The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
The world’s fastest growing retailer, Coupang, launched delivery services in Tokyo on Thursday, kicking off plans to take on its first overseas market, The Korea Times reports.
Following the company’s record-breaking $4.6 billion US IPO in March, which it said would go towards global expansion, Coupang’s biggest investor and Softbank chairman Misayoshi Son hinted at its intentions to take on the Japanese market.
At present, Coupang is delivering products on a trial basis in Tokyo’s Shingawa district to shoppers who place orders through their mobile app; the platform has also set up a distribution centre in the area.
Though the firm has been tight-lipped about its expansion game plan, it’s clear that a Singapore base, granting access to the lucrative and competitive Southeast Asian region, is in the books. Coupang recently set up an arm in Singapore and began hiring employees there.
Local streetwear brands, festivals and stores selling major global labels remain relatively small but the country’s community of hypebeasts and sneakerheads is growing fast.
This week’s round-up of global markets fashion business news also features Senegalese investors, an Indian menswear giant and workers’ rights in Myanmar.
Though e-commerce reshaped retailing in the US and Europe even before the pandemic, a confluence of economic, financial and logistical circumstances kept the South American nation insulated from the trend until later.
This week’s round-up of global markets fashion business news also features Korean shopping app Ably, Kenya’s second-hand clothing trade and the EU’s bid to curb forced labour in Chinese cotton.