eBay have announced today that they will acquire brands4friends, Germany’s Largest Online Fashion Shopping Club. The move is designed to strengthen eBay’s position as a leading online fashion destination in Europe which has been heavily promoted over the last year with the Fashion hub and advertising.
Online shopping clubs are a fast growing part of the online fashion market, and now account for approximately 20 percent of online fashion sales in Europe, according to eBay’s own research. brands4friends sells high-quality goods from renowned fashion and lifestyle brands at significantly reduced prices to members through limited special offers on a daily basis.
Speaking of the US$200 million (EUR150 million) deal, Doug McCallum, Senior Vice President for eBay in Europe said “We want to give our customers the best possible fashion experience online, with the acquisition of brands4friends, we will enter the online shopping club market with an established and dynamic partner who has the expertise, relationships and passion to match our own ambition. We expect many eBay customers will enjoy great deals on international fashion brands by joining the brands4friends community.”
An added bonus for eBay is that as part of the deal they will assume brands4friends’ equity interests in U.K. shopping club SecretSales and in Japan, brands4friends.jp.
The big question is how will eBay integrate the new site with the exisiting platform. It will give opportunities to bring new suppliers to the exisiting Daily and Weekly deals program on eBay and could also be attractive to existing eBay retailers who could benefit from exposure on the brands4friends sites. If you’re a fashion retailer that could have significiant benefits from exposure to a new non-eBay audience for your products.
