Pomelo nearly doubles revenue in H1 2022 driven by offline retail

JD.com-backed Pomelo Fashion, the online and offline ecommerce platform headquartered in Thailand, has posted a 93% increase in net revenue and a 134% growth in offline retail sales in the first six months of 2022, compared to the same period last year.

While revenue declined in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, its figures in the first half of 2022 have rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, reaching a high in May 2022.

This growth was driven by an increase in sales at its brick-and-mortar stores, as well as rising traction for Tap.Try.Buy, its service that lets customers try on clothing items in the comfort of their homes and pay only for the items they keep.

Pomelo’s Spring Summer 2022 fashion show / Photo credit: Pomelo

Pomelo co-founder and CEO David Jou tells Tech in Asia that in the first six months of the year, 39% of the company’s revenue came from offline retail, while 35% came from ecommerce sales and the remainder from Tap.Try.Buy.

In July 2021, Pomelo extended its try-on service with Tap.Try.Buy at Home. The feature lets customers order and try on up to 15 products and return them for free via GrabExpress. The extended service now accounts for more than 26% of orders that take place on Pomelo.

The feature is available to customers using the Pomelo app on iOS devices within the Bangkok metropolitan area, though there are plans to expand it to Singapore in the second half of 2022 and make it available as well to Android device users.

Tap.Try.Buy at Home was not the firm’s only service born out of the pandemic, which has driven the foot traffic at malls to a low. Last June, the ecommerce platform launched Prism, an end-to-end service for businesses that provides everything from marketing tools, demand planning, design, manufacturing, to merchandising. At present, Pomelo is working with around 20 international brands through Prism.

The Thailand-headquartered ecommerce firm is reportedly seeking to go through with an IPO this year, though Jou says the firm is currently “reviewing multiple options internally,” with an IPO as “one of the routes” that the company is assessing. The CEO declined to comment further.

Set up in 2013, Pomelo sells fashion items from over 700 local and global brands as well as its own lines on its online site and physical retail stores. Today, Pomelo has 27 shops across Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia, with plans to eventually double its physical footprint across Southeast Asia.

Pomelo was an early mover in its omnichannel approach, a model that other e-retailers including Love Bonito and Amazon have adopted.

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While Pomelo also operated a network of pickup locations that included third-party cafes, co-working spaces, and independent clothing boutiques, Tap.Try.Buy at Home “will be the priority focus of our omnichannel strategy moving forward,” Jou says.

Last December, the firm raised US$34 million in funding from investors including Suntory One, bringing its total funding raised to US$98 million.