Australian fashion brand Country Road has inked a deal with Sunglass Hut to supply its online marketplace from today, October 26.
This comes nearly a year after the fashion brand, housed under Country Road Group, expanded its online store to sell third-party products via a marketplace tool integration with Mirakl.
The key brands available through this new partnership include Ray-Ban, Oakley, Armani Exchange, Emporio Armani, Polo Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors, bringing more than 1,000 styles to the Country Road website.
Since the marketplace upgrade, Country Road has added a raft of new brands, including the likes of Finnish design house Marimekko, accessory brand Orbitkey, footwear brand Holster and watch brand Daniel Wellington.
“We are excited to partner with Luxottica and the Sunglass Hut team,” Country Road Group GM of marketplace, Phill Read said.
“This represents a significant step-change as we develop a distinct marketplace assortment, providing existing and new Country Road customers with the convenience of shopping aspirational, category-leading brands during their shopping journey, without the need to leave the site.”
Country Road Group also owns the likes of Witchery, Trenery, Mimco and Politix. For the financial year ending June 28 this year, the group reported a turnaround in its losses, with its net loss after tax hitting R250 million (~A$21 million), down from R1.43 billion (~A$123.8 million).
This came off the back of total sales growth of just 1 per cent.
Country Road Group CEO Steven Cook said the result reflected deliberate decisions made throughout the year to strengthen the underlying health of the business and its portfolio of brands.
"At the start of the year, we set out to improve the quality of our sales, strengthen our inventory position and operate more efficiently," Cook said at the results release on September 2.
"While market conditions remained challenging, that discipline improved profitability, reduced inventory and provided the agility to respond to changing customer demand, helping us return the business to profit."