Shop Direct enters luxury market with new website Very Exclusive

By

Cajsa Lykke Carlson

Published
Feb 19, 2015

British multichannel retailer Shop Direct is on a mission: to make luxury fashion and beauty accessible to more people. On Thursday it launched the new website Very Exclusive, which offers a selection of over 150 accessible and high street luxury brands, with another 30 set to sign up for autumn/winter 2015.

The new site will let customers draw on Shop Direct's credit offer, which including "Take 3". This lets shoppers spread the cost of their purchases across three monthly, interest-free payments.

Among Very Exclusive's brands are Marc by Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfeld, Red Valentino, Reiss, Vivienne Westwood Anglomania, Stila, Nars, Barbour, Joseph and Karen Millen. The website is headed by managing director Sarah Curran, formerly of My-Wardrobe.com, which she founded.

Sarah Curran says: "It’s hard to believe that just a year ago, VeryExclusive.co.uk was a mere idea we were bouncing around and now we’re live with a brand that's going to democratise luxury fashion and beauty."

'I remember jotting down my wish list of accessible luxury brands – the fact that they’ve all embraced us like they have is testament to the strength of our proposition and the style and aesthetic our team has developed."

There are 3.8m target Very Exclusive customers, according to Shop Direct, and a large proportion of them already shop with its mainstream brand, Very.co.uk.

Gareth Jones, deputy chief executive who oversees VeryExclusive.co.uk, said: 'We already see growing demand for luxury and premium brands through searches on Very.co.uk and from talking to our customers."