Jingdong Luxury Electronics Business Platform Toplife Will Officially Shut Down This Month.

According to Jingdong official information, Jingdong's independent operation luxury electronic business platform Toplife has been incorporated into the UK luxury electric business Farfetch, Toplife website and APP will stop operation in July 21st. On the official website of Toplife and the eye-catching position on APP, there are announcements about service closes.

In fact, Jingdong's decision to merge Toplife into the Chinese business of Farfetch, a luxury electric business in the UK, was announced as early as the beginning of the year. In February 28, 2019, Jingdong released the same day of 2018 earnings. Jingdong announced that Toplife will be incorporated into Farfetch's China business, and Farfetch will establish a first level entry in Jingdong APP. However, at that time, no specific time was announced for the closure of Toplife.

Toplife has been an important place for Jingdong to enter the luxury industry. It is reported that in October 10, 2017, Toplife formally launched the major application stores. It is a high-end luxury goods business platform independent of Jingdong's main station. Through the official flagship store form of direct cooperation with the brand, it provides users with high-end luxury consumption experience, with APP, websites and small programs as the carrier, and creates an eco friendly boutique electricity supplier with the concept of unbounded retail.

Jingdong Toplife as a luxury goods business platform, brand category covers clothing, accessories, beauty, lifestyle, to meet the diverse consumer demand of consumers. At the same time, in the process of goods distribution, Jingdong TOPLIFE also opened the air transport line and the Beijing Zun Da white glove service, and realized the whole process logistics service of special storehouse, special plane, special person, special vehicle and special line.

At that time, Toplife responsible person said, Jingdong hopes to make it the flagship brand of China's luxury electric business. Toplife has also won the support of many luxury brands. In 2018, Toplife had established cooperation with more than one hundred brands.

So why has Toplife less than two years to merge into Farfetch's China business? Jingdong officials have not responded. However, the reasons behind the merger may be evident from the identity of Farfetch and its relationship with Jingdong.

Farfetch, founded in 2008, obtained $397 million from Jingdong in June 2017. Through this investment, Jingdong became its largest shareholder. And since then, Toplife has been able to cooperate with many luxury brands in a short span of more than a year. The reason is that it has accounted for Farfetch. As one of the "veteran players" in the luxury electric business, Farfetch holds many brand resources, Farfetch and more than 1000 luxury brands and boutiques to establish cooperation, Kai Yun group boss Franois-Henri Pinault's investment group and Chanel group are also listed among Farfetch shareholders.

In a report released in 2018, McKinsey pointed out that the global market for luxury goods business is about 20 billion euros, accounting for 8% of the luxury goods market, which means that luxury goods go online with great room and huge commercial value. However, the scale of the global electricity market is around $2 trillion and 500 billion, and the luxury electric business market accounts for only 0.9% of the market.

Luxury online market has broad room for development in China, but after more than a year's development, Toplife's sales performance seems to have not satisfied Jingdong. In November 2018, there was a media visit to the Toplife high priced luxury goods store, which estimated that Toplife had about 60 to 70 orders per day. At that time, Jingdong said that orders were not much, and Toplife was only one year.

At the same time, Toplife and Jingdong investment Farfetch do not seem to have special differences in their operation methods. For example, they all attach importance to logistics, and they also guide the purchase through the magazine content on the homepage. For Jingdong, in the premise that Farfetch has already been invested and the head Market of the luxury goods has already been partitioned, it is not very necessary to spend time and effort to make a "Farfetch". At this time, the loss of the business is relatively small.

In February of this year, the price of Farfetch rose by 3.3% after the announcement that Toplife will be incorporated into Farfetch and Farfetch will get the Jingdong's entry into the APP level. At that time, Farfetch founder, CEO and co chairman Jos e Neves said that through this Agreement and its strategic investment in China's acquisition of CuriosityChina, it could provide a one-stop solution for luxury brands. In this important market, it helps brands expand to the digital strategy of eager and mature audiences.

Obviously, in Jingdong and Farfetch, it is a "win-win" transaction to integrate Toplife into Farfetch.