematerialised all around," she pointed out.  "Even we had to make adjustments as we went along. Brands can access statistics to the bestsellers, the most ordered items, have real time numbers on stocks, etc. Indeed, our tool allows brands to manage their schedules and orders in real time. Which is why we also have the iPad app, which allows our sales reps to take orders even while offline, which often happens at trade fairs and showrooms, for example, and to pay once they're back online."
 
In fact, it was notably this need to better explain these features that led Le New Black to redo its site. Of course it also had to do with freshening it up a bit too!
 
Le New Blac's objective: to be the number one platform of its kind in Europe.