One of the startups I really wanted to visit during my recent Amsterdam tech tour was The Cloakroom, a young but fast-growing company that provides a personalised clothing service for men.
You might know the drill if you've been following the trends in fashion e-commerce even just a little: rather than betting on volume and discounts, The Cloakroom wants to give men an opportunity to buy outfits that really match their (life)style with the help of a small army of personal shoppers.
The styling advice, service and shipping comes free, but The Cloakroom charges full retail prices to keep margins above average. In fact, it doesn't see itself as a clothing e-tailer at all, rather a styling service provider.
There are similar businesses out there, in the US but also in Europe, most notably Berlin-based Outfittery but also a Dutch rival called House Of Einstein.
Co-founder Asbjørn Jørgensen claims, however, that the company was really a result of scratching his own itch, as he found it difficult to shop for clothes given his height (he's almost 2 metres tall).
Either way, The Cloakroom is gaining steam, particularly in markets where it currently has an office - The Netherlands and Denmark. The startup was started almost exactly two years ago and employs over 55 people today (most of them in a really nice, spacious office in Amsterdam).
Asked whether The Cloakroom has plans to expand into women or kids fashion, Jørgensen clarified that the focus will likely remain on men because they have totally different shopping behaviour. If anything, he said during the interview, the focus will continue to be on men but perhaps for other types of products outside of the fashion sphere.
Also on the menu for the next few months, Jørgensen said, is improved catering to mobile devices and "a lot of work on the back-end".
The Cloakroom has raised just south of €2 million from angel investors and London seed fund Connect Ventures to date, but Jørgensen told me they're currently working on securing a Series A funding round that should be closed by this Summer.
Although the focus will remain "100% on Europe", the extra cash will allow The Cloakroom to expand more rapidly into other markets in the region, Jørgensen concluded.
Also read:
Fashion forward: Here’s 20 fashion e-commerce startups to watch in Europe
Q&A with David Lindsay, the tech brains behind fashion e-commerce phenomenon Farfetch
All images credit to tech.eu
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