The Dorcel Store in the Lac district of Bordeaux – Mickaël Bosredon / 20 Minutes
- Dorcel Store has set up its thirteenth French store in the Lac district, while Passage du Désir has moved to rue Sainte-Catherine.
- These two shops aim to democratize sex objects.
- The clientele, which was still predominantly male a few years ago, is becoming more and more feminine.
Installed along Boulevard Aliénor d’Aquitaine, in the Lac district, since December, the Dorcel Store in Bordeaux barely had time to make itself known, between two confinements. The Passage du Désir brand is ready to go all out: its tenth national concept store is now complete, rue Sainte-Catherine. But he must still take his trouble patiently, the time that all businesses are allowed to reopen.
In the meantime, those in charge of these two “lovestores” – don’t talk to them about sex shops – have seen their online sales soar since the start of the health crisis. “Our site has been working very well for a year, because it allows us to take over from our closed shops, and also because our products are very suitable for containment and cocooning”, analyzes Benjamin Scanvyou, director of the Dorcel store network in France, whom we met in Bordeaux. “This allows you to add a little spice, to discover new games, and to have a better time confined” he continues. Its Bordeaux-Lac store, the thirteenth in France, also offers its customers the possibility of making click and collect, not everyone wishing to be delivered at home, even if the packages are of course anonymized.
“Our stores aim to put everyone at ease”
“There is indeed an increase in online sales, abounds Patrick Pruvot, founder of the Passage du Désir concept store. When everything is forbidden, sexuality remains the last territory of freedom. On Valentine’s Day, people couldn’t go to restaurants or on weekends, so they bought things to have fun as a couple. Admittedly, confinement had a very severe effect for some couples who had difficulty in passing the course, but as France is very late in the consumption of this type of object, the crisis has allowed the global to catch up. . “
Sex toys, oils, lingerie… The Dorcel Store boutique in Bordeaux offers some 3,500 references, over more than 300 m2, all in an airy universe with soothing pink colors. Far from the sometimes a little murky universe of certain “historical” sex shops.
“Our stores aim to put everyone at ease and make sexual pleasures accessible to all, in order to attract both women and couples,” insists Benjamin Scanvyou. In fact, “we have a very heterogeneous clientele, ranging from 18 to 70 years old, with a third of men, a third of women and a third of couples. There is therefore a real evolution of profiles since there are still 7-8 years, 50% of our turnover was made by men only. “
“I find it more interesting to talk about pleasure than about sex”
At Passage du Désir, we focus on fun. Over 65 m2, the Bordeaux boutique will sell sex toys of course, but not only. “I find it more interesting to talk about pleasure than about sex” says Patrick Pruvot, who presents his brands as “ultra-playful and without vulgarity”. “These are not sex shops, he insists, but the couple’s sustainable development shops, or gifts for lovers”.
Patrick Pruvot absolutely wanted to set up his brand in the city center. “Bordeaux had been one of our objectives for a few years now, but the places on rue Sainte-Catherine are not becoming much free. We voluntarily chose a prominent location, because the trivialization of our products involves being adjacent to “mainstream” brands. “
The “Womanizer” at the top of sales
The products currently in vogue are “less gendered than before, with fewer phallic products and more fun objects” analyzes Benjamin Scanvyou. And even if the famous “Rabbit” popularized twenty years ago by the series Sex and the City is always in demand, what mostly fills the shelves of the Dorcel store today, are colorful sex toys, ergonomic shapes and… connected. “The one who is walking very hard at the moment is the ‘Womanizer’, a clitoral stimulator” specifies the manager of the Dorcel stores.
It has indeed already sold around the world, more than four million copies of the “Womanizer” of the Berlin group Wow. In one year, its sales have tripled internationally, and increased by 153% in France. Stimulators for couples are also in great demand. And most of the products “are now made from phthalate-free medical silicone,” insists Benjamin Scanvyou.