5 Failed Fashion Startups & their Case Studies
There are a lot of things to consider when building a new startup - where to get funding, how to validate your idea, and what features should the product have.
One of the challenges is finding a market that is willing to pay for your solution without even knowing what it is yet.
However, 90% of startups will fail and shut down.
In this article, you can find 5 failed Fashion startups as well as analyses on why they closed down.
5 Failed Fashion Startups
1) 99dresses
99dresses was a fashion app that offered trades of second-hand designer dresses between users. It operated for a year but had to shut it down in 2014.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Nikki Durkin
- Country: Australia
- Started in: 2010
- Closed in: 2014
- Nº of employees: 1-10
- Funding Amount: < $1M
- Specific cause of failure: Multiple Reasons
You can read more about their failure here.
2) Totsy
Totsy was a flash sale company that offered high-end fashion brands online for a low-price. Flash sales lost their attractiveness and became obsolete.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Christophe Garnier, Guillaume Gauthereau
- Country: United States
- Started in: 2009
- Closed in: 2013
- Nº of employees: 50-100
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Poor Product
You can read more about their failure here.
3) Zulily
Zulily was an online store selling clothing and other products. They declined in popularity because of their poor marketing and user-attention strategies.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Darrell Cavens, Mark Vadon
- Country: United States
- Started in: 2009
- Closed in: Active
- Nº of employees: 1,000-5,000
- Funding Amount: > $50M
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Marketing
You can read more about their failure here.
4) Ropero
Ropero was an e-commerce aiming to sell t-shirts in an unprepared market. Many expenses and little earnings.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Rafael Soto
- Country: Mexico
- Started in: 2005
- Closed in: 2006
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Market Fit
You can read more about their failure here.
5) Vivalatina
Nicolas started an e-Commerce that imported sterling silver jewelry from Mexico and resold it in France. His lack of knowledge on marketing made it impossible to him to achieve customers. After some big mistakes, he decided to shut it down and start re-thinking the business model. He is now making $7,200/Month.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Nicolas Tranchant
- Country: Mexico
- Started in: 2012
- Closed in: 2014
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Marketing
You can read more about their failure here.
