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.
Seoul-based e-tailer W Concept is up for sale and local giants, including Lotte Shopping, E-mart, 11st Street and CJ Mall, are interested, Pulse News reported.
The news signals the growing interest major retailers have in shifting their businesses online. W Concept was founded in 2006 and sells Korean brands like Low Classic, CosRX and Reike Nen to local customers as well as shoppers in markets like the US, UK and France. According to Pulse News, the platform holds a 32 percent share in Korea’s online fashion market. In the fall, W Concept’s GMV of 245 billion won ($219 million) pegged its value at around 400 billion won ($356 million).
The platform is currently owned by IMM Private Equity and ISE Commerce; the two planned to sell their stakes to another local e-commerce player, Musinsa, in 2020, but pricing kept the deal from going through.
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.