Racked published a post yesterday about the future of sample sales, which is something I’ve been thinking about quite a bit recently.

Racked’s post was about how Brian Atwood has launched a line of full-price clutches that will ONLY be available at Gilt. The price of the Carla Watersnake Triangle Clutch above is $1,385 … definitely not a “discount” item by any means.

Here’s a great quote from the Racked post that gives a peek into where Gilt may be heading in the future:

It’s fair to say that Gilt is courting a more luxury-oriented customer than their original online sample sale concept drew. “I think brands are realizing that our customer base is not a discount shopper,” Gilt’s General Manager of Women’s Jyothi Rao told us last night. “We have a lot of products for customers that are under $150. But we also sell, on a weekly basis, several pieces of fine jewelry that are over $5000.”

I have no doubt that Gilt’s customers may be more well-to-do than the shoppers on other sample sale sites. After all, Gilt was the first to introduce their “secret” high-end site, Gilt Noir, which boasted customers such as Gwyneth Paltrow. Jetsetter, a site dedicated to vacationing followed, and then Gilt Taste, which caters to those with gourmet food tastes. Most recently, Gilt dipped their toes into full-on retail by launching men’s shopping site Park & Bond, which is by no means cheap. I would compare their prices to Barney’s or Saks.

While Gilt’s introduction of full-priced Brian Atwood clutches to their site doesn’t immediately signify the end of sample sale sites in their current format, it is interesting that the site most open to format changes has again introduced another layer to their business. The trajectory in which Gilt Groupe is headed certainly begs the question as to the future of all sample sale sites and whether all of the sites can continue to exist without changing their own models. Remember, Gilt is one of – if not the MOST – successful of the sample sale sites and they’re constantly changing their own model. From all indications, Gilt is doing quite well {though they’ve yet to turn a profit}, but would anyone really be surprised if they were to fully switch to a more traditional retail format like Park & Bond in the coming years?

As for the other sample sale sites, it definitely feels like their heyday has come and gone. New sites are still opening up, but some of them are just downright silly. I received a press release about a new site a few weeks back and every item on the site was priced exactly $1 below retail. With the exorbitant shipping prices that nearly every sample sale site charges {and this site charged $9.99}, what’s the point?

Beyond the Rack, a well-established site, has some of the highest prices in the industry.

They’re currently hosting a Tory Burch sale, and some of the prices are laughable. They list the original price of this Tory Burch Reva Clutch as $325, but they’re selling it for $319.99. A sale of 5 whopping dollars on an outdated item? No, thank you. A quick web search shows that Neiman Marcus, of all places, last sold this clutch for just $146. {Find it now on Ebay for $267.30.} Price escalation at Beyond the Rack is by no means limited to this sale. A few months ago I wrote about ridiculously priced Keurigs. The basis of sample sales was to provide access to items at discounted prices, so the format seems redundant when there aren’t any discounts to be found.

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