Zalora preps marketplace launch later this year, calls out for fashionable merchants

Rocket Internet’s fashion e-commerce site Zalora is announcing today that it’s going to roll out its open marketplace across Asia in the first half of this year. Right now Zalora is calling out for sellers to start applying to get into the upcoming marketplace through this link (for Singapore). The new feature will come to all countries where Zalora operates: Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, Thailand, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Indonesia, and New Zealand.

Merchants will be able to set up their own personalized shop, get advice about selling online from Zalora’s data experts, and get help processing online payments and deliveries. Managing director Magnus Grimeland comments:

We are launching a platform where up and coming brands, boutiques, or designers can sell their products alongside our internationally renowned brands, to an already highly established and loyal customer base. We have over 15 million visits to our Zalora sites per month; for an independent fashion seller to have instant access to this kind of audience is a previously unheard of opportunity.

Rocket Internet will be hoping that the consumer-to-consumer (C2C) marketplace can generate real money and a large user-base for Zalora. It’ll sit alongside the current business model whereby Zalora ships items from its own warehouses.

Last year, Amazon-esque sister site Lazada rolled out its marketplace platform.

While there are e-commerce marketplaces already running throughout Asia Pacific, there aren’t many sites that focus on selling fashion items.

(Editing by Steven Millward)