Fashion mavens, meet AVA

Flash sale sites are hot commodities these days.

Last year, private sale online shopping portal HauteLook was acquired by Nordstrom’s for $270 million. Rue La La, another market contender, was acquired by GSI Commerce for $350 million. Last month, industry leader Gilt Groupe was in the news for raising $80-$100 million from private equity investors. Such a deal will place their valuation at $1 billion.

If you’ve been out of the shopping loop, you probably have no idea what I am talking about.

Flash sale retailers, also known as invitation-only shopping retailers, operate their businesses online. The industry pioneer would be Jacques-Antoine Granjon, CEO of French online retailer Vente-Privee.

In 2001, Granjon and his team launched the then-novel concept of selling old season designer items for a set time frame, usually no longer than a week, on the Internet — the catch being, that only members of Vente-Privee could gain access to these sales.

It may have taken US start-ups approximately six years to replicate Vente-Privee’s business model, but as soon as they did, they hit the ground running.

It also helped that at the time of launch, the recession in the US made shopping for deals more desirable than ever, with a long list of labels and designers looking to unload unsold merchandise. Years later, it looks like the market for online shopping sites laden with deals too good to refuse is not cooling any time soon, and may in fact, go viral.

When I first heard from my fellow Gilt-crazy friend Kaye Yao, that Manila would soon have its own version of Gilt Groupe in the form of AVA.ph, I was incredulous.

Online shopping may be a normal thing in the US and Europe, but to my mind, it’s still in its infancy in the Philippines. As it turns out, with sites like Deal Grocer and Groupon gaining traction with Filipino consumers, and with the much-delayed but recently built infrastructure to process local credit card transactions online, it really was just a matter of time.

Enter Ava

PAVA is the Philippines’ first invitation-only shopping community, modeled after successful US sites such as Gilt.com.

Over brunch, AVA co-founder Oliver Segovia told me how he and co-founder Jen Kelly (they were classmates at Ateneo de Manila and Harvard Business School [HBS ’10]) came to a decision that AVA could work in the Philippines.

“Jen lived in New York for a year while working in McKinsey and saw the growth of online fashion retail first hand. In the winter of 2009, when we were first-year MBA students, I saw over 10 female classmates feverishly clicking on their laptops. They were on a members-only site that offered flash sales, where designer items were only available for 36 hours, so there’s a frantic rush to scoop up stuff. I admit, I still have much to learn about why women buy what they buy, but I think anyone can figure out that whenever you see customers going outrageous like that, you have to look twice at the opportunity.”

The result was AVA, the Philippines’ first invitation-only shopping community offering handpicked items up to 70 percent off.

The duo then tapped Amina Aranáz-Alunan and Carissa Chan to come on board as part of AVA’s core group. They serve as chief curator and merchandising consultant, respectively.

With their guidance, AVA will offer members weekly private sales featuring both local and international designer apparel and accessories from Aranáz, Suelas, A/X, Laundry by Shelli Segal, Charles David and Corso Como. As I write this, the list of labels partnering with AVA continues to grow.

Shopping at Ava

As with most established online shopping sites abroad, shopping AVA is quite easy: the first step is to register at AVA.ph.

In order to keep AVA a close, intimate community, registrations are by-invitation only, which can be requested through a friend or from the site.

According to Jen, “Keeping membership limited helps us ensure that we’re focused on our niche, rather than trying to please everyone.”

Sales are scheduled weekly, so there’s a new set of brands each week.

A few days before each sale, AVA will send a reminder e-mail to the community with details on the brands they will carry and the date and time of the sale.

Each sale will be five days long, and will feature limited items.

Members will get to see a full description of the brand and a look book catalogue of every item with detailed information.

With the rising power and influence of branded content, commonly seen on Net-a-Porter, J.Crew, and Shopbop, AVA will also feature editorial content — from shopping tips from experts to styling advice on how to wear the items featured on their site.

Upon checkout, customers can choose to pay via Paypal, credit cards, or Bancnet.

Shipping costs will be borne by the customer, although they are looking at offering unique coupon codes for further discounts and/or free shipping to VIP and affiliate members.

Purchases will be delivered three to six days later via courier, in a custom-designed AVA gift box.

Just one of AVA’s promos: “When a member invites five friends who sign up, she gains one entry to win Prada’s signature Saffiano leather wallet worth $495,” says Jen Kelly.

For those who don’t want to sweat it out and line up to pay during store sales, AVA really takes sale shopping to a whole new playing field.

After all, the adrenalin you get from scoring a great deal in-store is just as high when you manage to checkout the item in your online cart.

Launch With Ava

AVA is set to launch its first sale this April. The first week kicks off with BCBG Max Azria, MYTH, & Betsey Johnson. Even as registrations increase by the day, they continue to plan growing their membership base exponentially.

Their first ever promotion, “Win a Prada on AVA,” is ongoing and ends on April 17.

“When a member invites five friends who sign up, she gains one entry to win Prada’s signature Saffiano leather wallet worth $495,” shares Jen.

Call that a taste of what AVA is all about — it’s getting your friends to join in the fun of scouting for sale finds online, with the heady prospect of bringing home a prize — whether it’s a Prada wallet, or a designer find you got at a great discount.

To sign up and be part of Manila’s latest shopping experience, go to http://www.ava.ph/