STYLE.COM IS NO MORE – CONDÉ NAST NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH FARFETCH
Style.com has come to an abrupt end as Condé Nast teams up with Farfetch, ceasing their operations and redirecting customers to Farfetch.com to continue their online shopping journey.
Chairman and Chief executive of Condé Nast International, Jonathon Newhouse, comments “As an early investor in Farfetch, this partnership is the next step in our evolving business relationship. It further unites two leaders in their respective sectors, combining best-in-class content with the world’s leading online luxury shopping destination”.
This could prove to further strengthen the position of Farfetch in comparison to their industry competitors such as Yoox-Net-a-Porter and MatchesFashion, and new rivals 24 Sèvres which was launched on the 6th of June by LVMH . The partnership boosts their bid to become the ultimate online destination for luxury fashion.
Founder and chief executive of Farfetch describes their role as connecting people, in an interview with BoF he states “We connect people. We have the curators and the creators of fashion. Now we’re connecting the creators of content”.
The news comes amidst the anti-climatic performance of Style.com, which was a business venture embarked upon by Condé Nast in an attempt to create new revenue streams to compensate for declining print advertising sales. This new strategy of partnering up with an established leader of the e-commerce world enables Condé Nast to focus on what they do best which is producing content. Farfetch will flawlessly connect digital and social media content from Condé Nast with branded products on their online platform.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch recently reported that online luxury goods sales are expected to increase five-fold by 2025. According to Boston Consulting Group, e-commerce will make up 12 per cent of sales in the global luxury goods market by 2020.
This news should come as no surprise as there has been a significant shift in what luxury brands choose to spend their budget on, spending on print has dramatically declined in favour of digital advertising. The BGC confirm that six out of 10 sales are digitally influenced, with the majority of in-store purchases following from online research – this partnership goes to show that the future lays in e-commerce, and Farfetch will be playing the leading role.