​Atterley returns as an online marketplace for boutiques

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Apr 27, 2016

After buying the IP assets of British womenswear etailer Atterley, which went into administration in January, a UK-based team of professionals is planning to relaunch the site as online marketplace for boutiques in July.

Investor Mike Welch, CEO of Blackcircles.com and Sarah Murray, owner of Edinburgh-based boutique Jane Davidson, are leading the repositioning exercise for Atterley.com.

The site will be “a global retailing platform allowing fashion retailers to sell their handpicked inventory online to discerning consumers” and will ship to 22 countries on day one. This will only be the first step of the strategy, which aims to build the largest network of boutiques in the world.

Atterley.com has a consumer database of approximately 250,000 registered users, Instagram followers of over 10,000 and Facebook followers in the region of 25,000.

Retail entrepreneur and Atterley non-executive chairman Mike Welch, said: “By assembling a network under the Atterley brand, we can create economies of scale in product range, marketing and distribution costs that makes online very viable for our boutique partners, many of whom have previously found it challenging to operate online.”

Sarah Murray of Jane Davidson will be joining the team as an adviser and funding partner. She said: “Boutiques like ours face increasing challenges from bigger players on the high street and online. We think Atterley.com can help to turn the tables.”

Atterley.com CMO Nick Freer said: “The boutiques we’ve been speaking to over the last few weeks are telling us they are excited to have a platform that will allow them to go after market share again - against both the high street and other online fashion brands - and with the tools to make this happen.”

Boutiques can sign up for the online marketplace at Atterley.com.