Gerry Weber launches new premium digital-only brand, Gr8tful

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Mar 2, 2018

Gerry Weber International is aiming to accelerate its turnaround with the launch of a completely new brand. Gr8tful is a digital-only fashion label offering premium womenswear with its launch later this month inviting customers to a “relaxed online shopping” experience at its gr8atful.com website.

As well as its own e-store, it will be available on partner retailers’ websites such such as Breuninger and Engelhorn, and on external platforms such as Amazon and About You.

It makes the brand one of the first German premium labels to be online-only.

The company said it would launch seven collections a year with each one including between 30 and 40 pieces. The focus will be on “modern dresses and blouses as well as elegant and feminine shirts.” The collection items will be dispatched in “unique high-quality black cartons wrapped in gold silk paper.” We don’t yet know about pricing.

So who are the target customers? Well, the company isn’t moving too far outside of its established group reaching out to affluent, “confident, experienced consumers” aged 40 to 55.

The development of the brand has been overseen by the group’s executive VPs at the Taifun/Samoon brands, with Oliver Zaric in charge of product and Bernd Brodrick running sales.

Company CEO Ralf Weber first decided that an online-only brand would be the way forward around a year ago and this week said that the launch means the firm is “positioning ourselves for the future and [will] ideally complement our brand portfolio by an online-only brand and a new customer group. The aim is for our brands to use all physical and digital distribution channels, to connect them with each other and to expand our e-commerce operations.”

He also said that going online with this new launch will allow the firm to react to trends more quickly, both general trends in the marketplace and specific ones among Gr8tful customers.

The fully automated Gerry Weber logistics centre that opened just over two years ago will be key for the logistics operation behind the new label.