In its zest to create a premier platform for luxury e-commerce across China, the country’s e-commerce retailer JD.com has made a strategic investment of $397 million in Farfetch, a global e-commerce platform for the fashion industry.
“We are deeply honored and excited to be announcing this partnership with Richard Liu and JD.com,” says José Neves, founder, co-chairman and chief executive officer, Farfetch.
“China is the world’s second largest luxury market, and we are delighted to have such a respected partner, known for its strict protection of IP, with whom to address Chinese luxury consumers. This partnership addresses the market’s challenges by combining the Farfetch brand and curation with the scale and influence of the foremost Chinese e-commerce giant.”
With the investment, JD.com will become one of the largest shareholders of Farfetch.
The new partnership will leverage JD’s logistics, internet finance and technology capabilities and social media resources including its WeChat partnership with Farfetch’s leadership in global luxury to create a seamless brand experience.
Moreover, JD will help drive further brand awareness, traffic and sales for the brand which already has multiple operations in China and is also the partner of choice for 200 luxury brands and more than 500 multi-brand retailers.
The agreement between the two companies will also include leveraging BlackDragon, a digital marketing technology platform that powers entities across retail, e-commerce, tech, finance, travel, education and automotive. BlackDragon will allow Farfetch to build automated marketing pipelines to spur its name recognition and market position in the region.
In addition, Farfetch users in China will also gain access to a variety of services from JD Finance including JD Pay which will be a preferred payments partner and Baitiao, JD Finance’s consumer microcredit channel.
