British luxury e-commerce site Matchesfashion, acquired at the end of 2023 by its compatriot, retailer Frasers Group, has failed to turn its fortunes around. Now that it has been placed in receivership, its future is uncertain.
Luxury e-commerce continues to falter.
After the difficulties of Yoox-Net-a-Porter, whose owner Richemont is still trying to sell off, and those of Farfetch, saved in extremis at the end of 2023 by South Korea’s Coupang, it’s now the turn of Matchesfashion, another former flagship of the sector, to be placed under administration.
The decision was taken on March 7 by the administrators of MatchesFashion.com, which had been acquired last December by leading British retailer Frasers Group from Apax Partners for just £52 million ($66.7 million). This is almost twenty times less than the amount paid ($1 billion or £0.78 billion) in 2017 by the private equity firm to buy MatchesFashion from its two founders, Tom and Ruth Chaan.
Curating emerging and then luxury brands
The couple had founded MatchesFashion, then a London-based store curating emerging brands, in the late 1980s. The online formula, launched in 2007, sold 500 major luxury brands, including the most prestigious.
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Featured photo: © Matchesfashion
