Swiss watchmaker Omega is reaching out to Chinese customers via e-commerce for the first time, launching a virtual pop-up store on the Tmall Luxury Pavilion, Alibaba Group’s dedicated site for luxury and premium brands.
From June 15 to Aug. 7, Omega will use the pop-up to hold pre-sales for its new “Seamaster Aqua Terra Beijing 2022” limited-edition wristwatch exclusively for Pavilion shoppers, giving them a chance to buy the watch before it hits brick-and-mortar stores across China on Aug. 7. Omega has created just 2,022 of the watches in tribute to the next Olympic Winter Games, to be held in Beijing, as well as to celebrate its long-standing role as the Official Timekeeper of the Olympic Games.
Omega’s pop-up launch comes as Alibaba’s 6.18 Shopping Festival is seeing the highest participation from luxury and premium brands yet, with all 113 brands on Tmall Luxury Pavilion taking part in the midyear sales event, according to Tmall’s luxury division. The division oversees luxury strategies across Alibaba Group, including the Pavilion.
To help brands engage Chinese luxury shoppers, Tmall’s luxury division, Italian fashion houses Ermenegildo Zegna, Moschino and Kering-owned jewelry brand Qeelin held a livestreamed event on June 2, hosted by the popular Chinese actor Alan Yu, that drew 1.1 million views. On June 12, the luxury division published a digital lookbook on the Pavilion – also featuring Yu – that was made in collaboration with Burberry, Valentino, Moschino and Ermenegildo Zegna.
During 6.18, the Pavilion also revamped its site to offer shoppers more personalized recommendations and greater content variety, including a brand-generated content feed and a new editorial section, Pavilion Mag. Its layout was redesigned to highlight each week’s new product debuts, making it easy for fashion-forward users to explore the new items – about a thousand on average – that hit the Pavilion’s shelves every week.
“We want to step up our offerings in terms of creative experiences, trending product feeds and style tips from fashion editors to help young users find items and brands they love,” said Lili Chen, head of Tmall Luxury Pavilion. “The Pavilion revamp enhances the discovery journey and shopping experience for our customers, while helping luxury brands better express their brand vision, aesthetics and new creations.”
Launched in 2017, Tmall Luxury Pavilion now offers 113 brands, ranging from apparel and beauty items to watches and luxury cars, includingBottega Veneta,Valentino,Burberry,Tod’s, Versace, Stella McCartney,Moschino,Gentle Monster, Giuseppe Zanotti, MCM, La Mer,Maserati, LVMH-owned Rimowa, Guerlain, Givenchy,Tag Heuerand Zenith.
