Chinese luxury portal Secoo joins e-comm battle with $100-million US IPO

By

Matthieu Guinebault

Translated by
Benjamin Fitzgerald

Published
Aug 30, 2017

The Chinese luxury e-commerce website is preparing to go public in the U.S., filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on August 25, in a bid to raise $100 million via an initial public offering (IPO).

The online marketplace expects to join Nasdaq under the moniker SECO; a procedure that the website -- launched in 2008 -- has been preparing for since March 2015. The investment firm Jefferies will take complete charge of the operation, for which no amount per share has so far been indicated.

Secoo recorded for the twelve months ending 30 juin 2017 some 437 million euros in revenue. The retailer has progressivement deployed teams in Peking, Shanghai, Chengdu, Milan, New York and Tokyo. The firm collectively sells clothing, accessories, homewares and cosmetics, among other miscellaneous items. 

Last year, Secoo recorded 15 million customers, each with a high-purchasing threshold, on average spending 4,500 yuan (570 euros); the figure around twenty-times the average e-commerce basket purchase in China. With the market experiencing high competition, Secoo -- unlike other portals -- does not discount prices or multiply stock either.