Wconcept, a women's fashion platform under Shinsegae Group, has replaced its chief executive and moved to strengthen its core business. It appointed fashion expert Lee Ji-eun (이지은) as CEO, replacing former CEO Lee Ju-cheol, a strategy specialist from Gmarket. With the gap in transaction value with Musinsa-acquired 29CM widening to about twofold, analysts say Wconcept has made a bold move to improve profitability and strengthen platform identity.

Industry officials said on March 12 that Wconcept appointed Lee as its new CEO on March 6. Attention has focused on the reasons behind the unexpected change, which did not coincide with Shinsegae Group's regular reshuffle in October last year. The company previously said the new appointment was intended to strengthen competitiveness in fashion, the essence of Wconcept's business.

Lee, Wconcept's new CEO, is a fashion expert who has built her career in the fashion industry. Born in 1972, she graduated from Chung-Ang University's department of clothing and textiles, then gained fashion business experience at fashion company Mido as well as LF and Kolon. After joining Wconcept Korea in September last year, she served as an executive director in charge of Merchandise Division 2, overseeing private-label brands and activewear such as sportswear.

Industry officials view the CEO change as not unrelated to Wconcept's recent profitability indicators. They say Shinsegae Group sought to strengthen profitability by appointing Lee Ju-cheol, then head of Gmarket's strategic business division, as Wconcept CEO in 2023, but failed to deliver significant results.

Wconcept's operating profit has in practice remained stagnant since it was acquired by Shinsegae's SSG.com in 2021. It was assessed as failing to establish a clear upward trend in either top-line growth or profitability.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system, operating profit was 3.09 billion won in 2021, 3.085 billion won in 2022, 5.8 million won in 2023 and 1.649 billion won in 2024, fluctuating without showing a stable growth trend. Industry officials said operating profit last year was also known to be in a difficult situation.

Annual revenue also failed to get on a growth track, coming in at 101.4 billion won in 2021, 136.8 billion won in 2022, 145.4 billion won in 2023 and 116.9 billion won in 2024.

In this situation, the company is seen as having judged that strengthening competitiveness in its main business area, women's fashion, was the most urgent task. Wconcept has expanded into non-fashion categories such as lifestyle until recently, including onboarding Shinsegae Casa's lifestyle brand Jaju.

But since more than 80 percent of Wconcept's total transaction value comes from fashion, an internal line appears to have been emphasised to strengthen competitiveness in the fashion category again.

The steep growth of fashion platform 29CM, acquired by Musinsa, is also cited as a burden for Wconcept. As a result, the question of how much Wconcept can raise its competitiveness as an online platform has also emerged as a task.

Wconcept and 29CM formed a competitive landscape for vertical fashion platforms after being acquired in 2021 by Shinsegae's SSG.com and Musinsa, respectively. But 29CM, which had a smaller transaction-value scale than Wconcept at the time, has now pulled far ahead of Wconcept.

Industry officials said 29CM's transaction value last year topped 1.3 trillion won. That is about four times the level when it was acquired by Musinsa in 2021. Over the same period, Wconcept's transaction value was 650 billion won.

A key task has emerged over whether Wconcept under Lee, a fashion expert, can restore competitiveness in its core business and link that to improved profitability.

A Wconcept official said, "We plan to focus more on fashion, because we believe we must not lose competitiveness in fashion, which is the essence of the business, and the reason consumers should use Wconcept." The official added, "However, we will also steadily expand non-fashion category businesses such as lifestyle."