Yves Saint Laurent launches limited-edition gift boxes for Valentine's Day on Tmall. Photo credit: Alibaba Group
Love went virtual this year, with many fashion and beauty brands launching a slew of digital limited-editions for Valentine’s Day on Alibaba Group’s online marketplace Tmall.
British luxury fashion brand Burberry offered romantics 100 units of digital pieces inspired by its popular deer mascot. Swiss luxury watch brand Piaget is selling 35 digital collectibles featuring its tiger-themed wristwatch.
For lovers demanding a more tangible token of affection, Tom Ford debuted its latest rose-based fragrance, Rose De Chine, featuring a Chinese golden peony. A limited-edition lipstick from Hermès, in its signature Rouge Grenat dark red shade, is trending on Tmall.
Among the brands looking to maintain sales momentum gathered during Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, Yves Saint Laurent brought forward the launch of an eye cream from April to this month to capitalize on Valentine’s Day demand.
Generation-Z consumers in China are the biggest gift-buyers for Valentine’s Day, another report showed. Compared with older consumers, they are more likely to purchase gifts from online channels, rather than offline retailers.
Tmall has become an important channel for luxury brands to reach the young consumers. Less than a year after Hermès opened its flagship store on Tmall, it has gained more than 330,000 followers.
China is on pace to become the world’s largest luxury market by 2025, spurred by increasing digitization, according to consultancy Bain & Co. Online luxury sales grew faster than offline across all categories, it added.
Amid surging sales on digital platforms, international fashion brands are increasingly pursuing a digital-first strategy, making product debuts globally on Alibaba’s flagship luxury platform, Tmall Luxury Pavilion.
Data from Tmall Luxury Pavilion shows that brands launched over 30,000 products on the platform per month last year, and many are limited editions or available first in China.
