Net-A-Porter has changed the way we shop online. And now, a Singapore-based startup looks poised to become the Net-A-Porter of the Asian market. Shopthemag.com started operations from 1 March and is the first luxury fashion portal in Asia. Headed by Corinne Ng, who worked in the fashion magazine industry for a dozen years and has been associated with the likes of Elle, Cleo and Harper’s Bazaar, shopthemag.com will focus exclusively on Asian designers.
The new website stocks 17 well-known Asian labels including India’s Manish Arora, Japan’s Akira Nara, Indonesia’s Jewel Rocks and Thailand’s Nsha Atelier. Ng and her husband Damien Low worked for eight months to get the designers on board. Meanwhile, the early results are heartening for the site. Apparently, 53.8 percent of Singapore’s Internet users have already visited the website.
A study by Visa revealed that Singaporean users spend $1,892 (S$2,347) per person on an average on international sites. Moreover, Ng admits that many shoppers like Asian designers but find it hard to source them. Shopthemag.com would fill this niche and ensure that Asians spend more on Asian brands rather than American or European ones.
The new luxury fashion website has women aged between 25 and 50 as their target audience. Since March, the website has managed to record sales worth S$100,000. 80 percent of the clients have been from Asia (of these, 80 percent are from Singapore), the remainder from Europe and America.
There is plenty of scope for the site to grow further. “Asia is ready,” declares Ng as she continues to work on discovering new Asian talent and giving them global exposure.
Via: CNNGo.com
