Brandi paid 50 billion won for a fashion platform, then shut it in under 3 years

Brandi, a Korean women's-fashion e-commerce platform, paid 50 billion won (roughly $36M) in April 2022 to acquire D.Unit, operator of youth streetwear resale platform Seoul Store, which then had 3.5 million members and a stated cumulative transaction volume of 170 billion won. The plan was to add branded, higher-price fashion to Brandi's category mix and grow both platforms in parallel.

Instead, the two platforms competed for the same shoppers. The company, later renamed NewNex, said running separate marketing and service operations for one overlapping customer base doubled costs without doubling revenue.

Seoul Store's traffic collapsed: monthly unique visitors fell from about 220,000 in January 2023 to roughly 14,000 by October 2024, worsened by a broader pullback in Korean fashion e-commerce after the 2024 Tmon/WeMakePrice settlement crisis rattled shopper confidence in mid-sized platforms.

NewNex announced Seoul Store would stop taking orders on 1 December 2024 and close entirely on 2 January 2025, folding remaining points into Brandi and men's platform Hive rather than running it as a distinct brand.