Miinto strengthens the team with well-known fashion profile, Camilla Frank

Miinto strengthens the team with well-known fashion profile, Camilla Frank

  • On April 1, Miinto expands the management team with Camilla Frank in a newly created position as Head of Fashion
  • Camilla Frank will strengthen and expand Miinto’s collaboration with partner stores in the premium segment – including abroad

 

The digital store concept Miinto is experiencing a strong growth, especially in foreign markets. This means, among other things, an increased demand for fashion goods at the exclusive end of the spectrum. Of course, Miinto would like to meet that demand by attracting even more retail partners with premium goods on the shelves. To accomplish this task, Miinto is creating the new position of Head of Fashion, and hiring the strong fashion profile Camilla Frank starting on April 1st.

– I am super happy and proud that Miinto can attract a strong profile like Camilla Frank. I am sure that this will be very beneficial for the customer who wants to be inspired and shop even more premium designer goods on Miinto, says CEO Konrad Kierklo.

Camilla Frank comes to Miinto with almost 20 years of experience from fashion, journalism and, last but not least, the retail industry – among others as a long-lasting director and editor of some of Denmark’s and Norway’s largest digital and print media, as well as director of Copenhagen Fashion Week. Throughout the road, it has always been a red thread in Camilla Frank’s career to ensure a strong focus on the end customer:

– It has always been crucial for me to create the product that the consumer, and also myself, is missing. I am very excited to work with as strong a brand as Miinto, and to fulfil the enormous potential and demand that Miinto is already experiencing on designer goods. Goods that Miinto’s customers can invest in and enjoy for years, says Camilla Frank.

 

Coming to a Miinto in growth

Since the beginning of the year, performance has been strong for Danish Miinto, which for the time being conquers market shares in seven countries. The number of partner stores offering their hand-picked and personally selected fashion favourites through Miinto’s platforms is growing daily, and Miinto is now collaborating with more than 2,400 partners across Europe. Last week, Miinto also announced the acquisition of a major Polish competitor, as well as German Burda Principal Investment as new investor.

– The majority of Miinto’s revenue comes from abroad, and all of our largest partners receive a significant share of their revenue from exports across our markets. In addition, we are experiencing an increasing demand for, among other things, premium products, especially from our export markets. Of course, we must meet both customers and partners’ wishes, and therefore the premium segment will in the future be a business area prioritised even more for Miinto, says Konrad Kierklo.

 

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Fashion platform Miinto acquires Showroom and becomes market leader in Poland

Fashion platform Miinto acquires Showroom and becomes market leader in Poland

  • Miinto, one of Europe’s largest e-commerce fashion platforms, has acquired the Polish fashion platform Showroom
  • Burda joins as an investor in the Miinto Holding

 

Miinto continues its European journey of growth by breaking with the traditional e-commerce way of large, cash-heavy stock and centralised distribution. Instead, hand-picked fashion stores and brands are gathered on a shared online platform. Showroom, which Miinto has acquired with effect from 5th March, is the market leader in Poland with approximately 600 Polish fashion and footwear brands.

“Poland is an exciting market where online shopping is growing generally and fashion is the largest category with an expected turnover of 2.75 billion Euro this year. We have followed Showroom and their development for some time now and have been impressed by the unique position Michał Juda, the founder of Showroom, and his team have gained. They are really good at gathering the best local designers and brands – and then they also have a special ability to inspire the Poles to shopping online”, says Konrad Kierklo, CEO of Miinto.

The teams are working towards an integration of both platforms. As a result, Miinto’s many Scandinavian and international brands will become available to Polish online shoppers.

“We know that consumers in Poland want local designers, but we also know that Scandinavian and international brands are popular. By combining the two platforms, we are creating a new marketplace for the Polish consumer, which does not exist today”, says Kierklo.

 

Experienced growth investor

Showroom is currently owned by subsidiaries of Hubert Burda Media (Burda), the European media and tech company which also publishes a number of high quality fashion magazines in Poland. Burda will become a new shareholder and investor in the Miinto Holding.

“With this partnership, we combine the knowledge of the Showroom team which is focused on independent designers with Miinto’s innovative model for fashion e-commerce. We are excited to be part of their vision of a European fashion platform and look forward to working together. Miinto fits perfectly to our strategy of supporting fast growing digital companies”, says Christian Teichmann, Managing Director BurdaPrincipal Investments.

“We are pleased to be able to welcome Burda to our group of investors. We have had good dialogue with their team throughout the process and have great respect for them. In addition, they have an impressive portfolio of media and digital companies under their umbrella and have a strong position on many exciting markets such as Germany, the UK, Poland, the US and Asia. They will be a strong asset on Miinto’s future journey”, says Kierklo.

 

About Miinto:

Miinto was established in 2009 and today counts more than 130 people distributed between the head office in Copenhagen and regional offices in Oslo, Amsterdam, Warsaw and Zurich. Miinto sells products online in seven European countries – Denmark, Sweden, Norway, The Netherlands, Belgium, Poland and Switzerland – thanks to a strong network of local, independent fashion stores in each country.

