Farfetch performance improves yet Coupang swings to loss in Q4

Since Coupang’s acquisition of Farfetch, it has been hard to gauge how well the British luxury e-tailer is performing, particularly as its South Korean parent company tackles broader market challenges. In the group’s latest earnings call for Q4, however, its CEO and chairman, Bom Kim, confirmed things were looking up.

“At Farfetch, this quarter marks the first quarter since our acquisition where we generated positive year-over-year revenue growth with positive overall economics,” Kim shared. “We see a real opportunity to create value for luxury customers around the world by combining Farfetch’s vast assortment with a white glove shipping and returns experience.”

The update comes just over two years on from Coupang’s acquisition of Farfetch, which at the time had been heavily contested by disgruntled shareholders who claimed the deal “destroyed the value” of the company. During 2023, Farfetch was facing mounting financial concerns, with its UK business reporting 805.5 million pounds in annual losses. This narrowed significantly into 2024, when the company’s loss after tax sat at 471.4 million pounds.

Farfetch’s performance has had a notable impact on Coupang’s own financial status, with a recent data breach only heightening the group’s challenges. For Q4, representing the period October to December 2025, Coupang’s operating profit plummeted 97 percent year-on-year to 8 million dollars. The company swung to a net loss of 26 million dollars, down from a profit of 131 million dollars in the year prior, while its adjusted EBITDA also declined 36.6 percent to 267 million dollars.

This was despite an 11 percent uptick in total net revenue, which amounted to 8.8 billion dollars. Coupang cited the personal data breach incident as an instigating factor in its performance, having impacted revenue growth, active customer numbers and membership subscriptions. This has now stabilised, the group reported, with recovery already observed in the first quarter of the current fiscal year.

In the call, chief financial officer, Gaurav Anand, said: “Looking forward to next year, we believe we will continue to see muted trends in growth and profitability over the next few months with the impacts from the data incident diminishing over the course of the year as we work through this period of transition and continue delivering the experience our customers expect.”