French event sales site Bazarchic, which was bought in 2016 by the Galeries Lafayette group, has started an information and consultation process with the trade union organisations, with a view to ceasing trading. Or to being sold, if a buyer were to come forward.

Contacted by FashionNetwork.com, Bazarchic confirmed that, as first reported by Le Parisien, the information and consultation process with the company’s employee representatives has recently begun. According to Le Parisien, some 100 jobs are at stake.

Bazarchic was founded in 2006, and claims to currently have 2 million active members. It commercialises products ranging from fashion to home decoration, cosmetics and wine.

FashionNetwork.com has learnt that, in recent months, the Galeries Lafayette group has been trying to find a buyer for Bazarchic. In vain. The group decided to cede the event sales site because of the excessive losses it was generating. Bazarchic was reportedly unable to reach the critical mass needed to grow its market share in the segment.

In the last two years, the fashion and apparel market, in France and elsewhere, has been hampered by inflation, and Bazarchic struggled to cope with competitors like Veepee and Showroomprivé, the event sales sector’s leaders in France. Like other fashion e-tailers, Bazarchic, also active in Belgium and Switzerland, is exposed to growing competition from the resale sector, driven by sites such as Vinted and Vestiaire Collective.

Three years ago, Bazarchic revamped its brand identity and redesigned its site and mobile app. At the time, it was targeting revenue of €100 million by 2025, compared to the €80 million generated in 2020. Keen to make inroads in the fashion and home decoration categories, in 2022 Bazarchic upgraded its logistics operations by opening a new, 18,000-square-metre hub in Herblay. But after that, it has been virtually silent on the advertising front.

Bazarchic’s woes follow the announcement made by another French e-tailer owned by the Galeries Lafayette group, La Redoute, that its managing director Fabien Versavau (formerly with Rakuten) is stepping down less than three months after taking charge. 

The Galeries Lafayette group, which also owns Louis Pion, Eataly and Mauboussin, and is usually discreet about its results, recently disclosed it generated revenue of €3.645 billion in 2023, through its directly operates stores and those of its French and international franchisees. The figure was still down compared to the €3.850 billion it recorded in 2019, before the pandemic.