Musinsa is a Korean ecommerce unicorn that runs an online shopping mall, a fashion magazine and invests behind young designers who want to enter the fashion industry. Its gross sales are said to exceed Won 2.3T ($1.8b)
In Korea there are a range of EC platforms, all competing on the same turf, including Bungaejanter, Karrot Market, ZigZag and Coupang. The latter IPO-ed last year in New York.
Musinsa’s sweet spot is the Gen Z generation which account for 45% of users. The company operates a very similar business model to Chinese EC fashion platform Shein that has quickly built a global footprint.
Now Musinsa wants to follow suit and according to the Financial Times is in talks to take over Dholic commerce another EC platform, popular in Japan.
GenZ EC fashion businesses are all the rage.
An article in the Times this weekend revealed that Shein’s business in the UK is now in excess of £350m ($448m) despite having very few people on the ground. On line orders are fulfilled by airfreight and since most orders are below £135, there’s no import taxes to pay either.
What really caught my eye was that US investment firm Sequoia Capital has stakes in both Musinsa and Shein. Is that a consolidation play in the making?