In the early summer, a large-scale gathering of many global fashion industry leaders opened in the garden of the house at No. 52 Yongfu Road, Shanghai. WSJ, the elite men’s lifestyle content brand under China’s leading all-media content platform Lifelike Together with global fashion e-commerce platform FARFETCH, we organized the “FETCH IT GOOD” dinner. We set up a platform for the exchange of fashion between the East and the West, and started a positive dialog and practice together to create a beautiful new world of the world’s leading fashion shopping platform.
1. Developing Together
As one of the most important fashion consumer markets in the world, China has a strong ability to innovate business retail models and a large scale of e-commerce development. According to a report released by Bain & Company, China’s share of global high-end consumer goods consumption is as high as 21%, and about 1/3 of high-end consumer goods will be sold online in the future.
Since entering China in 2014, global fashion e-commerce platform FARFETCH has entered an accelerated development course together with China’s fashion industry. in 2017 and 2020, FARFETCH was invested by Jingdong and Tencent, and then in November 2020, FARFETCH was co-invested by Alibaba and Richemont Group. In November 2020, FARFETCH was invested by Alibaba and Richemont, and immediately opened its official overseas flagship store on Tmall, which now has more than 1 million fans.
At the end of February this year, FARFETCH announced its financial data for the fourth quarter and full year of fiscal year 2022, which ended on December 31, 2022, with record revenues, growth on a constant currency basis, and annual GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) of $4.1 billion. This impressive performance has made FARFETCH one of the forerunners in the global fashion industry in the new era.
Speaking about the strong performance in China, José Neves, Founder and CEO of FARFETCH, said, “China is the second largest luxury market in the world, and it is expected that the share of the luxury industry in China will reach 30% in the next few years. We have a unique competitive advantage in this regard and continue to be optimistic about this market.”
Nearly a decade of experience in building fashion exchange platforms for the East and the West is the backbone of FARFETCH. On the one hand, overseas brands have used it as a carrier to enter the Chinese market in a lighter way and provide local users with a more convenient and comfortable consumption environment and services; on the other hand, China’s cultural self-confidence has risen to a high point in the past few years, and the power of Chinese brands and designers has also been recognized by FARFETCH as the most influential brand in the world. On the other hand, China’s cultural confidence has also reached a high point in the past few years, and the power of Chinese brands and Chinese designers has also exploded outward with FARFETCH.
All signs show that China’s high-end fashion consumer market is maturing, and while people are consuming fashionable luxury goods, they are also consuming the influence and creativity of brand culture.
FARFETCH believes in empowering individuality and that fashion is a kind of self-expression. “We believe in empowering individuality.” And with fashion as its language, FARFETCH has been connecting with each consumer’s unique lifestyle through its platform solutions.
As China’s leading lifestyle media platform and headline content provider, FARFETCH also believes in the significance of expression and connection. While keeping an eye on China’s culture, fashion and art development trends, and continuously triggering cultural resonance in the community, Lifelife is also committed to cross-border links in different fields, focusing on exporting its influence to the design community, first-tier business elites, and university students, among others.
On the evening of May 9, WSJ., the elite men’s lifestyle content brand of Lifelike Husheng, and the global fashion e-commerce platform FARFETCH FETCH, co-organized the “FETCH IT GOOD” dinner party, in which the two cultural expressions joined hands to launch an exchange of ideas about the fashion culture of the East and the West, in anticipation of the future. East and West fashion culture exchange, looking forward to the future with active dialog and practice, and jointly create a beautiful new world of the world’s leading fashion shopping platform.
2. Gathering here
The white tent for the “FETCH IT GOOD” dinner was set up in the garden of the Shanghai Film Group’s house on Yongfu Road. Built in the 1930s, this classic Spanish-style building has seen faces from both East and West come and go. The centuries-old balsam camphor tree, with its branches and vines, extends all the way from time to time, watching this conversation that is the closest to the future in front of us.
José Neves, Founder and CEO of FARFETCH, and Feng Chuxuan, Founder of Lifelike Media Group, invited many fashion industry leaders from far and wide to attend the dinner, which was the first large-scale gathering of fashion brand executives this year.
Actor and musician Guo Caijie and the band NomadCity, actor, singer and young director Lai Guanlin, singer and music producer James Lee, actress Lu Yuxiao, supermodel Xi Mengyao, supermodel You Tianyi, as well as a group of fashion opinion leaders and FARFETCH VIP users were present to witness the present and future of China’s fashion e-commerce industry.
