In the 1990s and 2000s, Zara revolutionized fashion retailing.

It’s still doing well. The core business model of Zara is to drop new styles in its stores every few days (3 to 4 days). This inventory refresh system was revolutionary a decade ago.

Today, Zara is one of the largest fashion brick-and-mortar chains in the world.

Then came Shein in 2020. The idea was simple: drop thousands of new styles each day.

So, if Zara is about fast fashion, Shein is about ultra-fast fashion. The other difference is that Zara is focused on retail stores, whereas Shein sells through its app and website.

Today’s success story isn’t about Zara and Shein, but about an online fashion retailer that does more than a billion dollars in revenue each year and also drops 1,900 new styles every week.

Like Shein? No, that’s where things get interesting.

Enter Revolve.

Started in 2003, it’s an online store that stocks over 110,000 fashion products.

The point of difference?

They sell most of their products without resorting to aggressive discounting. And the most impressive fact is that their products aren’t low-ticket.

Shein is known for selling ultra-cheap products through discounts that run 24/7. Revolve does the opposite. No splashy marketing.

So, it doesn’t surprise that they sell 82% of their inventory at full price. That’s unheard of. Generally, in fashion (which is a highly competitive industry), selling 40% to 50% of inventory at full price is the norm.

I looked at their financials and found that their gross margin is well above 50%. Again, that’s uncommon.

So, what’s their secret?

I think it’s all about curation. Those 1,900 styles each week are premium additions. They aren’t just numbers. They’re carefully selected, sourced, and curated by the team in small batches.

When your products are good, you don’t need to push them much through too much marketing.

Talking of marketing, they leverage online influencers. This is something most fashion retailers are doing these days. Yes, including Shein.