Miinto makes it possible for independent fashion stores to sell online in a fast, easy and cost-effective way and, consequently, expand their market. By joining Miinto, they become part of a large community of independent stores gathered on a large, powerful sales platform for fashion.

“We already cooperate with more than 1,800 of the best fashion stores and brands from seven markets. Through Miinto, the stores and brands sell their hand-picked items they already have on their shelves – with dedicated, personal service for online customers from the individual shop. We work hard and focused every day to get the best selection to the customers in all our markets. At the same time, we counteract over- production in the fashion industry by selling the items that are already out in the stores”, explains Konrad Kierklo, CEO of Miinto.

The Danish fashion portal Miinto is growing strongly, especially driven by the export markets

Miinto has, in a single financial year, increased the total volume of orders that goes through the platform and out to local fashion stores to 500m DKK, and the high growth continues. The entire profits are reinvested in optimizing Miinto’s online platform and in digital marketing for all markets.

 

There are plenty of products on the market and everyone is struggling to sell the items they have on the shelves – including the online stores that run e-commerce as people did 20 years ago. They have to cover the high costs of inventory and shipping to customers.

Miinto challenges the traditional e-commerce mindset of having a large and expensive warehouse, and collaborates with more than 1,800 of the best fashion boutiques and partners across 7 markets to sell the hand-picked goods that stores and partners already have in stock – while offering online customers the personal and local service that they would enjoy in their local fashion store.

– We give our partners an extra sales channel so that they can sell the goods they already have in stock. They can handle and send the orders we generate through Miinto when there are no customers in the store and thus, streamline the fixed costs they already have when running a store. They do not pay more in rent, staff, electricity or furniture by being part of Miinto. Collaborating with Miinto simply provides them with more revenue and a higher sell-through without any additional costs, says CEO of Miinto, Konrad A. Kierklo.

Miinto’s core markets are Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden, and the Netherlands in particular have experienced an impressive growth, with the revenue almost doubling compared to last year. The Netherlands have now become Miinto’s second largest market after Norway, and this in a period where Norway, Denmark and Sweden have also shown strong growth.

 

The expansion journey continues

At the same time, the Danish challenger continues its European expansion journey. Recently, fashion stores in Belgium, Poland and Switzerland have also become part of Miinto’s online platform. In Poland, Miinto already collaborates with 25 local partners, and expects to reach 150 partners within the first two years. In Switzerland, where Miinto has just opened its doors, Miinto expects to on-board 50 local fashion partners during the first year.

– 2018 has once again proven that our business model works and is scalable as we both grew and were profitable in the established markets, and entered new markets. The focus of the past year has been on the one hand, on securing a scalable marketing setup and, on the other hand, on strengthening our online platform. This means that the development of our digital channels, local marketing and better customer experiences in-store and online is driving the growth, says CFO of Miinto, Jørgen Flarup Gosvig.

Investments in Miinto’s digital platform and local marketing activities have increased by 50 percent over the past year. The development of the platform is so extensive that one third of all Miinto employees now work on developing the platform and in tech. According to Jørgen Flarup Gosvig, this is crucial to maintain the market share:

– It is the reality in our industry where technology and user experience are crucial. Those are absolutely necessary for us in order to be able to provide the most personal online customer experience, and generate revenue and traffic to our partners, says Jørgen Flarup Gosvig.

Miinto continues to grow in 2018/2019 and expects to be able to show a growth of more than 40% in the current financial year, driven especially by the export markets, but also by Miinto’s domestic market, Denmark.

The massive investments undertaken to increase the revenue created for the local partners and to continue to develop the Miinto platform also mean that the pre-tax profit lands at -47 million DKK, but it is a growth strategy that is backed up by the investors.

 

Background:

A strong collective of local fashion boutiques

Miinto allows the best local fashion stores to sell online in a fast, hassle-free and cost-effective way, thus expanding their market. By joining Miinto, they become part of a large community hosted on a highly effective sales platform for fashion.
‪

Miinto’s network

Founded in 2009, Miinto currently counts more than 130 employees distributed between the head office in Copenhagen and the regional offices in Oslo, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Warsaw, and Zurich. Miinto sells products online in seven European countries – Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, and Switzerland – thanks to a strong network of the best local fashion boutiques in each market.

 

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Miinto increase sales for local fashion stores with more than 50 million DKK on Black Friday!

For the 1,600+ fashion stores that are part of the online fashion platform Miinto, revenue rose by more than 200% compared to the Black Friday event last year. This corresponds to a record-breaking revenue of more than 50 million DKK during Black Friday.

 

Black Friday has traditionally been a party for the big, physical stores and web shops, but the fashion platform miinto.dk gathers the best physical fashion stores in the country, so they can take part in the biggest shopping event of the year – and Black Friday 2018 was a bigger success than ever before.

