Big industry players are coming together giving us some of the most notable partnerships to date. Between GOAT Group acquiring Grailed and Amazon partnering with What Goes Around Comes Around, we can’t wait to see who will come together next.
Goat Group Announces Deal to Acquire Grailed
Just last year GOAT Group invested $60 million in Series B funding for the popular marketplace Grailed. A year later they have announced they are set to acquire the company.
Both GOAT Group and Grailed have exceptional brand identity within the fashion community, particularly for sneakers, streetwear and luxury goods. This has drawn GOAT Group to acquire the cutting-edge community of fashion enthusiasts that Grailed offers as it presents a perfect complement to GOATs business model. Their mission is to advance both platforms' collective mission and continue to build their position and strengths within the industry together.
The deal is set to be finalized by the end of the year. They’re community of enthusiastic buyers and sellers along with their select offering of goods and services makes this a top partnership to watch in 2023.
Amazon Partners With What Goes Around Comes Around To Extend Luxury Lifecycle
It’s no secret that Amazon has ramped up its presence and position in the fashion space by offering Luxury Goods Stores. Introduced in 2020, these Luxury Stores on Amazon offer an aspirational experience for designer brands and expands the assortment offered on the giant’s marketplace. President of Amazon Fashion, Muge Erdirik says, “We’re thrilled to collaborate with What Goes Around Comes Around to grow our selection of pre-loved luxury handbags and accessories, giving customers even more options to shop for themselves and their loved ones ahead of the holidays.”
What Goes Around Comes Around is a trusted reseller of authenticated high-end vintage accessories, handbags, jewelry and watches. This partnership signifies the continued momentum of luxury resale and also adds an additional level of credibility to categories historically plagued by counterfeiting.
Vestiaire Collective Announces Acquisition of Tradesy
To accelerate circularity in the global luxury fashion market Vestiaire Collective has made the strategic move of acquiring Tradesy, a pioneer in the fashion resale industry.
As a result of their merger, Vestiaire Collective and Tradesy significantly expand their peer-to-peer marketplaces, which directly benefits their sellers and buyers. With 23 million members and a catalog of 5 million items, the combined company will have a Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) that exceeds $1 billion. Seller's gain a massive, broader audience both in the U.S. and globally, while buyers will gain an even more extensive assortment of desirable secondhand items to select from. This partnership therefore enhances both the selling and purchasing experience while answering the industry’s demand for a more sustainable future.
The secondhand giant recently announced that as of Black Friday they will ban fast fashion from being listed on its platform. This includes brands such as Asos, Shein, BooHoo, Fashion Nova and many more. They believe this is a step in the right direction to fighting the war on waste.
The company has said they are “committed to finding and promoting practical solutions for the fast fashion items that its members already have.”
“This includes wearing, repairing, recycling, upcycling and constructive donation strategies,” it said in a statement.
Tech Giant Naver Acquires Poshmark, A Match Made In Heaven?
In early October it was announced that Naver, the South Korean search giant, will buy secondhand apparel marketplace Poshmark for $1.2 billion in cash. Poshmark stockholders' approval and other customary closing conditions must be satisfied before the deal closes by Q1 of 2023.
According to Business Wire, “the acquisition expands and diversifies Naver’s leading e-commerce platform, strengthens its community with a global social network of younger users, and positions it to capitalize on the global online fashion re-commerce and sustainable economy opportunity while it extends Poshmark’s leadership and capitalizes on changing consumer trends through new technology investments, international expansion, and category and product evolution.”
Poshmark's current management team will continue to lead the company as a standalone subsidiary of Naver, under the leadership of Naver's CEO Manish Chandra. In addition to maintaining its brand, Naver says it will retain Poshmark staff, its user base, and its headquarters in Redwood City, California.
With the acquisition of Poshmark, Naver aims to combine its "technological prowess" and existing communities, like the Naver Café online forum, with Poshmark’s social shopping growing user base. According to Naver, Poshmark will benefit from Naver’s image recognition and search technologies. The technology will allow the shopping platform to provide users with new discovery and recommendation experiences through image recognition and search technologies via Google Lens. Using their smartphone cameras, users can scan clothes to identify where to find products, and find apparel by searching colors, designs and materials.
CEO of Poshmark, Manish Chandra, said in a press release:
“The opportunity to join forces with Naver — one of the world’s leading and most innovative and successful internet companies — is a testament to the strength of our brand, operating model and what we’ve built over the last decade with our talented team and amazing community. Our industry continues to evolve at a rapid pace, and we are excited to continue to lead the future of shopping by providing our community with an unparalleled experience that is simple, social, fun and sustainable. This is a highly compelling opportunity for our employees, who will benefit from being part of a larger, global organization with shared values and complementary strengths. This transaction also delivers significant and immediate value to our shareholders. Longer term, as part of Naver, we will benefit from their financial resources, significant technology capabilities and leading presence across Asia to expand our platform, elevate our product and user experiences and enter new and large markets. I look forward to partnering with Naver as we take our company into its next phase of growth.”
Strategic partnerships seem to be the current trend and lifeblood of the Fashion Industry as big box brands and companies seek to advance the circular economy and sustainability. What other partnerships do you think would make sense? Share your 2023 predictions with us below!
You might also be interested in 10 Great Marketplaces Every Reseller Should Consider
