JD.com’s luxury e-commerce portal Toplife will shut down, including its website and app, on July 21. Visitors to the Toplife website and app are now being directed to the digital properties of UK-based luxury e-commerce company Farfetch, reports Chinese tech outlet Jiemian.
Launched in October 2017, Toplife provided a platform for domestic and foreign luxury brands to set up digital storefronts. It had secured partnerships with over 100 brands by 2018.
In February, JD.com sold Toplife to Farfetch for USD 50 million (RMB 345 million), in a merger that opened the door to more than 3,000 brands for some of JD’s 300 million users. But the partnership between both companies goes back further. JD.com is also Farfetch shareholder, following a USD 397 million investment (RMB 2.74 billion) in June 2017, alongside luxury conglomerates like Kering Group and Chanel Group.
The companies will now address luxury segment worldwide under the Farfetch brand. In China, it competes with Alibaba’s Luxury Pavilion on Tmall.
Driven by a rising middle class, China’s luxury goods market is expected to reach RMB 1.2 trillion (USD 180 billion) and account for 65% of the sector’s global growth in 2025, per McKinsey analysis.