Condé Nast International leads $20m investment in farfetch

Rating: Obviously should use the money for mobile presence

There’s no mention of it in the Press blurb but GoMobile News reckons that the e–commerce site, fartech, desperately needs investment in mobile to stay ahead of the game. It has a very poor mobile presence, yet gaily describes itself as the world’s leading e-commerce marketplace for independent fashion boutiques. Anyway, the well-known fashion mag publisher, Condé Nast International, has just led a $20 million investment in farfetch. By contrast to farfetch, Condé Nast has over 100 websites and more than170 tablet and smartphone apps under iconic brands such as Vogue, GQ, Glamour, and Wired. We only found farfetch’s mobile version by luck.

For those of you who might want to shop @ farfetch via your mobile, simply put an ‘m’ in place of the www, like so. You can then select your appropriate country.

We searched Apple’s iTunes App store and Google Play for a farfetch app and found none. The standard html site makes no mention of a mobile version – unless we are going blind.

Anyway, farfetch CEO, José Neves, enthused, “Our goal to build a unique curated global franchise in online designer fashion is brought several steps closer through the exciting involvement of Condé Nast.”

It seems to like that word ‘curated’. What it means is that the site can sell designer brands like Fendi, Gucci, and Chloé as well as others from emerging designers, whilst offering clothing for both men and women.

Anyway, farfetch isn’t doing so badly. Sales are spread around the globe, with 65 per cent of sales coming from markets outside the UK and USA.

it enjoys 4.3 million site visits per month with 150,000 customers in over 140 countries spending on average $638 per order.

Plus is currently has $129 million annual sales with current growth rate of over 145 per cent.

According to Jonathan Newhouse, CEO with Condé Nast, “farfetch has a unique position, connecting boutiques around the world by e-commerce to sophisticated fashion customers like our magazine readers and website users. It’s a natural for Condé Nast.”

Perhaps farfetch would like to know why a mobile presence is so important these days. What do you think?