Smart50 winner AussieCommerce has launched Australia’s first flash sales site dedicated to active apparel and equipment, after noticing a gap in the market for a more segmented sportswear offering.
TheActive, which launched yesterday, has already attracted international brands like Nike, GoPro, Camelbak and Dragon.
The sales will generally offer products priced 50% to 80% below premium retail price.
TheActive chief executive Dean Clyke told SmartCompany he’d noticed companies like BrandsExclusive delving into the sportswear market, but realised there was no flash sales site solely dedicated to active wear.
“There’s nothing like it in this market place, particularly when you consider the quality of the images on the site and the brands we’ve got on board,” he says.
“We’ve been following the flash sales trend for the past three years and saw companies like Living Exclusive and TheHome tapping into the homewares market and it’s also become quite big in the United States recently.”
Clyke had previously launched flash sales site Thread People, but in 2012 he sold the company and started working on a plan for TheActive.
“I’ve been working on the concept since August 2012 and I started negotiations with the AussieCommerce Group eight months ago,” he says.
“Our goal is to build The Active into a single point destination for sport enthusiasts to shop and for leading brands to be able to use the platform to showcase their brands. People are looking for more segmented offerings.”
He expects the site to do well in Australia thanks to the strengthening retail market and growth in the fitness industry.
Clyke says unlike many other flash sales sites, he wants TheActive to have a community environment.
“It won’t just be about the daily emails. We’ll do partnerships with GPS location companies and Run Keeper type apps so that we can start integrating with our users and finding out what they’re doing with the products,” he says.
“We’ll absolutely be on social media too. We really want to engage with our customers and have them be providing content for us. Like for Instagram we’ll have our members sending through photos of them being active and that will start populating our Instagram feed.”
Similar tactics have been used successfully on social media by brands like Black Milk to generate a loyal following of customers.
AussieCommerce managing director Adam Schwab signalled the launch of The Active to SmartCompany in January.
“We’ve got a great team, we’re hopeful and it hasn’t been done in Australia before,” Schwab said.
“We were originally a group buying site, but now we pivoted away from that to retail sites. We’re just trying to build on what we do well and use the resources within the group.”
In a statement, Schwab says he intends TheActive to start stocking brands which are currently only available overseas.
“It’s a market that’s very well serviced abroad, and the only available options in Australia are expensive bricks-and-mortar retailers. By going direct to suppliers locally and overseas, we’re able to offer the world’s best brands for very substantial discounts,” he says.
The next step for TheActive will be to expand its range of active apparel further into adventure travel gear.
