SSG.COM joins race for top spot in luxury online shopping in Korea

SSG.COM, the e-commerce brand of South Korean retail giant Shinsegae Inc., launched its online luxury goods marketplace SSG Luxury on July 3. Focusing on global high-end fashion brands, SSG.COM’s entry into the luxury fashion e-commerce market is expected to shake up competition among the existing big three: Balaan Co., Must’It Inc. and Trenbe Inc.    

SSG Luxury offers a premium delivery service to customers who buy certain high-end watches, jewelry and bags with drivers providing swift door-to-door service and an extra level of security. SSG.COM is offering the service under a partnership with Valex Expert Cargo, a Korean logistics company that provides cash/valuable-in-transit (CVIT) services.

SSG Luxury also provides SSG.COM’s digital warranty operating service. The warranty is applied to around 80,000 goods including clothes, watches, jewelry and other fashion items. If a guaranteed product is proven counterfeit, the customer can be compensated for 200% of the purchase price.  

In addition, the new platform is operating luxury resale services for some high-end brands including Hermès and Louis Vuitton. It also manages a dedicated luxury customer service center to address after-sales service issues, which are prevalent in the Korean luxury e-commerce market.

The three e-commerce startups, Balaan, Must’It and Trenbe, have so far dominated the online luxury platform market in Korea.

Balaan is planning to attract up to 100 billion won ($7.7 million) through Series C funding. Aiming for 800 billion won in corporate value, Balaan is widely expected to go public after the Series C funding. It was valued at around 200 billion won in a 32.5 billion won Series B last October. Must'It was valued at 425.5 billion won when it received a 20 billion won investment from CJ ENM Co. in June. Trenbe's corporate value was not disclosed, but the startup is known to have raised 40 billion won as of early 2022 since its inception in 2016.

Despite their fast growth, the three startups are seeing increasing operating losses. Balaan, Must’It and Trenbe respectively had 18.6 billion won, 10 billion won and 33 billion won in operating losses in 2021. Their annual sales were respectively 52.2 billion won, 19.9 billion won and 21.7 billion won in the same year.

Write to Jeong-Cheol Bae at bjc@hankyung.com
Jihyun Kim edited this article.