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99dresses

Virtual closet to trade fashion items
Startup Cemetery

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GENERAL INFORMATION
Category:
e-Commerce
Country:
Australia
Started:
2010
BUSINESS FAILURE
Outcome:
Shut Down
Cause:
Multiple Reasons
Closed:
2014
FOUNDERS & EMPLOYEES
Number of Founders:
1
Name of Founders:
Nikki Durkin
Number of Employees:
1-10
FUNDING
Number of Funding Rounds:
2
Total Funding Amount:
$105.7K
Number of Investors:
4

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What was 99dresses?

99dresses was a fashion application marketed as a virtual model closet which offered basic inter-trade of second-hand designer dresses between users. The brain-child of this application noticed the high turnover in ladies' closets, whereby they purchase a designer fashion dress, wear it a couple of times, get bored and end up leaving the dress hanging in the closet unused for the months and years to come. The founder of the startup figured that it could be profitable and extremely fascinating to connect two or more ladies with the similar issues, tastes, and needs and have them trade clothes; and so, 99 dresses was born.

Why did 99dresses fail and shut down?

99dresses was established by the 18-year-old Nikki who had no clue about the tech business. It successfully operated for one year after which it started encountering great money and technical related difficulties which prompted the shutting down of the app in 2014.

The key issue was that the organization did not raise enough income to maintain its tasks as the organization's plan of action depended on the exchange cost. Steadily, their exchanges diminished in cost and 99dresses' income endured a shot. Their plan to scale up to include handbags and different adornments, failed to gain traction and the number of exchanges in the platform dropped.

Difficulties in implementing innovation and absence of management experience likewise added to conveying deals to a stop and caused a drying up in funding sources. The startup also experienced Visa issues that obstructed smooth activities between the United States and Australia. With these series of events, the company’s group of prime supporters gradually gave up on the platform and the startup had to close down.

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