Vente-Privée to invest €80 million in R&D in 2017

French group Vente-Privée, the flash sales e-tailer fashion labels' surplus stock, is planning to invest €80 million in R&D in 2017, and to hire over 250 digital technology specialists.

"In this digital age, in which competition is no longer between big and small players, but between slow and fast ones, we are putting innovation and technology at the heart of our growth strategy," stated group CEO Jacques-Antoine Granjon in a press release.

Through the vente-privee.com website and its 4.5 million daily users, "we have shaken up distribution practices in fashion, our core industry and the kernel of our brand identity, and we are committed to push forward with this change," he added.

To do so, the group founded in 2001 has linked up with up-and-coming Parisian start-up campus Station F, seeking to work together with companies "that create solutions and services designed to enrich the online shopping experience in fashion, as well as tech innovations and services aimed at digitalising and transforming the customer experience in-store."

Station F is a start-up incubator launched by French telecoms entrepreneur Xavier Niel (of Iliad and Free) which is set to open in Paris in April.

Vente-Privée has also forged links with French computer science schools 42 and Epitech, selecting some 40 of their students to work on R&D projects, and it continues to hire technology professionals. Between developers, project managers, data base administrators and security experts Vente-Privée is planning to add another 250 to its roster in 2017.

The company has 50 million members and works with over 6,000 brands, which offer their surplus stock at large reduced prices on the website. It has offices in a number of European countries in addition to its France HQ. The group has 3,800 employees and generated revenue of €2 billion in 2015.