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Japan’s Stulio is a flea market app for fashionistas

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For a while now, we’ve seen much hype around mobile flea market apps in the Japanese startup space. Many companies are eager to grab a piece of this second-hand clothing market, as we see increasing demand as people transitioning to mobile from desktop auction websites such as Yahoo Auction and Mobaoku. Stulio is a flea market app that is used by fashionistas and celebrities. Stulio is one such flea market app. It started off as a photo-sharing app, and at the end of September the company announced its jump to become a fashion e-commerce app. Users can purchase each others’ used items as well as exclusive items by popular models and celebrities. In addition to selling used clothes, the app also sells new clothes from fashion brands such as Wildfox and Moussy. The company behind Stulio is a joint venture of Enigmo, Stulio. Enigmo went public in June of last year, is the operator of Buyma. That service has 40,000 users (as of June 2013) from all over the world who can function as buyers, acting as a means to access to high-end global brands for more affordable prices than department stores. We had a chance to speak with the…

stulio-lead

For a while now, we’ve seen much hype around mobile flea market apps in the Japanese startup space. Many companies are eager to grab a piece of this second-hand clothing market, as we see increasing demand as people transitioning to mobile from desktop auction websites such as Yahoo Auction and Mobaoku.

Stulio is a flea market app that is used by fashionistas and celebrities.

Stulio is one such flea market app. It started off as a photo-sharing app, and at the end of September the company announced its jump to become a fashion e-commerce app. Users can purchase each others’ used items as well as exclusive items by popular models and celebrities.

In addition to selling used clothes, the app also sells new clothes from fashion brands such as Wildfox and Moussy.

The company behind Stulio is a joint venture of Enigmo, Stulio. Enigmo went public in June of last year, is the operator of Buyma. That service has 40,000 users (as of June 2013) from all over the world who can function as buyers, acting as a means to access to high-end global brands for more affordable prices than department stores.

We had a chance to speak with the CEO of Stulio, Hirokuni Miyaji. He elaborates on the pivot of the app.

Stulio was initially developed by Enigmo and I took over back in July of 2012. I had always wanted to develop a flea market app so it was a great opportunity. To describe it in simple terms, Stulio is a flea market app that is used by fashionistas and celebrities.

The updated version of the app was released in September where we added official accounts by popular models and brands. What differentiates our app from other flea market apps is that the average price of sold items are around 30,000 yen to 50,000 yen which is much higher compared to other apps.

Stulio’s strategy to acquiring more users is to be active offline and to leverage a sort of Ameba-like tactic by having fashion influencers join, which then helps them reach the mainstream. The company recently opened a pop-up shop at Lafore Harajyuku where it held a renewal party with many notable guests.

Miyaji says the company is going to focus on building a fashion platform for now. But in the near future, it plans to launch its own line of fashion brand as well as expand to the wider Asian market.

Stulio-app

Fashion commerce is heating up in Japan

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Fashion commerce is a fast-growing industry in Japan, a 104 billion yen market (over a billion dollars) according to the nation’s Ministry of Economy. Many companies are trying to get a piece of this very fruitful internet sector. And here are just a few of the ones that have caught our eyes recently. Emoclo Marketplace is a shopping site that works similar to Locondo, allowing users to try on clothes before they buy. Users can try clothes at home and send them back (at no cost) if they don’t meet expectations. You can buy up to five items at once and have a week to decide. At the time of launch, there are over ten fashion shops on Emoclo, with over 500 items available. We previously mentioned popular fashion site Zozotown in our previous article about Japan’s hottest online shopping malls. The company is expected to release its Wear app sometime soon, and that will certainly help its mobile strategy (see their promo video below). The app allows users to archive items that they like in offline shops by scanning the price tag, and then sharing and discussing these fashion items with other users. Another Japanese fashion e-commerce service with…

zozotown-wearapp-scan

Fashion commerce is a fast-growing industry in Japan, a 104 billion yen market (over a billion dollars) according to the nation’s Ministry of Economy. Many companies are trying to get a piece of this very fruitful internet sector. And here are just a few of the ones that have caught our eyes recently.

Emoclo Marketplace is a shopping site that works similar to Locondo, allowing users to try on clothes before they buy. Users can try clothes at home and send them back (at no cost) if they don’t meet expectations. You can buy up to five items at once and have a week to decide. At the time of launch, there are over ten fashion shops on Emoclo, with over 500 items available.

We previously mentioned popular fashion site Zozotown in our previous article about Japan’s hottest online shopping malls. The company is expected to release its Wear app sometime soon, and that will certainly help its mobile strategy (see their promo video below). The app allows users to archive items that they like in offline shops by scanning the price tag, and then sharing and discussing these fashion items with other users.

Another Japanese fashion e-commerce service with a long history is Buyma. It launched back 2004 and will expand to the U.S. market as Avenue K. At Buyma, Japanese people who reside in overseas countries function as local buyers. Imported brand items are often more expensive in Japan, but by using Buyma, people in Japan have access to the most recent items that have not yet been sold in Japan — and at a cheaper price too. Avenue K will be operated by their partner ImageNetwork. Beyond Japan, Buyma has already expanded to Korea.

These are just a few of the companies that are active in online fashion these days. Hopefully in the future we can continue to tell you about even more.