Chinese consumers can now buy products inspired by treasures housed within the world’s largest art museum, the Louvre.

The museum has announced a collaboration with Alibaba Group to launch a flagship store on B2C e-commerce platform Tmall and a content agreement with Alifish, Alibaba’s online licensing platform.

Located in central Paris, the Louvre is one of the world’s most recognizable landmarks and displays some 38,000 pieces of art across eight curatorial departments. To bring the museum’s wonders closer to Chinese consumers, the Alifish team leveraged a combination of Alibaba’s data-analysis capabilities and its licensing expertise to identify the Louvre’s most influential and popular works. The product-development team then used the findings to innovate various art-inspired items in collaboration with major international as well as Chinese brands. These products range from lipsticks in the shape of the Winged Victory of Samothrace and eye shadow compacts themed after the Venus de Milo to satchels bearing the likeness of the Mona Lisa.

Tmall also set up a Super Brand Day promotion timed to the launch of the Louvre’s flagship store. The one-day campaign, which rallies the resources across Alibaba’s ecosystem to create a smaller version of the company’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival for a single brand, used personalized recommendations, special discounts and other traffic-boosting tools to connect art-lovers with products from the museum’s online store. The campaign also featured an offline pop-up store on the Bund in Shanghai, so visitors can peruse items in person the way they would appreciate a work of art at a museum or gallery. Consumers can then purchase products by simply scanning QR codes with their Taobao or Tmall apps.

“As a universal museum, every year the Musée du Louvre welcomes millions of visitors, many of whom are Chinese. Although you can’t come and see us right now because of the pandemic, thanks to our partnership with Alibaba on Super Brand Day, you will have the opportunity to learn about our collections and introduce them into your daily life,” said Jean-Luc Martinez, president of the Louvre.

Bringing the Story of Art to Life

The new Louvre-Alibaba partnership also expands beyond e-commerce and into the realms of culture and content. As part of the collaboration, Alifish helped produce a special program on Alibaba’s video-streaming platform Youku that focused on the Louvre’s masterpieces and their historical significance.

Last month, the Louvre also opened its doors for a livestreamed tour on Alibaba’s travel-services platform, Fliggy. The virtual tour was the latest in a series designed to help museums and other tourist attractions continue connecting with Chinese netizens at a time when the coronavirus outbreak has halted international travel. The series previously featured Spain’s Prado Museum, the Palace of Versailles in France and the British Museum in London.

WATCH: Fliggy hosts a livestreamed tour of the Louvre

“The cooperation between Alifish and the Louvre has provided more innovative business models for China’s licensing industries,” said Wu Qian, vice president of Alibaba Entertainment and president of Alifish.

Leveraging Alibaba’s ecosystem, this collaboration links together licensing, marketing and e-commerce activities to create a replicable solution for museums to connect with culture lovers across China, she added.

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