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Totsy

E-commerce selling prenatal care products
Startup Cemetery

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GENERAL INFORMATION
Category:
e-Commerce
Country:
United States
Started:
2009
BUSINESS FAILURE
Outcome:
Shut Down
Cause:
Poor Product
Closed:
2013
FOUNDERS & EMPLOYEES
Number of Founders:
2
Name of Founders:
Christophe Garnier, Guillaume Gauthereau
Number of Employees:
50-100
FUNDING
Number of Funding Rounds:
4
Total Funding Amount:
$29.5M
Number of Investors:
4

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What was Totsy?

Totsy, like other online shopping platforms, became widely known and used by millions of users during the era of the economic recession which brought a sudden, severe and prolonged fall in the price, value, and amount of goods. This flash sale company’s policies were extremely popular with the customers at the time, because they offered high-end fashion brands online for a low-price. They stored and sold the same fashion accessories and apparel which official stores were unable to sell for the regular price.

Why did Totsy fail and shut down?

Ever-changing circumstances were involved for the most part in the collapse of this online retailer of high-quality and branded apparel that had a luminous moment in unstable financial times.

In order to cope with the recession and maintain their position above the margin, manufacturers started to sell their stored products at heavily discounted prices. This provided online flash sell companies with the perfect momentum to rise and thrive. Once the economy started improving, though, and customers regained their purchasing power, flash sales marketplaces started seeing a steady decrease in sales. At the same time, luxury brands rapidly recovered from the previous economic crisis and continued once again to produce their high-end product. Manufacturers decided to not let their high-end brands sell for bargain prices anymore and abandoned the idea of participating in flash sales in order to maintain their reputation and stable income. This meant that flash sales lost their core attractiveness and became generally obsolete. The momentum ended and so did the future of the company.

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