American fashion brand, Forever 21 closed its online stores on major Chinese e-commerce sites Tmall.com and JD.com today, on 29th April, 2019.
After terminating its operations in Taiwan last month, the company has stated that it will also shut down its official website. These actions have raised a rumor that Forever 21 may completely quit the Chinese market soon.
The company has only 11 physical stores in China, covering Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Kunming, among others. Near to the closing, the products are now on clearance sale both in its physical stores and online stores.
Shutting down e-commerce stores doesn’t necessarily mean the termination of its business, an industry insider was quoted as saying in a Beijing Business News report, noting that most of the fashion brand stores on e-commerce platforms are there for brand awareness, rather than having a sales-driven purpose.
Some brands launched their own online stores in China after the learning experience of major e-commerce platforms, he said.
