Part 1: 170 Years of French Fashion Heritage ▶ Watch (1:37)

Background
Founded in 1852, Rodier is one of France's oldest fashion houses. It began as a fabric producer and historically supplied Gabrielle Chanel with jersey knit. After the war it grew into a network of around 200 boutiques across France — to the point, as Valérie Attard puts it, that "every French person had their Rodier store." Today the house is deliberately small and agile, with a lean head office, its own warehouse, and collections produced and reshored in Europe.

A small, agile house today ▶ Watch (2:26)
The lean structure is a deliberate strength: a reduced HQ lets Rodier make decisions and act on them very quickly. With its own warehouse and European production, the house is built for speed — and for the ambition to grow well beyond its home market.

Heritage money can't manufacture ▶ Watch (4:09)
At its peak Rodier had around 200 stores; when the network was wound down, customers "cried as if we were taking away a little piece of France." As Valérie notes, brands spend fortunes building a story — Rodier's is already written.

Part 2: Before Glopal — The Marketplace Trap ▶ Watch (5:26)

A near pure-player
Rodier is almost entirely digital: the website is its main channel for both distribution and communication, up 30% in 2024, with only a handful of physical stores remaining. To reach beyond France, the brand had gone international through the Zalando marketplace in four or five countries — Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium and the Nordics.

Three problems with marketplaces ▶ Watch (6:44)
The marketplace model quickly proved unsustainable, for three reasons: it wasn't profitable (layers of intermediaries, commissions and sky-high return rates), the customer never belonged to Rodier, and the brand couldn't control its own image — products pushed by an algorithm into a vast catalogue of cropped, white-background images, with no relationship to the shopper.

Translation as double work ▶ Watch (8:23)
Rodier's own site ran in French and English, but everything was translated by hand — meaning every catalogue upload had to be done twice. It was a significant, recurring workload with no automation behind it.

Part 3: Why International Wasn't a Choice, but a Necessity ▶ Watch (9:08)

A brutally competitive home market
The French market is extremely tight and tough for every fashion brand — Yellow Vests, Covid, "something every day," as Valérie describes it. Against that backdrop, Rodier's ambition isn't single-digit growth; the house has the stock, the warehouse and the teams to double its revenue. That growth has to come from abroad.

A spread of markets cushions the dips ▶ Watch (10:37)
It's the strength of any international brand: when one market struggles, another compensates. Spreading across regions balances the inevitable dips — something Glopal sees repeatedly in client data — so the business isn't held hostage to a single economy.

Part 4: The Project — Live in 8 Countries in 2 Months ▶ Watch (11:42)

From signature to launch in two months
Rodier signed with Glopal in January and was live in March — exactly two months, despite being a small team that couldn't afford to let a new project derail day-to-day operations.

Three workshops and a weekly check-in ▶ Watch (12:14)
Setup ran through three 45-minute workshops — translation and tone of voice (formal vs. informal, which words to translate), market strategy and per-country domains, and marketing — supported by a short weekly check-in to track progress.

Glopal did the heavy lifting ▶ Watch (13:29)
Glopal and Rodier's e-commerce platform handled the entire technical setup, including registering domains for each country. Rodier's only task was proofreading — with very little back-and-forth, because the teams understood the brand quickly.

Real-time, simultaneous translation ▶ Watch (14:34)
The most seamless part: Rodier uploads its catalogue once, in French and English, and it's translated simultaneously with no lag and no extra action. A product launched in the morning appears instantly localised for the Spanish, Italian, German or Dutch shopper in their own language.

Part 5: The Results — +22% Organic Growth, Zero Ad Spend ▶ Watch (18:16)

Pure-margin growth
Live across 8 markets and expanding to 12, Rodier has grown 22% internationally since the start of the year — entirely organic, with zero euro invested. Because there are no campaigns and no setup costs abroad (free shipping over €200 and free returns, matching France), it's all margin, far higher than on domestic sales.

