Patrick Grant sets up eBay store for Community Clothing
Patrick Grant is to set up a store on eBay’s Marketplace next month for his Community Clothing initiative, which he established earlier this year to support British clothing and textile manufacturers.
Grant, who owns Savile Row tailor Norton & Sons and men’s ready to wear line E Tautz, set up the not for profit label via a Kickstarter crowdfunding round, which raised almost £90,000.
The clothing line includes three key items for men and women, including a five-pocket jean, a classic Harrington jacket and a single-breasted raincoat with prices ranging from £49-£119. It was born from Grant’s desire to offer British-made clothing at affordable prices and to support British makers; the clothes are produced during slow periods for British factories thus keeping them busy throughout the year.
Community Clothing raincoat and Jean
“For several months of every year even the very best British factories are nowhere near full and this can lead to seasonal hiring and firing or zero hours contracts or worse still to factory closures,” Grant said when he launched the brand.
By establishing a store on eBay Grant is exposing the brand to the platform’s 18m monthly shoppers. eBay UK’s director of fashion retail Rhian Bartlett said Grant’s business reflected the spirit of eBay, which is about to celebrate its 21st birthday.
“The philosophy that underpins Patrick Grant’s project is very aligned to the philosophy that underpins eBay,” she said, “which is that of community and small and mid-size business and it’s about doing good work.”
eBay's Rhian Bartlett
The platform now has around 200,000 business sellers of “all shapes and sizes”, said Bartlett, who joined eBay from supermarket group Sainsbury’s in March last year.
Globally most sales on the eBay platform are “business to consumer with 80% fixed price”, she said. This demonstrates how much the platform has evolved from its early incarnation as an auction site for private sellers (which still forms part of its offer). Globally 56% of sales are “touched by mobile” with the figure slightly higher in the UK.
Fashion, as a vertical, was a very important one for eBay, said Bartlett. While sales figures can’t be released she did reveal that in the past 90 days the platform had sold 1.9m pairs of jeans and 970,000 pairs of trainers.
The Community Clothing store will go live on eBay from 7 September.
