Joor’s new chief executive officer wants to take the wholesale marketplace for buyers and brands to the next level.
The New York-based platform said it hired Kristin Savilia to lead the company as ceo, replacing founder Mona Bijoor. The company said Bijoor is pursuing other opportunities.
Savilia joins the firm from XO Group Inc., where she headed up the local marketplace group. XO Group’s portfolio of brands includes The Knot, The Nest and The Bump.
Savilia steps into a company that’s looking to broaden its use among buyers and expand the brands on the platform, which is slowly chipping away at the old wholesale model.
“Being a buyer myself I actually understand what this business is disrupting,” Savilia said. “I was a buyer at Macy’s and used to go to showrooms and see the assortments and it was very time consuming and laborious….What I see as opportunity here is I believe this should and could be used by all retailers and brands who do this sort of buying, which really covers everything from the high-end fashion to the off-price to the mass, that really need time-to-market to be quicker with their product assortments and selections.”
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Joor currently works with retailers such as Neiman Marcus and Harrods. Among its more than 1,200 men’s, women’s and home brands are Zac Posen, Donna Karan and Dolce Vita. The company has raised more than $20 million, with the most recent, a series B, closed in 2013 and totaling $14.6 million.
Luxury is where the company started when it was founded in 2010 and Savilia said expanding within the middle market next makes the most sense, although its application is industry-wide.
The pitch to buyers is the time savings they can get with Joor, which helps them with assortment and open-to-buy planning. Brands can post custom line sheets and send electronic purchase orders. So will it replace the old showroom and trade show model? Not necessarily, but it could certainly change the landscape, Savilia said.
“This could absolutely disrupt that and I’m a believer in the trade show, but you could expedite the timing and success of those,” she said. “So our platform allows you to, prior to a show, to really feel the assortments and really prepare yourself for those meetings.”