Tmall’s Luxury Pavilion reports $159,000 average spend per consumer since site launch

By

Matthieu Guinebault

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Apr 17, 2018

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has disclosed the first results of Luxury Pavilion, the luxury goods website it launched last August within Tmall, whose services are expanding via a newly hatched loyalty programme.

In less than a year, Luxury Pavilion has reportedly reached an audience of 100,000 users, attracted by the fifty or so luxury and high-end labels it features, among them Burberry, Hugo Boss, Givenchy, Guerlain and Maserati. According to Tmall’s latest estimates, Luxury Pavilion users have spent on average one million Chinese yuan ($159,000) on the luxury website since its launch. An astonishing amount, explained partly by the fact that, alongside fashion and beauty products, the website also sells luxury watches and cars.

Notably, one third of Luxury Pavilion users reportedly consists of consumers below the age of thirty and, even more notably, these users accounted for 45% of all purchases on the luxury site. Enough for Alibaba to emphasise that, in the next three years, its priority will be strengthening the group’s connection with this posse of young luxury consumers.

“These new Chinese consumers are uber-connected through their smartphones, more knowledgeable than their older counterparts and have a growing purchasing power,” said Sébastien Badault, General Manager of Alibaba France, who talked to FashionNetwork about Luxury Pavilion last October. “They travel extensively and, when they visit Western countries, they buy luxury products which they are then keen to find in China too. Luxury Pavilion is a tool which allows brands to establish a link with these consumers, and to respond to their expectations by offering them a streamlined online shopping experience with the same quality and service they would enjoy in brick-and-mortar stores.”

Alibaba also announced that Luxury Pavilion customers will benefit from the services offered by the loyalty programme which is part of the website's recently launched New Retail initiative. Site members will enjoy access to bespoke product offers, new payment options, priority deliveries, door-to-door returns and invitations to events. Premier members will have extra benefits, like a personal shopper service, a concierge service and access to premium spas.

Alibaba’s efforts in the luxury sector are part and parcel of the major offensive launched in a very short period of time by all of China’s leading e-tail operators on the luxury market, in response to the growing demand for luxury goods in the country, as FashionNetwork.com found out by interviewing the various players involved.