This has proven fruitful, as Gartner L2 data shows that 49 percent of fashion brands are available through Farfetch's new JD.com flagship launched this month, while only 20 percent operate their own JD.com flagship. JD.com, meanwhile, has doubled down on its partnership with luxury pure player Farfetch, which acquired the e-tailer's own luxury platform Toplife in February 2019. Luxury brands also know they will be shopped against third-party luxury sellers and competitors, and depend on Tmall for data.Į-tailers appeal more to accessible luxury and smaller labels without the resources of a major luxury house. The growth is the result of Tmall’s efforts over the years to court fashion labels, including the development of mechanisms for brands to report and take down counterfeits, the launch of its exclusive Luxury Pavilion platform within the Tmall app in 2017 and sponsoring New York Fashion Week runway shows.īut despite the dedicated sub-platform, luxury brands still perceive downsides, including the platform’s mass-market nature that means many shoppers on the platform are there to price-compare everyday staples like shampoo or diapers. Limited-edition WeChat sales of traditional luxury items like handbags and jewellery are also prevalent around Chinese gifting holidays, especially the Qixi Festival, a romantic holiday known as “Chinese Valentine’s Day.”Ĭhina’s largest e-commerce company Alibaba, however, has made slower gains in attracting high-end fashion brands to Tmall, with the number of fashion brands operating Tmall flagships rising from 27 percent in 2018 to 44 percent in 2019. Louis Vuitton did something similar on February 17th with a WeChat pop-up shop mini program for its Virgil Abloh-designed sneakers.īurberry's B Series collection | Source: Courtesy Burberry's B Series collection | Source: Courtesyīurberry's B Series collection | Source: Courtesy The brand's WeChat followers in China receive a push message on their phones when the item is up for sale, linking them to the photo- and media-rich B Series mini program to make their purchase before it completely sells out, often within 24 hours. Inspired by Supreme’s weekly model, Burberry releases a new item on the 17th of every month. Burberry, for example, uses a mini program for its monthly B Series drop that’s available on Instagram in the United States. Luxury brands have used mini programs to launch fully-fledged WeChat stores as well as experiment with innovative sales models like pop-ups and online versions of streetwear-inspired drops. It appears to be working: the total number of mini programs hit the 1 million mark 8 months ago, while Gartner L2’s data shows that 70 percent of fashion brands now have at least one mini program, up from 40 percent last year.īurberry and Louis Vuitton among WeChat innovators Launched in January 2017, mini programs, or apps that are accessed and function completely within WeChat, are part of WeChat parent company Tencent’s bid to compete directly with mobile app stores. While most brands that featured commerce on their official WeChat profiles in 2018 were simply linking out to their site stores, the growth of WeChat's mini programs feature has been a main factor in driving them to create built-in WeChat stores. Kering’s most recent investor publication highlighted the need for “full control of the client experience” both online and offline as one of its major e-commerce goals. WeChat commerce’s appeal for luxury brands is similar to that of online stores, giving brands control over the customer experience that they perceive to be crucial to brand equity. WeChat games from Guerlain, Hermès and Dior | Source: Courtesy WeChat games from Guerlain, Hermès and Dior | Source: Courtesy WeChat games from Guerlain, Hermès and Dior | Source: Courtesy Most brands now feature some form of commerce option through their official WeChat profiles, and 88 percent link to their mobile site e-commerce from WeChat. Gains in the number of fashion labels operating flagships on these platforms has been modest, with less than half doing so on Tmall and fewer than one-fourth on JD.com in 2019.Īccording to the new Luxury China 2019 Digital IQ Index report by Gartner L2, China’s largest mobile messaging app WeChat has reached a luxury shopping tipping point, with 60 percent of fashion brands now offering WeChat stores this year up from just 36 percent in 2018. A growing number of luxury brands are more enthusiastic about WeChat commerce than selling through China’s top B2C e-tailers Tmall and JD.com, despite these platforms’ vigorous efforts to attract top-tier labels. NEW YORK, USA - Luxury brands may be just starting to experiment with Instagram commerce in the US and Europe, but they're already embracing WeChat commerce in China.Ī profound shift is underway in the country’s $115 billion luxury market.
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