Hoofddorp, 4 September 2013 – After several years of intensive cooperation, Sanoma has added Fashionchick to its digital portfolio faster than planned, thereby expanding its share from 55% to 100%.
Fashionchick has presented steady growth in recent years, with both the Dutch and international Fashionchick sites showing great potential. Sanoma expects to see further expansion of the current Fashionchick as an international key player in online fashion. In order to accelerate this growth, the two parties jointly decided to bring forward their planned merger. The current management team, consisting of Gerco de Jong, Arno Mulder, Ellen Snijder and Aart Wallet, will remain in place following the merger, focusing on further growth and internationalisation.
Across the border, Fashionchick now has more customers than in the Netherlands and is seeing a rise in its international turnover every month. The Netherlands also continues to be an attractive market for Fashionchick, achieving steady growth. The strong focus on conversion and mobile solutions will be a contributing factor.
Fashion for men and kids
In the coming months, websites will be launched in the Dutch and German markets under the name MENTODAY. These will be aimed at boosting men’s online shopping and offering those web shops the opportunity to increase their turnover in men’s fashion. In close collaboration with Sanoma’s parenting unit, this year the online shopping site KIDSTODAY for children’s fashion and associated products will also be launched.
Sander ten Dam, Performance Based director at Sanoma: “In the past few years, the partnership between Fashionchick and Sanoma has led to the impressive growth of Fashionchick in the Netherlands and internationally. We are delighted that, together with the current Fashionchick team, we can continue to expand the portfolio through this accelerated merger.”
Aart Wallet, co-founder of Fashionchick: “Sanoma has proved the perfect match for our company in the past. Using the opportunities which Sanoma is able to offer us internationally, we can achieve our ambitions faster and experience the freedom to operate as entrepreneurs within a big media company like Sanoma.”
About Fashionchick
Fashionchick.nl is an e-commerce portal with an average of 350,000 fashion items, shoes, lingerie and beauty products in each country. The Fashion Finder makes it easy to find items and save them in your digital wardrobe. With over 800,000 visitors a month, Fashionchick.nl is one of the biggest fashion sites for women in the Netherlands. An international team of 30 people based in Amsterdam work on updating and developing the concept. Fashionchick is active with the domains www.fashionchick.nl, www.fashionchick.de, www.fashionchick.fr, www.fashionchick.com en www.fashionchick.co.uk. At the end of 2013, www.mentoday.nl, www.mentoday.de and www.kidstoday.nl will go live.