The shareholders of KupiVip.ru, Russia’s leading fashion flash sales site, intend to invest no less than $50 million in Shoptime.ru, an online fashion items and accessories retailer that launched in test mode earlier this year.
In contrast to the discounted flash sales model used by KupiVip.ru, this new site offers a permanent assortment of new collections from renowned brands without discounts.
The project’s initiators expect Shoptime.ru to attract half a million customers by the end of 2012 and to surpass KupiVip’s 8 million customer base within three years, KupiVip founder and CEO Oskar Hartmann said in exchanges with Russian business daily Kommersant as well as with East-West Digital News.
“The fashion segment grows by more than 50% per year. Its size will exceed $4 billion in the next three years,” Hartmann believes.
Founded in 2008, KupiVip has ambitions to rival such giant online retailers as Ozon.ru, Svyaznoy.ru and Utkonos.ru, for leadership on the Russain e-commerce scene. Among its existing subsidiaries or business divisions are KupiLuxe.ru, which competes with CollectionPrivee.ru in the premium and luxury goods segment, and KupiVip E-commerce Services, which provides major offline retailers with a ready made e-commerce solution.
In April 2011, KupiVip completed a $55 million Series C funding deal involving international funds Balderton Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Russia Partners.
- RUSSIAN E-COMMERCE REPORT 2012 – The total volume of Russian online retail reached 310 billion rubles, a little more than $10 billion, in 2011, up 25% from the previous year. EWDN’s research study of Russian e-commerce, will be available soon. To receive free insights or to order the full version, please contact us at [email protected].
