Buy Now Expanding B2B Platform for Japanese Fashion Industry Worldwide

Buy Now is expanding its B2B platform for the Japanese fashion industry worldwide.

Formerly called FORSEE and focused on connecting Japanese designer brands with domestic vendors, the platform is evolving into FORSEE CONNECT and will make those brands available to international buyers, Buy Now said in a Saturday (June 17) press release.

“In the past, vendors interested in finding new designer items in Japan had limited options — they either had to attend joint exhibitions in their respective countries or travel to Japan to source products,” Buy Now said in the release. “Finding brands that matched their store’s sensibility and identifying marketable items each season was a challenging task that often consumed a significant amount of time.”

The new FORSEE CONNECT aims to simplify the process by providing a B2B platform that helps with discovery, orders and payments, according to the release.

To help vendors find brands that best align with their needs, the platform uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology that recommends the best options from an extensive list of potential suppliers, the release said.

The platform also facilitates secure transactions for international buyers by leveraging its four years of experience in facilitating order and supply for Japanese fashion brands and more than 4,000 domestic vendors, per the release.

“By harnessing the power of technology, FORSEE is committed to building a new fashion industry brimming with creativity,” Buy Now said in the release. “It seeks to foster innovation, collaboration and connectivity within the industry, paving the way for a brighter future in fashion.”

Several other digital platforms are also competing for different parts of the B2B fashion trade.

For example, it was reported in January that fashion and apparel industry-focused supply chain platform Showroom B2B raised $1.35 million in a seed round.

Showroom B2B offers both physical “experience stores” in which retailers can touch and feel the apparel and a digital app that enables retailers to place orders and access beneficial pricing, the Economic Times reported Jan. 11.

A month earlier, in December 2022, B2B eCommerce platform Fashion Cloud raised about $26.6 million to accelerate its international expansion.

Fashion Cloud previously focused exclusively on the European fashion wholesale industry, serving more than 600 brands and 20,000 retailers.

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