New Zealand’s first designer sales’ website is here, and the founders of ONCE’IT—and the website’s servers – have been overwhelmed by the response from shoppers keen for a designer bargain.
The website’s first sale, Twentysevennames, was launched on Monday at midday but the site soon crashed after a massive response from ONCE’IT members, and had the same troubles during Wednesday’s Ksubi eyewear sale.
Marketing manager Claire Littler says ONCE’IT is putting in all the possible steps to ensure their server can take the hits during future sales. The site already has thousands of members and gets over 100 invite requests a day, she says.
With a focus on New Zealand designers, the site will run three sales per week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And despite the site’s similar appearance to New York-based luxury sales’ site Gilt, the two aren’t affiliated, Claire says.
Its creators, Jay Goodey and Catriona Macky, hope to expand the number of sales in the future, and are also looking at options outside the New Zealand designer market, Claire says.
Future sales will include Salasai, Sabatini and Juliette Hogan, ONCE’IT says.
The vision for the site began with getting brands to trust ONCE’IT with their image (now one of ONCE’IT’s core values, Claire says). Having gained that trust and gotten brands excited about the site, sales are now booked out ‘pretty far in advance’.
ONCE’IT’s third sale, World and World Man, launches on Friday at onceit.co.nz.—Laura McQuillan
Update: A limited number of Lucire readers can get their invitations at this link: www.onceit.co.nz/invite/lucire.