Fashion platform Musinsa is shifting the center of gravity of its offline strategy. It grew with the single private brand (PB) "Musinsa Standard," but concluded there are limits to reaching its target corporate value of 10 trillion won. Musinsa is accelerating business expansion by pushing a select-shop model that curates diverse brands offline as it does online.
According to related industries on the 16th, the recently opened Musinsa Store Gangnam branch is the first signal of this transition. The store is zoned into "Musinsa Young, Girls, For Woman, Work & Formal, Shoes, Cap Club," and more, as an experiment that can be applied to the upcoming 2,000-pyeong Seongsu megastore. Alongside the large select shop, Musinsa plans to run specialty stores for sneakers, hats, and beauty, aiming to develop the Seongsu area into a fashion ecosystem hub. In effect, a "Musinsa Town" is taking shape around Seongsu-dong.
The industry views this attempt as an unprecedented model in Korea's fashion distribution market. It differs from department stores, which concentrate all categories in one building, and from SPA and road shops, which expand mainly with a single brand.
Centering on a large select shop, Musinsa plans to deploy specialty stores for shoes, hats, and beauty like satellites, attempting to extend the platform's brand curation across the entire offline space. The industry is paying close attention because it is unprecedented for a fashion platform to establish a comprehensive ecosystem anchored in a specific area.
Musinsa's move to adopt the select-shop model as an offline growth driver is a return to its core strength of brand curation. Since the early days of the online platform, Musinsa's edge has been in discovering new brands. While growth based on a single PB comes with limits to scaling, a select shop is structured to expand its sales base as it increases onboarded brands and categories.
Musinsa is also stepping up efforts to expand its female customer base and go global. In December, it will open a "Musinsa Girls" store to shed its image as a male-centric platform and strengthen its women's fashion portfolio through synergy with 29CM. It is pushing to open select shops in Shanghai and Hangzhou in China and in Tokyo, Japan, and has decided to establish a joint venture with local sportswear corporation Anta Sports to ramp up its business in China.
These moves are also tied to its push for an initial public offering (IPO). Musinsa recently began the process of selecting lead underwriters, and it is targeting a corporate value of 10 trillion won. It plans to secure capital for global expansion and investment in logistics and new businesses through the IPO. The results are also providing momentum. In the second quarter of this year, revenue was 377.7 billion won and operating profit was 41.3 billion won, up 30.7% and 22.6%, respectively, from a year earlier, marking a quarterly record.
However, the rapid pace of expansion could pose risks. Musinsa's competitors now range widely beyond online malls to department stores, SPA brands, and health and beauty (H&B) stores such as Olive Young. An investment banking (IB) industry source said, "As fast as Musinsa is building offline, what matters just as much is the 'content' to fill it," adding, "The Seongsu Town strategy and the IPO are not a simple race to open more stores, but a question of what kind of brand ecosystem Musinsa can build to persuade consumers and investors at the same time." The person added, "Depending on its success, it will significantly affect not only Seongsu Town but also the global expansion strategy of K-fashion."