Deal Radar 2008: Figleaves and Specialty e-Tail

(I want to preamble this piece by saying that when you read it, please don’t be surprised if Google AdSense starts pushing lingerie ads to you. It is not a very smart algorithm!)

Figleaves.com is the world’s largest online retailer of branded intimate apparel. It includes Aubade to La Perla to Zimmermann. Users can shop by brand, size, price, color, style or occasion. It has a ‘no hassle’ returns policy. It was started as Easyshop.co.uk in late 1998, is headquartered in London and employs over 220 people.

The Company stocks over 200 brands, which are shipped to over 80 countries. It recently won the Best Online Customer Service category at the 2007 People in Retail Awards. The Company has over 800,000 customers, mainly women in the 25 – 50 age range, spending an average of £60 per transaction.

According to Library House, Figleaves.com has raised an undisclosed amount from Kreos Capital in June 2007. It has not been confirmed.

Revenue has grown from £1.2 million (2001) to £25 million (June 2007). 20% of revenues come from the US with the majority coming from the UK.

The UK business is operating at break-even but due to investments in its US business the company is making a small loss but was expected to break-even by the second half of 2007. Figleaves.com recorded 32% growth during Christmas 2007 y-o-y.

Figleaves.com has an Alexa traffic rank of 14,527. Compete estimates Figleaves.com unique US visitors to be over 273,571 in December 2007. On an average a user spends 6:24 minutes on Figleaves.com and views 15.5 pages in the US. Figleaves.com’s UK site attracts over 2 million visitors a month. In the US Figleaves partners with Amazon for pick, pack and ship.

With growth estimated at 20% – 30% per annum over the next five years the company is a good acquisition target for Amazon. It could also be an interesting one for Zappos, which we discussed yesterday.

This segment is a part in the series : Deal Radar 2008