Debenhams launches giant marketplace as it targets fast growth

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Oct 6, 2021

Debenhams has announced that it has become the UK’s largest marketplace across fashion, beauty, sport and homeware by launching a new platform powered by major SaaS provider Mirakl.

The Boohoo Group-owned retailer and Mirakl said the new marketplace “enables Debenhams to meet evolving customer demand, rapidly scaling [the] assortment to more than 70,000 new products in three months”.

It also allows Debenhams “to evolve into a new era of digital commerce and respond to changing customer demand by rapidly growing its product offering while staying true to the Debenhams brand,” we’re told. 

Boohoo Group’s Chief Information Officer Jo Graham said the launch means the company is “evolving the brand to stay ahead of the demands of the current digital-first world of commerce. Our partnership is critical to this evolution. With its unmatched technology, expertise, and seller ecosystem, Mirakl is supporting us to drive forward Debenhams’ digital transformation while ensuring we maintain the brand that customers have come to love since its creation over 240 years ago.”

Debenhams said it can now “quickly onboard new brands, as well as maintain and extend both existing Boohoo and Debenhams brand relationships”. The retailer has already made around 200 new brands available through the new marketplace, and “new suppliers and brands are joining weekly”.

It already has 300 million UK website visits per year and is positioned as the number two retailer of skincare products in the UK while it has the largest market share in make-up products. It’s clearly targeting leadership in other categories too with the launch of the marketplace.

Mirakl has been working with a number of retailers in Britain as the marketplace model evolves and currently powers such businesses for Decathlon UK, Feelunique, Harvey Nichols, H&M Home, Joules, and Turner Price, among others.