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Farfetch wants to set the record straight.
“It’s really important to know that Farfetch is not going through a difficult time right now,” says chief commercial officer Stephen Eggleston, who has been with the company for 10 years, initially joining as VP of commercial. He is currently the main spokesperson for the business: Farfetch has a leadership team but does not have a CEO following the exit of José Neves. “I see certain things in the press, particularly in the context of other [retail] businesses that are going through challenges, that refer to the current situation at Farfetch in a way that’s not representative of where we are today.”
Eggleston and the rest of the Farfetch leadership team have been working behind the scenes to turn around Farfetch, which is now owned by Coupang — a US-based e-commerce giant that primarily operates in South Korea, often referred to as the ‘Amazon of Asia’ (the acquisition was finalised at the start of 2024). The company historically prioritised growth and was not profitable for many years. Farfetch’s losses narrowed to $34 million in 2024, with revenues of $1.7 billion, and the company confirmed it is on the path to break even — though it wouldn’t specify a timeline. This year, Coupang started reporting Farfetch’s results under its developing offerings division, which also includes its international and fintech businesses, as well as Coupang Eats and Play.
“Since being acquired by Coupang, our focus has been on stabilising the financial foundations of the business,” says Eggleston. “We’ve really simplified the Farfetch business in many ways.”
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Farfetch was founded by Neves in 2008 as an online multi-brand marketplace that brought together boutiques, retailers and eventually brands. “As the business evolved, we definitely took on more complexity,” Eggleston admits. Its white-label service, Farfetch Platform Solutions (FPS), provided e-commerce software for brands and retailers, and at one point, was pegged as the part of the business with the most potential. Farfetch’s priorities today look quite different from what they once were, now focused back on the marketplace.
Along with pursuing FPS, the company also went on an acquisition spree, buying London-based department store Browns in 2015, sneaker reseller Stadium Goods in 2018, New Guards Group (a holding group that’s backed streetwear players such as Off-White, Palm Angels and Heron Preston) in 2019, luxury resale platform Luxclusif in 2021, and beauty retailer Violet Grey and virtual try-on company Wannaby in 2022. That same year, it invested a $200 million minority stake in Neiman Marcus and announced plans to acquire Yoox Net-a-Porter (YNAP). (The YNAP deal fell through after Coupang acquired Farfetch.) The integration of all these parts resulted in operational complexities that weighed Farfetch down. The company narrowly avoided collapse before Coupang saved it, acquiring the company and providing it with $500 million in emergency funding.
Since the acquisition, Farfetch has been streamlining its operations, closing FPS, selling Violet Grey and Wannaby, and restructuring New Guards Group (several brands, including Heron Preston, Ambush and Palm Angels, left the business this year). Farfetch had no further comments on the future of New Guards Group, beyond what’s been publicly reported. Eggleston says Browns, Luxclusif and Stadium Goods remain priorities for Farfetch, as they offer a consumer touchpoint for secondhand and in-store offerings, respectively.
“At least half of Farfetch has always been about connecting customers with our community of brand boutique partners. Everything we know about our customer has always been about this love of choice,” says Eggleston. “Those things haven’t changed, but it’s fair to say the way we’re focusing on these things has evolved a bit. There’s definitely greater rigour around operational excellence, a more detail-oriented approach to problem-solving, and certainly a relentless focus on the customer and their experience, which we’ve inherited from our colleagues on the Coupang side.”
Even as Farfetch works to rebuild, it has undeniably become one of the prime examples in a series of stumbles across multi-brand retail. In 2024, Matches went into administration, and YNAP was sold to Mytheresa. Earlier this year, Luisaviaroma sought court protection to restructure under Italian insolvency law, while the fate of Ssense became uncertain, as it also restructures and solicits a variety of offers, including investment and refinancing options. With competitors consolidating or closing, the market now has fewer viable retail partners for brands. In this context, a stabilised Farfetch could stand out as an attractive partner, despite previously posing as one player in an oversaturated space.
What’s next for Farfetch?
The key phrase in Farfetch’s turnaround has been “operational excellence” — so much so that Eggleston refers to it as a “mantra”. But what does it mean in practice? Taking a more data-driven approach to problem-solving, managing the business processes more systematically, focusing on meeting the customer’s needs, and — perhaps most importantly for Farfetch — not stretching yourself too thin.
