Zalora, the fashion-centric online shop is reportedly soon to exit the Philippines due to low sales. Rocket Internet is the parent company that owns Zalora and they have already sold their business in Vietnam and Thailand last 2016, retail giant Central Wold was the one who bought the business in the respective countries.
In recent happenings, Zalora operated by BF-Jade in the Philipines just sold 43.3 percent of its Philippines-based operations to local real estate firm Ayala Corporation. Also, other Ayala companies such as Ayala Land Inc, BPI Capital Corp, and Kickstart Ventures Inc also acquired share ownership stakes in BF-Jade.
Zalora Philippines and other countries recently are in struggling times as the competition for the online fashion industry are getting more competitive. Their recent Zalora Pop-Up store in Bonifacio High-Street is now also closed and perhaps this is a sign of their exit/change in the Philippines.
With Ayala Corporation owning a majority of Zalora in the Philippines, they can leverage their resources to generate a better e-commerce platform for the brand. They can offer better deals through BPI, Globe and even GCash in the future.
For us, the stigma of online shopping is still the hindering factor for Filipinos. Even with their pop-up store concept to feel and fit clothes didn’t work well as purchased items will be delivered instead of getting it on-site.
Update: To clarify, Zalora will still remain but with Ayala’s involvement as a major stakeholder. Rocket internet is basically offsetting some investment with Zalora Philippines, which is the reason for the sale of shares.
Source: TechCrunch
