José Manuel Villanueva (Privalia) at ESADE: "40% of our sales are now made via mobile devices"
At a recent Matins ESADE session sponsored by Ernst & Young in collaboration with La Vanguardia, Privalia co-founder José Manuel Villanueva (Lic&MBA ‘99) declared, "Most of our income now comes through mobile devices, and we need to think even more about this channel." According to Mr. Villanueva, the company had more than €422 million in revenue in 2012 and 40% of its global sales are now made via mobile devices.
Mr. Villanueva observed that 60% of Privalia’s web traffic also comes from mobile devices. “We are one of the top-selling online business in this channel," he declared. Mr. Villanueva noted that Privalia has grown enormously in its seven-year history to become a multinational now present in five countries: Spain, Italy, Brazil, Mexico and Germany. However, Spain still accounts for 25% of the company’s sales. “We have Spanish DNA," said Mr. Villanueva.
Regarding Privalia’s prospects for growth, Mr. Villanueva observed: “If we want to be big, we have to go abroad. Therefore, we want to be present in more markets in the medium and long term. We like Europe and Latin America, but we are not envisioning anything in the short term."
"There’s no need to mythologise the entrepreneur"
According to Mr. Villanueva, the entrepreneur’s role is becoming trivial: “We needn’t mythologise it. Not all entrepreneurs are fantastic, nor are they all bad. I think we need to de-mythologise entrepreneurship. I think of myself more as a business owner than as an entrepreneur."
During his talk, entitled “Sustainable Growth: From Start-up to Multinational", Mr. Villanueva gave an overview of his personal experience and his company’s path to becoming the leading online fashion outlet in Spain and the other countries where it operates. “It’s important to know what you want and what you do," he said. He declared that Privalia has no intention of selling travel or other ‘experiences’ and will focus instead on maintaining its DNA: “Privalia is a store. If we think of ourselves as e-commerce or a start-up, we lose our essence. We’re shopkeepers."
Signs of recovery
Mr. Villanueva noted that there are more than 3 million active companies in Europe, “which translates into considerable business wealth". He also observed that 350 new companies are created each year, although 65% of them shut down within the first two years. Despite these figures, Mr. Villanueva remained optimistic: “Our economy has gone through rough times, but more and more signs of recovery are sprouting up. We’re getting back on a positive trend."
Mr. Villanueva encouraged entrepreneurs to act without fear of failure: “Entrepreneurs are valued much more for their negative experiences." The hardest thing, he said, is to grow, “even for those companies with the greatest capacity for growth". A growth objective of 25% only creates frustration, he argued, as "only very few can manage that". He cited several ‘gazelle companies’ – such as Softonic, eDreams and Groupon – as examples of sustained high growth.
Future challenges
Mr. Villanueva wrapped up his talk by discussing Privalia’s future challenges. The company’s growth parameters prioritise the identification of large markets “with at least 50 or 60 million inhabitants", markets that are emerging into the world of e-commerce, and markets with a strong local fashion industry.
Every day, Privalia opens 20 stores, sells 3,000 products and adds 12,000 new members. In 2012, it received more than 6 million orders. At present, it sells more than 2,000 different brands.