Alibaba and Richemont invest in Farfetch and China joint venture
Alibaba and Richemont are investing $600 million in online luxury fashion retailer Farfetch.
The two companies will also invest $250 million each in a newly formed Farfetch China joint venture and explore other opportunities to work with Farfetch to provide services to luxury brands.
The move means that Alibaba will launch Farfetch luxury shopping channels on Tmall Luxury Pavilion and outlet destination Luxury Soho, as well as Alibaba’s cross-border marketplace Tmall Global. This will give Farfetch access to Alibaba’s 757 million consumers.
Daniel Zhang, chairman and chief executive of Alibaba Group, said: “This highly complementary partnership brings together some of the world’s leading luxury retail and technology platforms, representing another milestone in Alibaba’s strategy to meet the rapidly growing demand for luxury products in China.
“The Chinese luxury market – which is expected to account for half of global luxury sales by 2025 – consists of hundreds of millions of young, digitally-native consumers. By partnering with Farfetch and expanding our existing relationship with Richemont, we will accelerate the digitisation of the global luxury retail industry and transform the luxury shopping experience for consumers.”
