Korean fashion platform Musinsa sees sales triple over 3 yrs on expansion

Musinsa Standard in Hongdae, Seoul [Photo by Han Joo-hyung]

Musinsa Co., South Korea’s No. 1 online fashion platform, has enjoyed a triple growth in sales over the last three years on the back of its aggressive investments in new business areas and focus on a vertical platform.

Musinsa announced Thursday that its sales reached 708.3 billion won ($542 million) last year, up 54 percent from a year ago. The figure is triple the sales of 219.7 billion won in 2019.

Its gross merchandise value (GMV) also increased significantly in recent years.

According to eBest Investment & Securities Co., the annual GMV of Musinsa is estimated to have reached 3.4 trillion won last year, up from 900 billion won in 2019.

Musinsa is expected to join the “1 trillion won sales club” in one or two years and solidify its status as the country’s No. 1 fashion platform. The company is likely to benefit from the steady growth of 29CM, a subsidiary it acquired in 2021 to reinforce its women‘s fashion business.

Musinsa has been making aggressive moves for overseas expansion recently. It opened a global store in September last year and began providing web and app services in 13 countries including Japan, the U.S., Singapore, and Thailand.

The company plans to take advantage of the K-culture craze and increase sales in overseas markets in collaboration with small and medium-sized local designer brands.

“We carried out a large-scale recruitment in many different functions for a successful advance into overseas markets, such as global business development, marketing, service planning, and technology,” said an unnamed official from Musinsa. “We will target overseas markets aggressively from April this year with Japan as a start.”

Musinsa plans to launch initial public offering (IPO) steps from next year after strengthening its top position in the fashion platform market.

Musinsa is expanding its market dominance with rapid growth in sales and GMV while a majority of fashion platforms have failed to turn a profit. The company’s profitability, however, still remains a challenge. Its operating profit plunged 95 percent last year to a mere 3.2 billion won with net loss amounting to 55.8 billion won.