Secoo announces strategic partnership with Ruyi Group

Asia's largest premium lifestyle platform, Secoo has announced a strategic partnership with Shandong Ruyi Group, a Chinese textile conglomerate with an extensive portfolio of fashion, luxury clothing and accessories brands, as it looks to expand its business within the fashion industry.

In the press statement, both companies stated that through the partnership they will “leverage respective resources and expertise” in branding, technology, network and channel management to jointly establish a global omni-channel fashion supply chain in brand operations, big data, smart manufacturing and smart retail.

Ruyi Group is a key supplier and partner for a wide range of luxury brands across the globe. In recent years, it has acquired, or taken significant ownership positions in many global fashion and luxury brands, including Sandro, Maje and Claudie Pierlot, under SMCP, and it also own British trench coat brand Aquascutum, and has a controlling stake in Hong Kong menswear group Trinity, which operates Cerruti 1881, Gieves and Hawkes and Kent Curwen.

"We're thrilled to enter into this strategic partnership with the Ruyi Group," said Richard Li, founder and chief executive of Secoo in a press release. "Secoo is dedicated to establishing solid relationships with leading partners in the consumer, luxury and e-commerce spaces and our partnership with the Ruyi Group exemplifies this strategy.”

Li, added: “Our leading integrated luxury e-commerce platform is well-suited to drive growth through rapidly expanding brand collaborations and increasing product portfolios. Furthermore, Secoo will cooperate with the Ruyi Group in a variety of fashion and luxury retail innovations ranging from big data solutions to smart manufacturing to unique first-class shopping experiences for our premium customers.”

Yafu Qiu, chairman of Ruyi Group, commented: "Secoo's integrated online and offline shopping platform, which consists of Secoo.com, mobile applications and offline experience centres, has attracted approximately 20 million customers. We believe this expansive integrated platform along with our valuable brand assets and supply chain network expertise will synergise and unlock unparalleled opportunities in the fashion market for both firms.”

This strategic partnership follows Secoo securing 175 million dollars of investment from L Catterton Asia and JD.com, which will allow Secoo to leverage L Catterton’s global fashion and retail expertise to further expand within the luxury market by collaborating with existing L Catterton portfolio companies.