The founder of fashion etailer Vente-Privee has said that the future is multichannel and said that pureplays such as Asos will go into stores.

At the World Retail Congress, Vente-Privee founder and chief executive Jacques-Antoine Granjon said: “Now is the end of the first part of this [online] revolution. In the first phase it was a tool but now it is back to what you sell. For me it is the end of pure players, they are finished. The future is multi-channel and cross-channel. E-commerce is just a new distribution channel.”

He said of online fashion etailer Asos: I believe they will go into stores on Regent Street, the Champs Elysees, New York and Tokyo eventually. One day they will have a board meeting and say they want to be there.”

Granjon put the success of his own online business down to understanding the fundamentals of the business. “Great deals will drive traffic. You feed your traffic with the offers and the traffic feeds your website, he said. “Our DNA is inventory and the internet drives this model. The internet is a mail order company, only faster.”

He also said that customer service is crucial and warned:“You need to answer your customer, not with a stupid mail that you send to everyone but with a voice that makes them know you are behind the screen and taking care of them.”