Sainsbury's approaches fashion brands for its new online marketplace

Sainsbury’s is plotting a new online marketplace for high street fashion brands in a move that would step up pressures on department stores.

The grocery giant is pitching brands to sell through its website and in 60 of its stores as it looks to diversify its product offering. Several fashion brands have already been approached by Sainsbury’s on this matter, thetimes.co.uk reported.

Sainsbury’s is understood to be flexible over its terms of conditions with brands and is offering lower commission rates than John Lewis, which is understood to charge at least 40%.

In January 2023, the grocery retailer teamed up with fashion brand Sosandar to sell a curated collection of its clothes through its website and in selected stores.

More news from Sainsbury’s

In November 2022, Sainsbury’s has chosen cloud-based payments service provider Checkout.com as a partner to modernise its digital payments infrastructure.

Checkout.com’s appointment comes as Sainsbury’s is looking to evolve its strategy related to omnichannel payments and marks the launch of the retailer’s in-app payment options to SmartShop, done through the Checkout.com integration.

The functionality will be underpinned by Checkout.com’s payments platform, which will enable transactions through digital wallets of the likes of Apple Pay and Google Pay; as of now, this is live across Sainsbury’s ‘scan-and-go’ SmartShop stores and is set to be rolled out to Argos and Habitat stores in the months to come.

Furthermore, a Checkout.com product, ProcessOut, will act as the retailer’s payment orchestration platform and direct all processing across the business. Following its full implementation, Sainsbury’s will be enabled to streamline its legacy systems, meaning that it will have the option of seeing online orders in real-time, which will in turn permit better data-driven decisions and insights, alongside offers and experiences tailored to the need of its customers.