Germany #1, Belgium #2 ▶ Watch (18:40)
Germany — a notoriously hard market — became the number-one market, with return rates cut sharply thanks to detailed, fully localised product pages. Belgium is now second, unlocked by finally serving the Dutch-speaking majority, who told Rodier, "Finally, you've realised we exist."

Customers think Rodier is local ▶ Watch (15:21)
A telling shift: customers in Spain, Italy and elsewhere now write to customer service in their own language, assuming Rodier is a local brand — where before, foreign shoppers defaulted to English. A fully translated site, down to delivery terms, makes the brand feel native.

Native-language search is the engine ▶ Watch (34:52)
People search in their own language — a German shopper looks for a jumper in German, not English. Without a site localised in that language, it's impossible to rank organically. That insight is exactly what drove Rodier's organic growth, with no ad spend behind it.

Part 6: What's Next for Rodier ▶ Watch (21:34)

New markets on the roadmap
Next to open are Poland and Romania — markets Valérie admits she'd never have considered, but which Glopal's monthly reporting and data flagged as dynamic, high-potential opportunities. A Middle East test is also planned across three markets (the Emirates, Dubai and Saudi Arabia), driven by the brand's existing Middle Eastern clientele.

Middle East and Korea ▶ Watch (22:47)
For the Middle East, an Arabic site isn't required — English works well, particularly in the expat-heavy Emirates (with a lighter caveat for Saudi Arabia). Rodier has also just signed a licence in Korea, opening another phase of visibility for the brand.

From passive to active ▶ Watch (34:30)
So far the international strategy has been deliberately passive — localised, live, answering customers in their language. From this winter (Rodier is a winter brand), the plan shifts to active: campaigns, influencers and a richer customer experience in the markets showing the most momentum.

Valérie's Advice to Brands Still Hesitating ▶ Watch (25:15)

Own your distribution
Her core message: the marketplace is not the solution. Reclaim your network and own your distribution — so you build a direct customer base you can speak to, and you control your brand image abroad.

Don't wait — it's fast and easy ▶ Watch (26:04)
"It's a decision we made one Monday, and two months later we were live in eight countries." Beyond delivery, tools and returns, the ongoing work is effectively nil — localisation and translation are fully automated.

Q&A Highlights ▶ Watch (28:57)

Were the launched countries the ones you'd planned from the start? ▶ Watch (28:57)
Some were certainties — Germany and Belgium — but for others like Italy and Spain, Glopal's data and recommendations steered the choices. Not everything was in Valérie's first list; the final roadmap came from brainstorming with the Glopal team and following the numbers. (Laetitia)

Do you need to be established at home before going international? ▶ Watch (29:53)
Valérie used to think so, but has changed her mind: plenty of brands thrive abroad while being weak at home, and vice versa. Going international even taught Rodier new things about its own collection, because customers abroad send back signals you don't get domestically. (Laetitia)

Can you share international figures and your ROI for the year? ▶ Watch (31:21)
There's no separate international ROI because there are virtually no costs there — no campaigns, no setup. It's pure margin. Germany is the top market, Belgium second, and international has grown 22% organically since January. (Frédéric)

How long did the launch take for such a small team? ▶ Watch (36:54)
Two months — signed in early January, live in March — with three 45-minute setup workshops and a weekly 20-minute check-in. Glopal and the e-commerce platform handled the build; Valérie credits a "hugely professional team." (Mathieu)

Do you need an Arabic version of the site for the Middle East? ▶ Watch (38:24)
No — English works well across the region, especially in the expat-heavy Emirates. Julien adds a small caveat that Saudi Arabia may differ from Dubai, but overall the impact of Arabic is lower there than language switches in other regions. (Mathieu)

What's the overall cost per market? ▶ Watch (39:33)
It depends on the client — offers adapt to whether you're a startup beginning internationally or a large group already in many markets. Glopal typically works around a concrete business case to project potential revenue and answer pricing precisely. (Frédéric)