Spartoo wants to be the European Zappos

Published: 11 February, 2010

The shareholders of spartoo.com, which rejected a takeover offer from Amazon at the end of 2008, are targeting sales of more than $100 million by 2012, rising to $300 million in 2015, and at least 40 % of that should come outside France, where this young shoe e-tailer is based. Amazon took over last year zappos.com, the leading American shoe retailer over the internet.

Spartoo claims to be already the biggest retailer selling exclusively current footwear styles in Europe. To help finance its European expansion, Spartoo has raised €12 million worth of additional equity by letting in two investment companies as new shareholders.They are Highland Capital Partners of the U.S. and Endeavour Vision of Switzerland. They have joined are institutional investors and company managers including Boris Saragaglia, co-founder and president of the three-year-old company.

Spartoo is investing strongly in marketing to enter new markets, but this year foreign sales should still represent only about 10 % of Spartoo’s revenues, which are expected to grow to €50 million from €30 million in 2009. About 10 % of its 600,000-plus regular clients are located outside France. Its websites have received more than 4 million unique visits so far. The company is spending between €1 million and €2 million in marketing for a launch on any new market. Excluding these expenses, the company is expecting a net profit margin more than 3 % in France this year. Cash flow is positive.

Besides France, Spartoo is already present on the market in the U.K., Italy, Belgium and Luxembourg. It plans to hit the German and Spanish markets this year: spartoo.de and spartoo.es websites are already in place with the wording “coming soon.” The company is studying various options to acquire existing local e-commerce operations in order to accelerate its growth in Europe. Spartoo’s website offers more than 7,000 current styles of women’s, men’s and children’s shoes by about 150 major brands, and no close-outs from previous seasons. It is proposing the establishment of a dedicated section for luxury brands, called “The Temple.”

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