• by Sara Guaglione , June 13, 2017

Just nine months after its debut, Condé Nast’s ecommerce fashion site Style.com is being shuttered. 

Visitors to Style.com will now be redirected to Condé Nast’s new partner, Farfetch, an online marketplace for high-end boutiques. Condé Nast was an early investor in Farfetch.

As part of the new deal, Farfetch now owns the Style.com trademark, inventory of merchandise and customer database. Style.com will cease operations, effective immediately.

Style.com was originally the home of all Condé Nast runway coverage until 2015, when it was rebranded to become the publishing house’s first foray into a digital shopping destination. It was also a way for the publishing house to diversify its business and support its traditional ad revenue. 

Condé Nast reportedly planned to invest more than $100 million into the project, according to a report from The New York Times. It first launched in the UK, and never made it to the U.S.

In a memo to Style.com staff, chairman and CEO of Condé Nast International Jonathan Newhouse, wrote, in part: “Sadly, the results of the business have fallen very far short of where we hoped they would be.”

Newhouse will join the board of Farfetch as part of the partnership.

Farfetch was founded by José Neves in 2008. The platform connects brands, independent stores and consumers by building and maintaining sites for labels and connecting them to customers. Farfetch takes a commission from the sale. Brands handle the inventory and shipping. Farfetch works with 200 brands directly and more than 500 boutiques in nine languages.

If this sounds familiar, its a similar model used by rivals like Net-a-Porter, but according to the NYT, citing data from web analytics service Alexa, Farfetch outperforms the popular ecommerce luxury fashion site.

Neves told the NYT Farfetch and Condé Nast will work on “how to successfully link content with commerce.”

Natalie Massenet, co-chairman of Farfetch and founder of Net-a-Porter, stated: “Since 1999, I have believed in the importance of combining content and commerce in order to elevate the digital shopping experience. Content educates, entertains and inspires purchases which is crucial in the customer journey of discovery.”

It is unclear how many of Style.com's 75 employees will move to Farfetch.

The partnership will launch with the U.S. editions of Vogue and GQ. Visitors to the brands’ sites will be able to shop magazine content with items from Farfetch’s fashion label partners. The publications will also create shopping guides on its sites with links to Farfetch items. The partnership will likely expand to other publications’ sites.

In short, Condé Nast will go back to focusing on editorial, and Farfetch will handle the ecommerce business.

Separately, multiple sources predict Farfetch is planning its IPO. Last year, it surpassed gross sales of $800 million, up 60% from 2015.