As online buying surges to record highs in the United States and globally, the category-defining Internet domain for the largest cross-border online retail category, Clothing.com is now for sale. It is being sold with a portfolio of other prominent digital names such as Clothing.org, Clothing.tv, and ClothingTV.com, among others, with an expected sale price well in excess of $15 million. For comparison, Voice.com sold for $30 million in 2019. A sale will be completed on or before October 15, 2020.
In the United States, in just the first four months of 2020, eCommerce growth accelerated at a faster rate than the past 10 years combined. “This is a tipping point for eCommerce,” Devin Wenig, former CEO of eBay, recently told Bloomberg.
The global pandemic is fueling a historic increase in online shopping. “COVID-19 has propelled consumer adoption of digital commerce five years into the future,” according to Jason Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategist of Publicis.
This accelerated growth is very much like the SARS epidemic in China in 2003, which “came to represent the turning point when the Internet emerged as a truly mass medium in China,” as described by Duncan Clark in his book about the rise of Alibaba, The House That Jack Ma Built. It “convinced millions of people, afraid to go outside, to try shopping online instead,” he explained.
COVID-19 is almost certainly going to have a similar long-lasting effect both in the United States and globally for eCommerce overall, and for the clothing segment.
The clothing category generates over $1 trillion annually worldwide and, according to Digital Commerce 360, its digital penetration in the U.S. is more than double that of eCommerce in general.
Whether overall shopping for clothing goes up, stays the same, or even declines, the proportion bought online is rapidly increasing and projections indicate that this will continue.
Clothing.com is the digital destination that can ride this wave of swelling eCommerce growth. One company alone will gain a unique competitive advantage when it buys Clothing.com.
James Trueman, a globally recognized expert in intellectual property and the CEO of TrueNorth IP, Inc. stated, “Clothing.com can produce substantial financial and strategic value to the new owner and be an enduring source of competitive advantage. It also has the potential to be used as a platform to generate substantial incremental revenue rapidly while saving the buyer millions in marketing and branding expenses.”
“The combination of the large size of the clothing category, the category-defining name, and increasing digital penetration is leading Clothing.com into the ranks of a small handful of the most valuable domains in the world worth a minimum of $15 million, which includes Voice.com,” he concluded.
About the Sales Process
Several parties have expressed interest in the digital domain Clothing.com and the accompanying portfolio of related premium domains. In order to fairly accommodate these interested parties, while also allowing others who may have interest to participate, a formal structured sales process is being used.
Parties interested in an acquisition should submit a non-binding offer by Tuesday, September 22, 2020. Detailed discussions will then be entered into with the parties representing the best qualified offers received. If the acquisition is not completed before Thursday, October 15, 2020, an Auction will occur on Thursday, October 15, 2020, in which all interested parties may participate regardless of whether or not they submitted an offer.
Clothing.com’s stakeholders have retained TrueNorth IP, Inc. as its transaction advisor, which is working closely with Gordon Hayes on the transaction. Interested parties should visit www.clothing.com for the complete offering information and details about the sales process, or contact Mr. Hayes directly at [email protected].
Escrow.com is providing escrow services for secure online payment.
About TrueNorth IP, Inc.
TrueNorth IP, Inc. is a boutique investment bank that helps clients successfully build and realize value from intellectual property (IP) and other intangible assets. The firm focuses on transactions oriented around licensing, sale, acquisition, and capital raising. The firm’s management has worked with various types of clients on a global basis, including large multi-national corporations, mid-size companies, startups and individual inventors, private equity and venture capital funds, research labs, and universities. Its management has overseen over half a billion USD of transactions related to IP and other intangible assets across North America, Asia, and Europe.
About Escrow.com
Escrow.com is the leading provider of secure online payments and online transaction management for consumers and businesses on the Internet, having safely processed over US$4 billion in transactions. Founded by Fidelity in 1999, Escrow.com reduces the risk of fraud by acting as a trusted third party that collects, holds and disburses funds according to buyer and seller instructions. Escrow.com is a subsidiary of twelve-time Webby Award winning Freelancer.com, the world’s largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace by number of users and jobs posted.
SOURCE Clothing.com
https://clothing.com
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