Yoox Net-a-Porter is shutting its China operations as it looks to focus on more profitable markets.
The luxury ecommerce platform’s operations, which are under a joint venture with Chinese ecommerce group Alibaba, will be liquidated, The Financial Times reported.
Owner Richemont said the decision was made “in the context of a global Yoox Net-a-Porter plan aimed at focusing investments and resources on its core and more profitable geographies”.
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The platform entered China in 2013 and in 2018, Richemont entered a partnership with Alibaba to “bring its retail offerings…to Chinese consumers”.
The following year, Yoox Net-a-Porter launched a store on Tmall, an ecommerce platform owned by the online Chinese giant.
The closure of YNAP’s China operations come as Richemont has been looking to offload its majority stake in the platform for years. A deal with rival platform Farfetch fell through at the end of last year.
It said last month that “discussions are ongoing with potential buyers” and that it “expects to be in a position to disclose more before the end of the year”.
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