From Antwerp to 60 countries: Essentiel Antwerp’s global expansion powered by financial technology

Essentiel Antwerp, a Belgian family company, started in 1999 with a small T-shirt collection and has since grown into a global brand operating in over 60 countries. The brand offers ‘affordable luxury’ appealing to women who embrace expressive prints and vibrant colors. Their collections blend classic silhouettes with contemporary and often daring design elements.

Over the years, Essentiel Antwerp has expanded internationally with stores in key cities like Antwerp, Paris, London, and New York. In strategic markets including Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, France, and the USA, they sell through their own stores and a strong online presence. In other countries, they partner with other boutiques to reach their customers.  

Implementing advanced financial technology is key to providing a smooth and enjoyable shopping experience for our customers, wherever they are.

Peter Bruggeman

CFO, Essentiel Antwerp

Companies expand often to reach new customers and grow their sales. Peter Bruggeman explains that Essentiel Antwerp’s focus is more on sharing their brand story as they grow internationally. “Our store in New York is a major step in building global brand awareness and attracting a wider international audience."

He adds, “For us, each new store is carefully chosen to reflect our brand and connect with the local culture. The store we open has to be in the right location, the perfect building, and has to add value to our brand. For our New York opening, we’ve been looking for more than two years to find the perfect spot. So it’s not only expanding internationally to sell and open markets, it's about sharing our brand’s unique story in different parts of the world.”

International expansion is not only expanding internationally to sell and open markets, it’s telling your story in different parts of the world.

Peter Bruggeman

CFO, Essentiel Antwerp

Between 2016 and 2018, in just three years time, Essentiel Antwerp opened 30 stores, more than doubling their store count at the time. “When growing at this pace, it’s essential that processes are efficient  and easily scalable,” Peter explains. “At that time, we didn't have the right processes in place. So that meant that growing our business was taking a lot of our resources, a lot of money and was blocking us from becoming an international company.” 

With the expansion of 30 stores also came a big wave of new people joining Essentiel Antwerp. That brought along the challenge of keeping their DNA and brand identity intact. “In the Netherlands, we recruited around 30 to 35 people in two or three months' time. Basically, all these new people didn't know what the core of Essentiel Antwerp was. What our brand identity consisted of and who we wanted to be as a brand. As a learning, when we recruit today, we take it slower and are more critical in the hiring process,” says Peter. “It’s our goal to build a company with people that deeply understand our brand, know where we came from and have our ambition for the future in mind.”

International expansion also means that you need to have a clear strategy and sometimes make iterations to it. When COVID-19 happened, many stores had to close. This period forced Essentiel Antwerp to reinvent themselves. They had to think about their strategy and how they could manage store closings. They concluded that they wanted to remain creative in their collections and products, but wanted to transform in a more rational and standardized way of working. 

“Our approach now is to go for a number of limited and selective openings. That means we only want to go to cities where we believe that we can build a brand and that that city can give credibility back to our brand.”

Today, if we go to a city or to a new territory, it's a complete package of a store opening and e-commerce, in order to allow local customers to experience the brand online and offline.

Peter Bruggeman

CFO, Essentiel Antwerp

Today’s shoppers expect a seamless experience across all channels. For Essentiel Antwerp, using digital tools is crucial for international growth. Peter says, “We leverage technology to understand trends in new markets and provide the best service. These tools also help our teams work efficiently and identify new opportunities, driving our success in diverse markets.”

The role of financial technology is vital in Essentiel Antwerp’s global operations, improving the customer journey at every touchpoint. Peter notes, “Implementing advanced financial technology is key to providing a smooth and enjoyable shopping experience for our customers, wherever they are.” Before partnering with Adyen, Essentiel Antwerp managed multiple payment systems across their stores, online platform, and wholesale business.

“We realized the need to consolidate our payment infrastructure for greater efficiency and a consistent customer experience. By integrating Adyen’s unified platform, we’ve streamlined our operations, leading to improved efficiency and a more seamless experience for our customers across all channels.” This integration allows Essentiel Antwerp to offer innovative customer experiences like flexible payment options and convenient online-to-offline services such as Click & Collect and Ship from Store, all adding up to more customer convenience and satisfaction.

“When switching to Adyen, I already saw an impact within 5 minutes. And that’s not a joke,” says Peter. “Within a few minutes, I was convinced that the way of working of Adyen is completely different from the partners we used to have. I now see the actual added value of financial technology whenever I open Adyen’s platform and see all the possibilities. Everything is automated.

We used to work with different protocols per country per partner, which gave us a lot of additional work, especially for the IT team. Today, I feel with Adyen that everything is organized in one single platform. It's much more flexible and the added value for us is that everything related to financial technology is in the hands of one partner and one platform that we trust.

Peter Bruggeman

CFO, Essentiel Antwerp

Essentiel Antwerp is now using online information to decide where to open new stores. Peter explains, “Instead of just looking at how many people walk by a location, we now use data from our online shop and other sales platforms to find the best places for new stores.”

By looking at where people shop online and who they are, Essentiel Antwerp can see which areas have a lot of interest in their brand. For example, they're opening a new flagship store in Amsterdam this summer. This decision was based on online sales showing a strong local customer base in that area, even beyond the tourists who visit their current Amsterdam store. 

This smart approach also helps them in their partnerships with other stores. By understanding where customers buy Essentiel Antwerp products from these partner stores, they can make better decisions about opening their own stores. If a partner store is already doing well in an area, Essentiel Antwerp might not need its own store there. But if online data shows a lot of potential customers in a new area, it makes opening a store there less risky.

Our approach to new store locations is increasingly data-driven. Instead of solely relying on traditional foot traffic, we analyze online sales and customer engagement to pinpoint high-potential areas.

Peter Bruggeman

CFO, Essentiel Antwerp

Over the last period, Essentiel Antwerp has achieved significant international success, including strong performance in the US market, where the New York store has seen an impressive 84.4% year-over-year revenue increase, and their newborn US e-commerce is projected to reach €1 million in its first year, becoming their seventh-largest e-commerce market. Their overall brand momentum is strong, with a nearly 20% like-for-like sales increase across their existing network. 

The opening of their New York store is proving to be a resounding success for Essentiel Antwerp, and it's not just benefiting their American operations. Adyen data reveals a remarkable ripple effect back in Europe. The increased visibility and allure among American consumers are translating into a significant surge in purchases by U.S. shoppers in Essentiel's European stores. In fact, Essentiel Antwerp is seeing a year-on-year increase in American shoppers in Europe, who are generating double the revenue they did before, with the number of American customers also rising by a striking 75%.

Moving forward, Essentiel Antwerp will continue to focus on strategic growth, leveraging data-driven insights and innovative technologies to enhance their brand presence and customer experience in key markets, this includes the upcoming Amsterdam flagship store.

Essentiel Antwerp’s journey to a global fashion brand reflects their commitment to bold design, strategic thinking, and a deep understanding of the evolving retail landscape. Their partnership with Adyen has been instrumental in streamlining operations, finetuning the customer experience, and providing the data-driven insights necessary for informed decision-making. By embracing unified commerce and prioritizing strategic, data-informed growth, Essentiel Antwerp is well-positioned to continue its vibrant expansion and solidify its presence on the global stage.