That was the biggest challenge for Farfetch in the past, and it was inherent to its complex business model. Now, Eggleston says Farfetch’s biggest challenges are macro concerns, for example, the slowdown in the luxury market and the impact of tariffs. He’s applying that same mantra of operational excellence: “We are a global business, and therefore managing things like tariffs and duties and the complexities that come with that has been part of Farfetch since day one.” Farfetch has been partnering with brands and retailers to understand how pricing may change. “We see fantastic opportunities with our partners that allow us to elevate our customer proposition while putting us in a uniquely privileged position to navigate some of those bigger global challenges that are outside of our control,” Eggleston says.
He highlights the strength of the marketplace model, which allows Farfetch to partner with brands and retailers based in the US who can ship to local customers, and therefore will not be subject to tariffs. “We obviously went through a challenging moment; but even then, the marketplace business has always been a strong value proposition because we’re not a traditional retailer,” he says. “We’re not focusing on buying lots of inventory or a curated edit.”
In the broader retail landscape, highly curated offerings have performed the best in recent times — from niche boutiques to Mytheresa’s focus on the high-net-worth shopper. Farfetch is committed to remaining broad, however. “The serendipity of discovery is exciting and empowers our customers’ self-expression, whether they are looking for a Brunello Cucinelli jacket, a pair of Jordan sneakers, or a niche Japanese brand,” says Eggleston.
The way Farfetch works with brands has evolved, Eggleston admits. “We are trying, wherever possible, to be more detail-oriented in our problem-solving. If we work with partners, we want to work with them in the fullest way possible and remove any friction,” he says. This includes creating the “right commercial conditions [for] robust processes” and improving catalogue integration.
In the aftermath of the acquisition, Kering cut ties with Farfetch. “We would love to partner and work with [that group] again. I speak to the teams at group level and brand level as often as I can, to engage with them and continue to present Farfetch as an opportunity, because those brands had really strong businesses on Farfetch. Our door is very much open,” Eggleston says. Aside from Kering, Farfetch says its network of partners has remained stable, consisting of around 1,400 boutiques and brands.
Earlier this year, reports surfaced that Farfetch’s relationships with its partners had broken down due to grey market tactics on the platform (when goods are sold from unauthorised channels). Farfetch denies this. “Those multi-brand retailers are very much part of the authorised distribution network of the brands. We have processes in place to ensure we know the authenticity of the product and where it’s sourced from,” says Eggleston. When pressed for further details on its seller transparency policy, Farfetch highlighted that it has visited or has a close relationship with most of its sellers.
For now, Farfetch’s focus is on reaching profitability. It was reluctant to discuss expansion plans explicitly, citing restrictions around making forward-looking statements. “We are ready to invest because we’ve done the hard work around operational excellence that gives us permission to kick on and figure out what the next phase will be,” Eggleston says.
In June, Farfetch joined Coupang’s RLux app, a vertical one-day delivery service for luxury brands, available exclusively in South Korea. Eggleston says Farfetch is seeing “fantastic traction and it’s going to be a part of the proposition that [Farfetch] continues to invest in”. Along with exposure, joining RLux has helped streamline the logistics of delivery and returns in South Korea.
Eggleston says he sees more opportunities to partner with Coupang in similar ways (though Farfetch will continue to operate as a standalone business). So far, Eggleston notes that Coupang’s customer centricity and more practical approach to business have rubbed off on Farfetch. “When I talk about operational excellence, it’s about figuring out where we are spending money that is not driving towards that customer experience, and saying, ‘We don’t need to do that, because it’s not something customers value very highly,’” he explains.
Also in June, Farfetch rebranded its advertising platform, which offers bespoke marketing services for luxury brand partners (whether it’s crafting a campaign or pushing a product into the marketplace). The intention here is not to go off on a tangent like it did with FPS, but to offer a service that improves the marketplace, which is Farfetch’s main focus. Aside from that, Eggleston says other investments include enhanced delivery, brand storytelling, growing the pre-owned category (which, he says, is performing well), and continuing to expand in emerging markets like Japan and the Middle East.
While Farfetch once seemed to chase rapid and aggressive growth, its strategy today is much more cautious. “We are really thoughtful about ensuring if we spend a dollar here we’ll get the right level of return. In terms of how it compares to the past, the best way to say it is that, today, it’s smaller and more straightforward because the business is inherently a bit simpler,” he explains. “The commercial priority is very much to scale the business in a healthy, thoughtful and meaningful way that doesn’t take away from the financial stability we’ve worked so hard to achieve.”
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