Fashion.com domain will be sold at auction this autumn

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There is a press releases out today that Fashion.com one of the most valuable .coms on the net will be auctioned off. You see the news on Fashion.com as well as the press release below. Nice to see a lot of fanfare around one name at auction, not lost in the sea of competing names and diluted attention spans.

Tip of the cap to Lox

Here is the press release:

On the final day of Paris Fashion Week, it has been announced that one of the world’s most sought-after and highly valued domains — fashion.com — will be sold at auction this autumn, leading one Internet expert to suggest it could fetch a record price.

“With the worldwide race in online fashion, I would expect fashion.com to attract a lot of interest from giant retailers and well-known brands, along with successful smaller players and new entrants looking for a competitive edge,” said Karine Kugler, CEO of The Three Marketers, a firm specializing in Search Engine Optimization and social media marketing. “As a result,” Kugler concluded, “this could be one of the highest prices ever paid for a domain. Fashion.com is a rare one: iconic, highly memorable and easily searched. It should generate strong sales numbers while saving its buyer millions in sales and marketing costs.”

Dozens of companies and individuals have made cash offers to buy fashion.com over the past 25 years, according to Peter Johnston, the international business advisor who represents the domain’s three owners; in 1994, the trio was working on a fashion project and searched for a domain that might meet their needs. They discovered fashion.com was unclaimed and bought it. After plans for their project changed, the domain sat unused.

In the decades since, the fashion industry has exploded worldwide, reaching an estimated $2 trillion in annual value, with online sales leading the way and set to increase to $700 billion by 2022.

“The owners of fashion.com have decided that a formal bidding process is the best way to systematically and fairly address interest from so many parties around the globe,” said Johnston. “This approach ensures that all those wanting to acquire the domain will be given an opportunity to do so.”

To account for the fact that some buyers are sensitive about the amount of their winning bids being made public, the auction for fashion.com will incorporate both private bidding, beginning October 24th, and as necessary, a public auction scheduled for November 21st. Registration for all bidders opens October 10th.

Official service providers include Escrow.com, and the pioneering online auction firm Auction-Experts (auction-experts.com), which will oversee the auction and related technology.

Auction services provided by: Auction-Experts, Amsterdam

Escrow services provided by: Escrow.com, San Francisco

For further information: go to www.fashion.com or contact PeterJohnston@nailimited.com.

SOURCE NAI Limited

About Raymond Hackney

Raymond is a writer, domain trader and consultant based in Pennsylvania. Raymond is the founder of 3Character.com and TLDInvestors.com.

Comments

    • rick says

      no chance. not a big deal at all
      i bet it does not sell
      if it does it will be far. far less
      who are the potential buyers and what would they do with it?

    • Snoopy says

      It is dated domain, the peak for this type of name was over a decade ago. It is still great but it won’t get those kinds of numbers and the reason the sellers would be auctioning it is because the name won’t have a lot of enduser interest.

      There is nobody who is going to “need” this name. I’d say very low 7 figures, $1million-$2million. More likely that it will not sell.

    • John says

      Michael is thinking in terms of what realistically could, should, and would happen. I am thinking and writing (see below) in terms of what *really really* should happen. Were it not for the various factors of human corruption and shortcomings harming the market, 9 figures should be a very realistic price for this domain, one of the most commercial valuable ever. But the way things are now, 8 is still the realistic minimum, and 7 would be a total travesty and simply should not happen.

      • John says

        PS, and I meant to include ” – and he’s right.” in reference to Michael’s comment in my first sentence.

  5. steve says

    You’d think FashionMagazine.com and Fashion.net would be interested in this domain. Maybe FashionNova.com?
    The big brands in fashion would pass, obviously due to focusing on their brands.

  6. John says

    This is definitely one of the most valuable domain names in the world. 8 figures is the minimum. 7 would be a total unequivocal travesty. Any seller who lets this go for 7 is either utterly clueless or in a compromised position and unwilling or unable to get a proper value.

    So take it from me, one of the biggest proponents of truth in domaining who will never hesitate to say when a one word domain is worth far less than 2, 3, 4 or sometimes even more.