Aurore, Cléo, Jonathan and Thomas are the co-founders of this leather goods design workshop in the heart of the Marais district of Paris. All of them greatly enriched their know-how with high-profile luxury brands. All these prestigious backgrounds led to them coming to the same conclusion that resulted in the establishment of RSVP: why not optimize their acquisition campaigns to offer luxury products at affordable prices?
Consequently, these four lovers of beauty and craftsmanship launched themselves into the manufacture of luxury leather goods and fashion accessories. With more than 120 items under their belts, these style and luxury enthusiasts continue to innovate with a focus on the usefulness of the shape and the quality of the leather used. They also offer a range of ceramics (cups, vases, trays, plates, etc.) developed by Cléo. The artistic director was inspired by Agnès Varda's film Cléo de 5 à 7 to create the C5A7 range. On their attractive website, they claim that their accessories are devised "from a design point of view, while developing a new vocabulary for contemporary expression”.
A strong concept and lasting values
RSVP is:
- 2 stores/workshops in the Marais district of Paris and in Seoul;
- French raw materials;
- Manufactured in France and Spain;
- Online sales worldwide of a large majority of the catalog, with free shipping and customs;
- And 3 physical outlets.
This DNVB brings in 80% of its revenue online in order to maintain a direct-to-consumer relationship and be as close as possible to their community. The rest of their activity is now carried out at one of their three points of sale. In Paris, in the Marais boutique, in their store located at Le Bon Marché, as well as in their first international outlet in Seoul, where they achieve 25% of their revenue in-store.
”Our products have a 365-day money-back guarantee, one year warranty and lifetime repairability, yet our return rate is still lower than the rest of the industry”
Jonathan, co-founder of RSVP
The brand also takes a sustainable and responsible approach. RSVP repairs all their products for life, and for free in the first year! With a return rate well below the rest of the industry, RSVP places its creative, sustainable and community values at the core of their project. They also allow customers to return products up to 365 days after purchase. Finally, the brand buys back, repairs and resells your old branded products for a more responsible style. To ensure the quality of these second-hand products, RSVP uses blockchain authentication for this process. Each item that is picked up and resold uses a token on Arianee, so tracking is thorough and guaranteed.
RSVP faces WCR issues due to its production cycle and high seasonality
Like all brands in the fashion sector, production cycles are very long. There can be four months between the payment of invoices and the receipt of products. This means that the WCR increases and financing issues arise. To overcome these cash flow gaps while continuing to develop its business, the brand took out an initial traditional bank loan in 2019 and then went down the seed round route in 2020.
In addition to the extremely long production cycles, RSVP faces the problem of seasonality. Business is at its busiest from November to January and then in June, July and August. The solution: push the products that sell best during the slow periods.
But this is not enough. The financing solutions chosen were not sufficiently adapted to the start-up's business model. So Jonathan turned to Silvr to finance his raw materials and digital marketing.
Silvr, growth partner of RSVP
In 2021, RSVP wanted to go further and accelerate its international development. To do this, the French brand needed cash flow. It realized that bank loans are not suitable for the purchase of raw materials. So when Jonathan, CEO of RSVP, discovered the Silvr solution, he was immediately convinced.
After connecting its accounts to the Silvr scoring platform, it was granted two financing packages. The first one was for the payment of its suppliers and the second one was for marketing investment to accelerate its growth.
“We needed to accelerate our marketing while investing in our production. With Silvr, we spread out our expenses, and therefore launched marketing actions that we would never have dared to!”
Jonathan, co-founder of RSVP
With Silvr, RSVP gains enough cash flow to comfortably handle the seasonal peaks, buy more raw materials, and get their product to market faster.
“Silvr offers us deferred reimbursement so we only have to start repayments weeks after receiving the materials”
Jonathan, co-founder of RSVP
Today, by choosing Silvr as their growth partner, they’re able to allocate a larger budget to marketing expenses. They also have the possibility to take more risks in their long-term development due to better cash flow coverage of the purchasing process. They have also been able to spread out their purchases over a longer period of time without having to pay out during their seasonal peaks. Due to freeing up more cash, the company's growth budget is also larger.
“Our biggest expense is the purchase of our raw materials, so we needed a suitable financing solution that could support us despite our seasonal peaks.”
Jonathan, co-founder of RSVP
What will tomorrow bring?
By partnering with Silvr to finance their acquisition campaigns and inventory, RSVP intends to expand its business internationally, open stores (particularly in China), recruit, expand its ranges and continue to develop effective acquisition campaigns. There are already 13 employees in 5 countries. Their catalog will soon expand to 200 items.
