#TagHeuer #TMALL #Luxuryretail #Partnership

Industry : Luxury Retail

Location : China

Related to : Luxury watchmaker Tag Heuer and Chinese e-commerce platform TMALL

Reviewer : Yujia HUO– Parsons School of Design

Company : Tag Heuer and TMALL

Website : http://www.alizila.com/luxury-watchmaker-tag-heuer-debuts-tmall/

In February, Swiss luxury watchmaker Tag Heuer has launched a flagship store on Chinese e-commerce platform Tmall.com, becoming the fifth brand owned by luxury group LVMH to set up shop on Alibaba Group’s leading China shopping website.

During these years, China has become one of the biggest luxury good markets in the world and the country remains an engine of growth for luxury goods, so all the luxury companies are doing their best to get this big cake. Meanwhile, Chinese consumers have become more and more savvy and connected and there was a significant increase in online shopping in Chinese market. According to the latest report from China’s National Bureau of Statistics: there was a 26.2 percent increase in online retail sales, and 15.5 percent of total retail purchases were made online in China.

Tmall.com was first introduced by Alibaba Group in April 2008, which is a platform for local Chinese and international businesses to sell brand name goods to consumers in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. According to iResearch, Tmall.com is China’s largest third-party ecommerce platform for brands and retailers based on active monthly users in 2015. By 2020, it will control almost 90 percent of the Chinese online business with sales expected to reach between $ 420 billion and $ 650 billion annually.

In the past few years, watchmakers have shied away from e-commerce since they always pay more attention to the in-store experience and the timepieces are always too expensive, but recently, a few have developed their business online.

Tag Heuer’s e-commerce partnership with Tmall.com this time will offer Chinese consumers a new platform to shop its Swiss-made timepieces. Also, the presence on Tmall.com will help this luxury brand to improve its visibility among younger, digital-native consumers.