I visited last Sunday a private “comptoir” (a nice language trick leading back to the old colonial times and their exotic flavours) in Brussels, namely Cameleon (www.cameleon.be).

It was my first visit and I must admit I was pretty much surprised by what I saw: an impressive building with some positive IKEA-line attributes: a large parking lot, clear signs, vast entry.

Clothes are of course what made this flagship store famous but little booths (with accessories, sunglasses, watches and even wine) were set along the way. I was even wondering whether this was part of the store. Last but not least a Fiat 500 was on exhibition at a special Cameleon price.

I was amazed to see the crowd on a Sunday afternoon. It gave me the feeling of a one-day-before-Christmas rush. This is the most difficult part of the experience to understand since private sales are, by definition, based on a godfather-principle (you get in only if you received an invitation).

My Take:

This being said … Cameleon looks like a huge success. It added to the mere online dimension of Venteprivees.com a brick-and-mortar dimension which aims at reassuring customers. I assume that the latter need to see, touch and try the clothes rather than trusting a website.

But what is the future of the “brand” (well let’s talk about “store” as I don’t think there’s already brand equity in there). Actually I can’t really see.

The business model is straightforward: you’ve got plenty of unsold goods from famous brands which you can buy at a fraction of the price in one unique place. It’s good for the brands (they don’t need to promote unsold goods), it’s good for Cameleon (you buy at a discount whatever is left and sell at a premium), it’s good for the customer. Cameleon added a taste of exclusivity since shopping was reserved to members on the model of Parisian private sales à la Vuitton or Hermès. But Cameleon lost this exclusivity dimension. The secret tip that was passed on between friends became a hit and nowadays you can even register online. You just need the name of a member. It became a kind of giant jumble sale where you may find something if you’re luck (which was not my case last Sunday).

So what … discount stores have existed for more than 30 years and I remember my grandmother making the trip to Troyes (not far away from Paris) to buy from the store at the Adidas manufacture. This concept evolved in malls where brands have their own shops with larger range of products that you will ever find at Cameleon.

Eventually my conclusion is that Cameleon found an interesting entry strategy to penetrate the market. The exclusivity dimension they played on generated word-of-mouth (WOM). Now that they have settled their business, I anticipate that Cameleon will just open up more and more their doors to anyone wishing to come and will finally turn into a traditional discount store.