From the West to the East, the e-commerce experience brought by FARFETCH has gone far beyond “e-commerce”, and is more of a lifestyle, a style and taste. For the rich and diversified domestic market, FARFETCH is more than the literal “Far-fetch” in China, but more focused on digging out the best, the most cutting-edge fashion style, and bring it to the user’s face.
Fetch itself has the meaning of picking and fetching, for Chinese users, FARFETCH not only fetch from the distant West, but also fetch from the hands of domestic designers who are full of imagination and courage, regardless of their origins, all of which are based on the concept of “FETCH”. Regardless of their origins, FARFETCH takes “FETCH IT GOOD” as its main theme, and only pinches the most “sharp” goods.
To make achievements in a field, one must not rely on a “one-time highlight”, but rather maintain their own stable output and patiently construct their own development. For the true giver, the process overflows with a sense of optimism and positivity, and it is in this kind of joyfulness that dreams are realized and goals are achieved.
FARFETCH FARFETCH’s cultivation in the Chinese market relies on such “tireless” insightful people, and a group of equally tireless consumer groups, who maintain excellence, progress, and dedication, and continue to pursue their own “tip! They keep on improving, keep on investing, and keep on pursuing their own “sharpness”.
At the same time, FARFETCH has not stopped plowing the Chinese market. Also in the garden house at No. 52 Yongfu Road, WSJ. and FARFETCH joined hands to organize a “micro-exhibition” in a unique sea style space, linking up the three spaces with displays full of design language and artistic curatorial expressions of a very literary nature, and step by step guiding each and every guest to experience the “FARFETCH”. FARFETCH’s determination to connect the East and the West, and to embrace the “better”.
From now until May 14th, the exhibition space will remain open. 1300+ partners, 3500+ fashion brands, 800,000+ fashion enthusiasts and China’s leading brands and buyers, FARFETCH will continue to demonstrate its curiosity in exploring the fashion culture in the Chinese market. FARFETCH will continue to demonstrate its curiosity in exploring fashion culture and winning in the Chinese market with its “curiosity”.
3. Initiate a conversation
Before the dinner, we had a conversation with José Neves, Founder and CEO of FARFETCH.
WSJ: Why did you choose this time to invite dozens of global, Asia-Pacific and Chinese fashion brand executives to a private dinner in Shanghai?
José Neves: The past few years of the epidemic have been very difficult for everyone, especially for our old friends in the Chinese (Greater China) market, who have gone through more variables, but still made such outstanding results, which is very difficult, and this is entirely from them and their team’s efforts. Their business is good, our (Fafaqi’s) business is good, so I would like to sit down with all of you tonight, on the one hand, to express my encouragement, and on the other hand, it’s also a reunion and celebration between the “first person in charge”.
WSJ: What are your future plans for China?
José Neves: We have brought Harrods into the Chinese market and made many global fashion brands more accessible to Chinese consumers, and we will continue to do so in the future.
On the other hand, we are going to work more closely with Richemont, and I’ve learned a lot from their online and offline marketing initiatives for their different jewelry and watch brands in China, and we will use this as part of our experience to continue to optimize our VIP customer service.
WSJ: What are you most excited about in Shanghai?
José Neves: What excites me the most is that the Internet in China is moving so fast, especially during the epidemic, and that Chinese e-commerce has developed many new models, whereas the rest of the world is more conservative in this respect. We even see China as a testing ground for our new Internet tactics, and it’s driving our global business to experiment with new possibilities in technology, marketing, logistics, and other dimensions.
WSJ: What are your feelings about the venue for the dinner, a historic building from the 1930s (52 Yongfu Road)?
José Neves: The place is so beautiful and full of the essence of Shanghai – not so new and not so old compared to other cities in China, but standing at the crossroads of modernization. This area (the former French Concession) is secluded and cozy, but a little bit out of the way we could see the most modern Shanghai skyscrapers, and I can’t even think of a city in the world that can compete with that!
On the night, we spoke with actress and musician Guo Caijie and the band NomadCity for a ‘funky’ pinch. Shanghai. We talked to actor, singer and young director Lai Guanlin about “style”.
We talk to singer-songwriter and music producer James Lee about elegance.
We talk to actress Lu Yuxiao about beauty.
We talked with supermodel Xi Mengyao, and together we were able to “shine”.
A gathering means a happy meeting, a sincere and effective dialog, and a positive action to be put into practice. WSJ. and FARFETCH continue to work together to witness the stories that are happening in the global and Chinese fashion e-commerce space.
*** Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) ***