How La Redoute and Redcats are building U.S. web sales

Developing an entire start-up operation isn’t the only way international retailers are building an online e-commerce base in the U.S. International companies with business units in both Europe and the U.S. are also developing strong synergies between those units to grow their share of the U.S. web retailing market.

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A case in point is Redcats USA. Redcats is an operating company of PPR Group, which also is the parent of La Redoute, the top women’s apparel line in France that features up-and-coming designers such as Kenzo, Paco Rabanne, Karl Lagerfeld and Ungaro. Earlier this year PPR developed a strategy whereby Redcats USA will use its substantial e-commerce base, which includes 10 different web stores, to market La Redoute merchandise to U.S. web shoppers. The target market are fashion and budget-conscious female shoppers.

“Collaborating with Redcats USA will allow La Redoute to capitalize on its strong brand and collections, as well as Redcats USA’s market knowledge and efficient back-end operations,” says Eric Faintreny, chairman and CEO of Redcats USA.

Redcats isn’t breaking out any specific La Redoute U.S. e-commerce sales statistics. But the strategy of combining and leveraging a European retail brand with an established U.S. e-commerce operation appears to be working. Faintreny says Redcats is considering developing similar programs for other PPR European brands such as Vertbaudet, which offers an extensive collection of French clothing and footwear for mothers-to-be, infants and children to age 12. ##