Matchesfashion cuts losses as online makes up bigger sales chunk

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Nov 15, 2016

Luxury fashion retailer Matchesfashion was upbeat on Monday as it revealed turnover in the year to January 31 up to £126.9m from £99.6m. But it remained at a profit loss, despite narrowing the gap to £1.7m from £5.6m.

The larger loss a year earlier came as a result of the firm’s heavy technology spend, which allowed it to process one order every seven seconds at peak times.

Matchesfashion has grown from a small London boutique to one of the bigger names in high-end fashion retail, largely through its transformation into an online player, which has it shipping to 167 countries via its website.

A study published this month showed Matchesfashion at the top of a list of 30 UK retailers, in terms of the proportion of sales retailers generate online in Britain (55%). That heavy slant towards e-sales remains apparent, despite it operating four stores in the UK.

While the retailer sells some of the biggest and best established names in luxury fashion, the company has shown itself to be extremely pro-active in featuring new designers.

Last month, Matchesfashion sold an exclusive capsule collection from hot US streetwear label Off-White. It also linked up with Vetements in October for a unique ‘garage sale’ in Seoul, South Korea featuring a limited edition edit of pieces from the the past 18 months of collections.

On the back of such initiatives, the company said its trading had been unharmed by the Brexit vote.