BuyVIP was a Madrid-based company that functioned like a members-only retail club. The service provided significant discounts on high-end items for its members mostly in the fashion and lifestyle categories.
BuyVIP was a major player in the flash sales industry, acquiring over six million members across seven European countries, including Italy, Germany, and Spain. In 2010, Amazon acquired BuyVIP.
In 2017, Amazon announced that it was shutting down BuyVIP. The website began to redirect to Amazon.com. BuyVIP’s employees were given jobs at Amazon.
The closing of BuyVIP marked the end of an era for Amazon as it closed the chapter on their flash sale efforts. Earlier, Amazon had also closed down the US-based flash sale website MyHabit due to profitability issues.
According to Amazon, they had tried their best to make BuyVIP a diverse and appealing service for customers but it had failed to bring in any profit. Selling designer fashion items at wildly low rates had been an unsustainable idea that turned into a fad. Once interest in these flash sales fizzled out, Amazon wasn’t making enough profit from it as it had hoped, leading it to shut down businesses like BuyVIP.
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