Mardi Mercredi that entered Japan with MUSINSA, achieved sales of 1 billion won in 6 months
MUSINSA, an online fashion platform, is making tangible results in targeting overseas markets in teaming up with domestic brands. It achieved 1 billion won in sales within half a year of its full-scale overseas expansion, significantly enhancing the status of 'K-fashion' in the global market.
MUSINSA achieved local sales of 100million yen (around 1 billion won) in six months after entering the Japanese market in collaboration with a domestic fashion brand 'Mardi Mercredi'. This is the cumulative sales performance since the opening of Mardi Mercredi's official Japanese online store (mardimercredi.jp) in October of last year.
Mardi Mercredi, which is getting attention in Korea, is a French sensibility female fashion designer brand with sensuous colors and designs. Mardi Mercredi began to draw attention when it hit the first place in sales on the first day of its opening at the 'Little Seoul' pop-up store held at the Shinjuku main branch of the Tokyo department store 'ISETAN' in August 2021.
Then, in October 2021, MUSINSA supported the establishment of an official website in Japanese, enabling Mardi Mercredi to use it as a D2C channel in Japan, and promoted local targeting. And in March and April of this year, the Mardi Mercredi pop-up stores held four times in Tokyo and Nagoya, respectively, received much attention with all the prepared items being sold out. It was a significant result as it is an achievement made by a Korean designer brand through a single D2C channel rather than a fashion platform in the Japanese market.
The success of Mardi Mercredi as mainly attributable to MUSINSA's brand support strategy tailored to the target market. MUSINSA provides various support measures, including localized branding, for store brands wishing to advance overseas. In January last year, it established 'MUSINSA Japan' as its first overseas subsidiary and is supporting marketing, logistics and CS for brands that have entered Japan for the stored brands.
Japan is considered a region highly interested in different cultural content such as Korean K-pop, dramas, and movies. In addition, the Impact of influencers in the fashion industry is considerable.
Thus, MUSINSA collaborated with celebrities and fashion influencers in Japan and conducted various online and offline marketing in parallel. In fact, the limited edition of the collaboration product created in collaboration with Japanese actors Saeko and Mardi Mercredi, who appeared in the drama 'Nodame Cantabile', which was very popular in Japan and Korea, sold out in one day on the day of the release. After the collaboration, it raised the awareness of a Korean fashion brand in a short time, increasing brand sales by about 170%.
In the future, Mardi Mercredi plans to expand and apply Mardi Mercredi's Japanese entry model to take the lead in pioneering sales channels so that more domestic brands can enter the Japanese market.
A MUSINSA official said, "For a domestic brand to enter the global market, branding that raises awareness in the country is essential, as well as operation and logistics. In the case of Mardi Mercredi, Musinsa was successful in localizing in Japan by demonstrating the fashion brand marketing capabilities that MUSINSA had accumulated.
"MUSINSA is a fashion platform representing Korea, and we plan to make various attempts so that domestic brands can enter the overseas market. And at the same time, we plan to launch the global version of MUSINSA store in the second half of this year to make full-scale inroads into the platform in earnest," he explained.
