Photo credit: Alibaba Group

Love is in the air this Valentine’s Day as luxury brands release a bevy of limited collections targeting China’s young shoppers. 

Brands released 500 exclusive collections for the romantic occasion on Alibaba Group’s high-end shopping platform Tmall Luxury Pavilion, leveraging high-tech tools to engage digitally-savvy consumers. 

Gen-Z users represent the fastest-growing cohort at Tmall Luxury Pavilion, and these digital natives under 28 years old made up nearly 40% of purchases on the platform during last year’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival.

“In China, we look at each of these holidays as a way to engage and potentially look at brand customer acquisition, particularly Gen Z,” Renee Klein, Vice President of Global Digital Experience and Customer Marketing at luxury fashion brand Coach. She spoke during a panel at the National Retail Forum conference in New York last month. 

Parisian jeweler Cartier launched a rose gold version of its Santos-Dumont model featuring an emerald green strap available with a run of 300. Meanwhile, Swiss watchmaker Piaget hosted a pre-Valentine’s Day livestream on Tmall Luxury Pavilion that attracted over 500,000 views. 

For its part, Coach has a variety of love-themed items ready for Chinese consumers, including a heart-printed tote bag and rose gold jewelry. 

Love-struck Luxury Pavilion users can take it a step further by tapping bespoke services such as engraving, wrapping and audio gift cards to personalize products.

Festive Fusion 

This year, Valentine’s Day landed near the Lunar New Year, and many brands merged the two campaigns in the China market to amplify their influence. 

Italian designer Prada raffled off 20 limited-edition digital collectibles in red and gold to lucky Luxury Pavilion shoppers who purchased select handbags. Michael Kor’s rabbit-engraved timepiece was also available as a Valentine’s Day gift. 

Chinese shoppers have had a long love affair with niche special collections centered around festive occasions from the Lunar New Year in January to Chinese Valentine’s Day in August.

 “And when you know that that audience represents 1.4 billion consumers, it’s something that you and your product teams want to invest in,” said Mei Chen, Alibaba’s Director of Fashion and Luxury across North America, Northern Europe and the U.K., speaking to brands during the panel session.

Luxury consumption in China will resume its upwards trajectory before March, according to a new report by consultancy Bain & Co, as China lifts pandemic-related restrictions on movement.

Bain analysts expect sales in the country’s luxury sector to reach pre-pandemic levels between the first and second half of 2023.