On a big luxury news day (as Phoebe Philo announced plans for her new label), Monday was also a hot news day further down the price scale. That was because ASOS announced that it has formed a North American joint venture with US-based multi-channel retailer, Nordstrom.
As part of this, Nordstrom will “invest for a minority interest in the Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge and HIIT brands to help drive their growth”.
ASOS acquired those labels only this year as part of the operation that saw the Arcadia fashion empire being broken up, and has so far reported that their relaunch is going well.
But news of the link up with Nordstrom – primarily the fact that the American retailer is actually taking a financial stake in the labels – is a surprise.
The fashion e-tail giant will retain operational and creative control, but will “work with Nordstrom to leverage its US market expertise and extensive customer reach”.
And importantly, ASOS said the JV “paves the way for wider collaboration between the two retailers”. The first step will see “an edit of the best ASOS brands” launching on Nordstrom’s webstore and in selected “high-impact Nordstrom stores”.
