CJ ENM invests in luxury commerce company ‘Must It’ to create a strategic partnership

Online luxury commerce‘Must It’ has attracted an investment of 20 billion won ($15 million) from CJ ENM, a South Korean entertainment and mass media company. Must It recorded a cumulative investment of 48 billion ($37 million) with this investment.

Must It is an open market luxury commerce company established in 2011. CJ ENM is a division of CJ E&M (Entertainment & Media), created by CJ Group to produce entertainment content and mass media productions. Besides its e-commerce channel, OnStyle, CJ ENM is behind the most famous Korean Netflix show ‘Crash Landing on You.’

CJ ENM started investing in Must It as a strategic investor (SI) rather than a financial investor (FI). In the future, the two companies will form a partnership and seek collaboration not only in the commerce business but also in various business areas such as entertainment content production and joint independent product planning and development.

Two companies to create synergies through cooperation

Unlike Must It, whose primary customer base is in the 20s and 30s, CJ ENM’s commerce channel CJ OnStyle has a high proportion of customers in the age group 40s and 50s, so it is expected that synergies can be created through cooperation. The two companies plan to strengthen each other’s channel competitiveness by linking products. In addition, the two companies plan to jointly discover distribution channels in Europe and strengthen our product sourcing capabilities.

Also, Must It plans to launch a ‘fixed mobile live commerce program (MLC) specializing in luxury goods’ by receiving support from CJ ENM for technology and infrastructure for the operation.

Must It has been operating for nine years from 2011 to 2020, recording an average annual growth rate of over 80%. Last year, the transaction amount exceeded 350 billion won, and the accumulated transaction amount exceeded 1 trillion won. Must-It’s purchase conversion rate is about 2%, which is relatively high compared to the 1% purchase conversion rate for general online commerce.

Kim Ji-hyeon, head of strategic planning at CJ ENM, who led this investment, said, “Must It is the most competitive luxury platform in all aspects, including organization, technology, system, and stability, and we decided that it could create good synergy with CJ ENM. Due to the excellent data consistency, the trust in the company has increased after the due diligence, so the investment was made.”

Must It CEO Cho Yong-min said, “Must It does not deceive consumers or exaggerate performance for blind growth based on the principle of ‘healthy growth.’ We will develop various luxury services through collaboration with CJ ENM.”

Meanwhile, Must It received a 15 billion won($9 million) Series A investment from IMM Investment, Softbank Ventures, K2 Investment Partners, and Medici Investment in 2020, and a bridge round investment of 13 billion won ($7.7 million) from Kakao Investment and K2 Investment Partners in 2021.

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