Dutch department store De Bijenkorf to launch French and Austrian e-tail sites

By

Marion Deslandes

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Feb 14, 2020

Upmarket Dutch department store chain De Bijenkorf is planning to launch French and Austrian versions of its e-tail site in 2020. De Bijenkorf currently operates seven branches in the Netherlands, and is keen to expand outside its domestic market via an online presence, having already introduced a Belgian e-shop in 2015 and a German one in 2019.

Details about De Bijenkorf’s French website are still sketchy but, according to Dutch media, the site will be launched in the course of 2020, together with the Francophone version of the Belgian e-shop. De Bijenkorf has confirmed to industry website RetailDetail that it is also planning to launch an e-tail site for the Austrian market.

In the fashion department, De Bijenkorf sells premium labels like Scotch & Soda, Rixo, Samsoe & Samsoe, Essentiel Antwerp, Stine Goya and Ganni.

The chain is a long-established fashion distributor on its domestic market, where it employs nearly 3,000 people. De Bijenkorf was founded in 1870 by Simon Goudsmit in Amsterdam, where its headquarters are located. Since 2011, it is the property of the Selfridges group, which besides the famous UK department stores, also owns Irish department stores Arnotts and Brown Thomas, and Holt Renfrew in Canada.

The online launch in France of an international department store without a physical shop there is similar to the approach adopted by, for example, Italian luxury multibrand retailer LuisaViaRoma, which also operates a French e-shop.