The competitive landscape around W Concept, an affiliate of Shinsegae(004170) Group that once ranked No. 1 among women's fashion platforms in Korea, is shifting. 29CM, which used to compete in a similar designer fashion market, widened its lead in scale by expanding into lifestyle, while Queenit, a 4050 platform with a different customer base that was not a direct rival, is closing in on W Concept's payment volume.
On Aug. 20, app payment data analysis firms Wiseapp and Retail said W Concept's cumulative net payment from January to July this year was about 217.1 billion won, about 5% higher than Queenit (about 205.9 billion won), operated by Rapport Labs. Net payment is an estimate of consumers' total payments minus canceled amounts.
Just two years ago, the gap between the two platforms was much wider. In 2024, W Concept's average monthly net payment was 32.34 billion won, and Queenit's was 22.92 billion won, 29.1% less than W Concept. Last year, they were 33.38 billion won and 30.11 billion won, respectively, narrowing the difference to 9.8%.
By month, rankings flipped at times depending on promotion performance. Queenit posted 34.38 billion won in net payment in December last year, surpassing W Concept (33.06 billion won) for the first time, and also recorded higher net payments in April this year (33.05 billion won) and May (30.65 billion won).
The gap with 29CM, which in the past competed with W Concept in the 2030 women's designer fashion market, has already widened in both transaction value and users. Last year, 29CM's transaction value was about 1.3 trillion won, about twice W Concept's (about 650 billion won). In July this year, 29CM's monthly active users (MAU) were 1,929,153, about 1.9 times W Concept's 994,242.
The two platforms grew on the strength of domestic designer brands and were long cited as rivals. W Concept was acquired by Shinsegae Group in 2021, and 29CM was acquired by Musinsa the same year. At the time, W Concept's transaction scale topped 29CM's, but 29CM has since expanded beyond fashion into lifestyle, including living, and grew.
Large women's fashion platforms such as ably and Kakao Style's Zigzag are also steadily bulking up into beauty and more. ably surpassed 10 million MAU in May last year, the first in the vertical commerce industry, and Zigzag also maintains 9 million to 10 million MAU.
Each platform's customer base by age group is becoming more distinct. According to the "Millennials and Gen Z fashion app trend report 2026" that Open Survey released last month, ably has the highest usage rate among teenage women, Zigzag among women in their 20s, and 29CM among women in their 30s.
Observers say the scarcity of W Concept's domestic designer brand selection, once seen as its strength, is also fading. In the past, W Concept discovered up-and-coming designer brands and drew women consumers in their 20s and 30s, but recently not only fashion platforms like 29CM, ably, and Zigzag, but also major department stores are actively seeking to bring in designer brands.
As consumers gain more channels to access the same brands, it has become harder to maintain competitiveness with brand lineup alone. That is why major platforms are broadening their assortments from fashion into beauty, living, and luxury goods, while strengthening content and private-label products.
W Concept began a revamp this year by reorganizing its management and structure. Although it recorded 119.4 billion won in revenue and about 650 billion won in transaction value last year, it posted an operating loss of 3.1 billion won, turning to the red for the first time since joining Shinsegae Group. In March, it appointed Lee Ji-eun as the new CEO and brought in external marketing talent, launching a reorganization to boost competitiveness across merchandise, brands, and marketing.
As parent company SSG.com also faces the task of rebounding results, the need to improve W Concept's profitability is growing. SSG.com was partitioned from E-MART in 2019 and launched as a separate corporation, and has since remained in operating losses. It posted an operating loss of 117.8 billion won last year, and recorded losses of 21.9 billion won and 29.5 billion won in the first and second quarters this year, respectively.