 

This year, Miinto had already surpassed last year’s Black Friday revenue a day ahead of the actual event, by opening the sale on Thursday to customers who had previously made a purchase on the portal throughout the year. This early access became a much bigger success than anticipated and provided a fantastic start to Black Friday.

– “I’m glad that we can sell a lot of great products from the best, physical fashion stores. The shops around the country are suffering, and I don’t want to see empty shops in the future or not having the opportunity to come down and receive that personal service and experience that you get from shopping in the physical stores. So, I’m very happy that we succeeded in beating all records and selling a lot of products from Danish shops. There are plenty of products on the market, they just need to be sold, and rather sell those that are already in the country than letting the large, foreign web shops take the sale” says Konrad A. Kierklo, CEO of Miinto.

 

The shops can feel the significant extra revenues that were generated in the last few days, and that makes a great difference to each individual store, says Trine Kær from Butik Blossom in Nibe:

– “We’re a local fashion boutique with our own web shop. We have nice traffic, but it doesn’t come close to the traffic miinto.dk has. Without Miinto, we would’ve been pressured on sales by the large web portals these days. Instead, this year’s Black Friday event has helped us generate a revenue of more than 500.000 DKK in few days that we otherwise wouldn’t have had, and that, of course, makes a huge difference to us” shares Trine Kær of Butik Blossom.

 

According to Miinto, the impressive revenue is the result of a good dialogue with their partners and an extraordinary marketing effort:

– We have been in close dialogue with our partners to gain insights into what products they expected to discount, and we’ve provided them with recommendations as to how much we believe they should discount the products to get the biggest possible outcome. Subsequently, we’ve sent purchasing recommendations to the stores, so they’ve been given the chance to stock up on popular products before Black Friday. At the same time, we’ve expanded advertising and strengthened our marketing effort. We invest the entire commission we receive from the stores in marketing for the platform. This means that this year, we’re investing 50% more in marketing than last year, and that shows on traffic, says Malthe Cederborg, CMO of Miinto.

 

Background:

Black Friday 2017 vs. 2018

  • Miinto’s revenue has more than doubled from 2017 to 2018
  • Miinto has now more than 1,600 partner stores across all markets
  • The investments in digital marketing have risen by more than 50% in the past year
  • The number of developers and tech-employees has increased significantly to make up for a third of all employees

 

‪A strong collective of local fashion stores
‪Miinto makes it possible for the best physical fashion stores to sell their products online in a way that is fast, easy, and cost-effective, thereby helping them expand their markets. By joining Miinto, they become part of a large community of the best shops collected on a single, powerful sales platform for fashion.
‪

Miinto’s network
‪Miinto was founded in 2008 and now employs more than 120 people across the headquarters in Copenhagen and regional offices in Oslo, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Warsaw, and Zurich. Miinto sells products online in seven European countries – Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Poland, and Switzerland – thanks to a strong network of the best local fashion stores in each country.

 

Download full press release (DK)

Download full press release (NO)

Download full press release (SE)

The Danish fashion portal enters the Alps

‘Shopping locally online’ is a concept that appeals to consumers in more and more countries. Miinto, who gathers local fashion stores on a single online portal, has just entered the Swiss market.

 

87% of all Swiss use the internet to shop and they love it. In 2017, the revenue for goods and services sold online reached 55 billion DKK. More than 8 million fashion conscious inhabitants live in this sweet spot between the world’s fashion capitals of Paris, London, and Milan. A market that is obviously influenced by the big international players, Switzerland will now receive company from Danish Miinto – with a concept that brings together the best local fashion stores in a strong, joint online fashion portal.

“Switzerland is characterized by multi-brand stores with a refined assortment of local and international brands. With one of the highest personal incomes in Europe, Swiss have the margins to care about CSR, fair trade and overall favour quality over quantity,” says Tina Munkholm, Country Manager of Miinto Switzerland.

 

Switzerland thus truly hits a ‘sweet spot’ for Miinto, whose concept is to offer the best local fashion stores to join forces on one united platform that can beat the international mono-brand and multi-brand platforms.

Miinto sells items that are taken straight from the shelves and sent to customers by local stores. The items are carefully selected by the shop staff, who are ready to give both advice and guidance – including to online shoppers on Miinto.ch.

“We see that the overproduction of clothing – and many other items – is a problem in all markets and it simply makes no sense to us that consumers in a local market would have to buy their goods from a foreign online store when the products are already on the shelves locally. When we collect around 200 of the best local stores in a country, we are able to show a very wide and solid selection of the most popular international and local brands, while delivering the items faster and ensuring that the actual physical stores will still exist in the future” says Konrad A. Kierklo, Founder of Miinto.

 

Miinto.ch will go online mid-November. Country Manager, Tina Munkholm, expects that within the first year, Miinto will start working with the 50 best local fashion stores that have both a clear fashion profile and as a great assortment of both international and local products.

 

Download full press release (DK)