Australian-born brand Bardot Junior has just switched on its new website in the USA earlier this week in a bid to capitalise on overseas markets.
Bardot and Bardot Junior CEO Basil Artemides confirmed the move, saying the website is on a Salesforce Commerce Cloud, which allows the brand to create across multiple regions. It now has four websites: two in Australia and two in the US.
Artemides said the website gives the Junior brand an opportunity to establish direct markets in the US to consumers and to start developing the brand with a vertical offer.
“We've been trying to develop Junior in the US for a while now, and we've had some success in the last year, because we launched [wholesale] with Hudson Bay in Canada,” he said. “And then we've got a presence with Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Dillards.
“On the back of that wholesale relationship, we're now hoping to develop the vertical brand. The plan for 2023 is to narrowly focus on developing Bardot Junior as an occasionwear brand for young girls in America.”
Bardot Junior has already established a two-year presence in the US market through department stores, with Artemides adding that they have a third party logistics warehouse in Los Angeles. He said this allows the brand to feature seasonality appropriately.
“What's unique about Junior is the offer it has,” Artemides said. “There are not many brands in kidswear that offer beautiful occasionwear for girls at a price point that's not cheap, but not at luxury prices either. It's in that medium price point, which very few brands can achieve with the quality that we do.”
Locally in Australia, Artemides revealed that the Junior brand has expanded its David Jones wholesale market to 41 stores. It also wholesales through 30 Myer stores and is on The Iconic.
Overseas, Junior is predominately in the US. It also has a smaller presence in the UK and the Middle East. Artemides said the latter two are the next focus for growth, particularly within the UK department store market.
“We're doing a trade show in Europe next year," he said. "That'll be our first real foray into the development of the brand in Europe, because it is such a large market with such large department stores.
“We want to focus on getting that vertical customer there right and getting the brand known.”
Compared to its sister label Bardot, the Junior brand is around a third of the size in the global wholesale market. However, Artemides said the eCommerce comparison is almost at 40%.
“Bardot Junior's going to be a strong brand for us long term,” he said. “If we get the US right, in particular, it will be a really strong part of our business.”
Artemides said the team is keen to further establish the brand in the US off the back of infrastructure it has built, including the new website.
“Then in 2024, we're going to look to open new markets for both Bardot and Junior, specifically with our European wholesalers, and look at what we can do in Europe around both brands, either on more drop-ship models with European online retailers.
“We're with an online retailer that services Eastern Europe, we think there's a huge potential there. And then the UK, ASOS is doing well with Bardot.
“There's a lot of opportunity in the UK itself, which we aren't done with yet.”