MU-B wiki: COOR - The Legend of Online Brands Acquired by Department Stores
🆅 COOR, How successful is it these days?
- As of 2024 Q1, the monthly average sales at The Hyundai Seoul Shop-in-Shop amounted to 300 million KRW.
- The new women’s line launched in the SS season of 2024 saw an initial stock depletion of 80% in less than a month.
- In November 2023, a flagship store spanning three floors opened in Seongsu.
- Expanded distribution channels to major online and offline channels in Europe, including LVMH La Samaritaine department store and Essence.
🆅 Three key figures co-created by COOR and MUSINSA
The Legend of Online Brands Acquired by Department Stores ‘COOR’
"Nike, Arket, and COOR!"
According to the 2022 sales ranking of B2 floor Creative Ground located in The Hyundai Seoul, the top 3 brands are Nike, Arket, and COOR. COOR, a domestic newcomer brand that even started online, has taken the place following global brands like Nike and ARKET.
If someone had said about 5 years ago that ‘department stores would be dominated by online fashion brands’, would it have been easy to believe? Following COOR’s success, numerous online fashion brands have pursued entry into major domestic department stores, including The Hyundai Seoul.
COOR, founded in 2017, is a brand that is less than 10 years old. In that short period, it has broken the boundaries of online brands and achieved a perfect generational shift in men’s fashion.
The COOR’s 23SS campaign film with outstanding sensibility
MUSINSA's Grew smartly with co-growth funds
COOR has been closely collaborating with MUSINSA since its establishment in 2017. It has been like a first-year member of the team since MUSINSA’s early days. The collaboration that started from content and sales teams has deepened through co-growth production funds. They began to join forces from the product production stage, the starting point of the brand.
Since 2021 up until the first quarter of this year, COOR has received production funds several times and smartly expanded the brand’s scale. Instead of relentlessly pursuing funds for the next season’s production, they focused their energy on branding and marketing. Thinking beyond survival and embracing various challenges, they accumulated brand power, becoming a source of offline success post-pandemic.
Brands that receive production funds from MUSINSA pay back the costs after 12 weeks from the sales proceeds on MUSINSA. Especially during the pandemic period when the entire fashion industry was in a downturn, many small and medium-sized partner brands were able to utilize this system to continue growing.
Collaboration also took place in the infrastructure area. Since 2018, MUSINSA has been operating its investment subsidiary, MUSINSA Partners. It was MUSINSA Partners that invested in COOR and dispatched internal experts to help build COOR’s financial and accounting system.
Moreover, despite COOR being a brand that typically avoids discount sales, it consistently achieves high rankings during MUSINSA's annual flagship sales event, ‘Mujinjang Black Friday’. Particularly noteworthy was its performance during last year’s Mujinjang Black Friday, where the BELLANDI CASHMERE BLEND BALMACAAN COAT claimed the top spot in total sales, generating over 500 million KRW in revenue for a single item. Over the 12-day event, the brand’s total sales nearly reached 1.6 billion KRW.
The synergy between COOR and MUSINSA is expected to continue throughout 2024. Since last year, they have been tapping into the global market by participating in pop-up events in Tokyo and elsewhere.
Finally, we share the COOR’s utilization of MUSINSA, as revealed by the responsible MD:
🆅 3 Ways COOR use of MUSINSA as Revealed by the Responsible MD
· From 2021 to the present, they have focused on stable production of the next season’s products and marketing by repeatedly obtaining interest-free loans through mutual growth support funds (production funds) from MUSINSA.
· They received financial investment and management support infrastructure (deployment of professional personnel) from MUSINSA Partners, building a financial and accounting system that supports the steep growth trajectory.
· Although they are a non-sale brand, during the 2023 Mujinjang Black Friday, they participated in a 10% coupon discount and recorded sales of approximately 1.6 billion KRW over a period of about 12 days.
👀If you want to dig in COOR,