Hansome Expands Online Territory... Unstoppable Momentum

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Fashion company Hansome is expecting its best-ever performance in online business this year since its establishment. This is seen as encouraging because the achievement was made solely through its own online mall without partnerships with external malls. The company plans to strengthen its competitiveness in online business and achieve both growth and stability through a dedicated logistics center opening the year after next.

According to industry sources on the 23rd, Hansome is building an online-exclusive logistics center called the 'SmartOn Center' in Hobeop-myeon, Icheon-si, Gyeonggi-do. The total floor area of the SmartOn Center (14,518㎡) is equivalent to the size of two international standard soccer fields and is scheduled to be completed in the first half of 2022. This center will be responsible for logistics of online malls operated by Hansome, such as The Hansome.com and H Fashion Mall. The annual processing volume of the center is expected to be around 11 million cases, and combined with the existing Icheon integrated logistics center, the total processing volume for online and offline is predicted to reach 31 million cases. The time required for logistics processing is also expected to be reduced by about 4 hours per day on average.

Hansome's establishment of an online-exclusive logistics center is part of its effort to strengthen its online business. Hansome's online business, which had long been stagnant, experienced growth due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As of the end of last year, the online business sales ratio was about 13%, but it surged by about 5 percentage points to 18% in early this month. This marks a shift from a stagnant phase around 10% for several years to a rapid growth phase. This achievement was due to a premium strategy that avoided sprawling expansion into other platforms and focused on sales solely through its own mall without external partnerships. As a result, ultra-high-value customers (VIPs), who account for 70% of total sales, led the overall sales growth.

Recently, Hansome has been focusing on strengthening its online channels by launching the online select shop EQL targeting the 10-20 age group. It offers carefully selected products from over 130 clothing, accessories, and beauty brands, directly targeting the market led by the MZ generation such as Musinsa and W Concept. Unlike other fashion select shops that focus on increasing sales volume through a large number of brands, Hansome's strategy is to compete by leveraging differentiated brands and synergy with offline channels.

A Hansome official said, "We are developing private brands (PB) such as Rareview by combining the planning capabilities and own mall operation expertise accumulated through operating 'Mui' and 'Tom Greyhound.'" He added, "We plan to expand the customer base from the main customers of high-end brands in their 30s and 40s to the MZ generation (Millennials and Generation Z), which was previously a non-core segment."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.