More than 1,000 fashion brands, including international names such as Burberry, Hugo Boss, Ports, Lacoste, Calvin Klein, and Zara, are launching over one million products for a seasonal sales promotion now underway on popular Chinese B2C website Tmall.com.
The Aug. 24-26 promotion is the latest installment of a sales event held twice a year by Tmall to showcase spring/summer and fall/winter fashion trends. The current event highlights global luxury and fast-retailing brands as well as original designs from Chinese apparel companies, according to a Chinese-language press release from Tmall, which is owned by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group.
Through the promotion, Tmall is providing a platform for a wide range of retailers to introduce their latest collections as well as expand their capabilities in mobile e-commerce and online-to-offline (O2O) sales channels, said Liu Xiuyun, manager of the site’s apparel category. Discounts and coupons are being offered to consumers by retailers to stimulate demand during the promotion, which also has the backing of major Chinese fashion magazines.
According to a recent report from Beijing-based data-services firm Analysys International, China’s B2C apparel market reached RMB 144 billion ($22.5 billion) in the second quarter of 2015, registering year-on-year growth of 64.6 percent. Tmall is China’s leading B2C online marketplace with a 73 percent share of the market.
With shopping via mobile devices continuing to boom in China, prior to the promotion Tmall launched a feature for its mobile shopping app that allows consumers to virtually mix and match clothing items on their handsets. Called “Magic Match,” the feature during testing encouraged users to buy more pieces of clothing and spend more with each order, Tmall said. Retailers can also use the software to gather information on shopping behavior and recommend additional purchases to consumers. About 130 brands, including Topshop, Gap and Levi’s, are selling some 10,000 products that can be compared using Magic Match.
Alibaba Group reported that mobile sales accounted for more than half of all revenues on its China retail marketplaces in the quarter ended June 30—marking the first time that online shopping on mobile devices had eclipsed shopping on personal computers for the company.
For the promotion, Tmall and Alibaba logistics affiliate Cainiao have stepped up same-day delivery services using a “bricks-and-clicks” system, whereby participating merchants with physical stores dispatch goods ordered online from outlets nearest buyers’ homes. The system can reduce delivery time to as few as three hours, according to Tmall.
Brands including Jack & Jones, VERO MODA and Xtep, along with their 600 outlets have joined the system for the promotion.The delivery service will be an option in more than 10 Chinese cities, among them Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
