Brands have released over 500 exclusive limited collections for Valentine’s Day on Alibaba’s 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.
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.
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, Coach
Love-struck Luxury Pavilion users can take it a step further by tapping bespoke services such as engraving, wrapping and audio gift cards to personalise products.
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.
When you know that that audience represents 1.4 billion consumers, it’s something that you and your product teams want to invest in.
– Mei Chen, Director of Fashion and Luxury, Alibaba
It’s expected that luxury consumption in China will resume its upwards trajectory before March and reach pre-pandemic levels between the first and second half of 2023.