Thai fashion e-commerce startup Pomelo plans to offer its analytics and demand forecast technology to other fashion brands in the region, its chief executive recently announced. This comes as an effort to boost revenue for the company amid slowing physical store sales.
Pomelo chief executive David Jou stated during an interview that store traffic for the brand declined by 71% during the first quarter of this year. Sales in other markets dropped by approximately 20%. He furthermore explained how retailers are amping up their online offerings as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Founded in 2013 as an online business, Pomelo is planning to launch its new division next month. The business-to-business unit, called Prism, will offer other fashion brands services such as demand planning and logistics.
With investors including Thailand’s largest retailer, Central Group, Pomelo has raised $83 million to date. Other projects that the online fashion retailer is exploring include providing customers with the option to try on clothes at home after finding them online; a project that will be done in collaboration with ride-hailing service Grab.
In addition to these new initiatives, Pomelo will continue to sell its own apparel brand and will add 44 more branches to its existing network of 25 physical locations.
