iMall.eu
An online marketplace that enables European fashion designers to sell their products in Russia.
| Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| N/A | $470k | Seed | |
| Total Funding | 000k | ||
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Founded in 2012 by Martin Avetisyan, iMall.eu operated as a cross-border e-commerce marketplace headquartered in London, with offices in Moscow and Kiev. The company's focus was to connect European luxury fashion brands with consumers in emerging markets, primarily Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Avetisyan, a serial entrepreneur with a background in finance as a hedge fund manager, founded the company before it was acquired by Farfetch in 2014.
The business model was designed as a full-cycle platform, providing an end-to-end solution for its partner brands. On the back end, iMall.eu integrated directly with the warehouses of major European luxury brands. For the front-end, it offered fully localized online and mobile stores for a consumer base of approximately 280 million people. The platform handled content localization, payment processing in local currencies, taxes, logistics, customer acquisition, and service. This allowed brands to sell at retail prices directly to consumers, bypassing traditional wholesale distributors and thereby increasing their profit margins.
A key value proposition for consumers was the ability to purchase goods with duty-free pricing, which made products on iMall.eu up to 40% cheaper than domestic competitors in those markets. The company gained recognition in 2013, winning several awards, including Best Start-up in Europe and Russia at The Europas Awards and a prize for its social media campaign at the E-commerce Excellence Awards. In November 2012, iMall.eu secured $470,000 in a seed funding round. The company is now listed as deadpooled.
Keywords: Martin Avetisyan, Farfetch acquisition, cross-border e-commerce, luxury fashion marketplace, Russia CIS market, European fashion brands, duty-free shopping, full-cycle platform, localized e-commerce, London startup, Europas Awards 2013, E-commerce Excellence Awards, online retail, fashion technology, emerging markets commerce, brand direct-to-consumer, luxury goods online, warehouse integration, international logistics, payment localization