Tmall Luxury unveils features to connect brands with Gen Z

Dive Brief:

Tmall Luxury on Tuesday introduced three new features to connect high-end brands with China's Gen Z consumers.
The platform launched Soho Live, a luxury lifestyle livestreaming service, and Soho Mag, a fashion news source with shoppable content curated by editors and influencers. The platform also introduced an enhanced membership program with tailored services for high-value customers, the company said in a statement.
The platform, which launched in 2017, now features nearly 200 luxury brands such as Valentino, Balenciaga and Hugo Boss. Though 80% of its users are aged 35 or younger, the user base's highest concentration is among users between 26 and 30 years old. The number of users aged 18 to 25 more than doubled from July 2018 to June 2019, per the company statement.

Dive Insight:

Tmall Luxury's launch of new features follows Tmall's ongoing efforts to court brands and retailers. So far, the platform has attracted companies like Fenty Beauty, H&M and Net-A-Porter and offered them a pathway to Chinese consumers. Fossil recently partially credited Tmall, along with other e-commerce platforms, for its triple-digit online sales growth during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With U.S. retailers still catching up on the livestreaming trend, Tmall Luxury is centering its new Soho Live channel on luxury content to help high-end brands connect with Chinese customers. That may benefit the e-commerce platform, as Gen Z has high expectations for digital experiences, with nearly two-thirds of those consumers utilizing the internet for entertainment, according to a recent study.

"By providing Tmall's unparalleled analytics and insights on luxury consumption in China, we empower luxury brands with a deeper and more accurate understanding of local consumer preferences," Mike Hu, Alibaba Group vice president and general manager of Tmall Luxury, Fashion and FMCG, said in a statement. "These insights allow luxury brands to precisely tailor their communications to Chinese young audiences, while staying true to their brand identities."

Meanwhile, Amazon has encountered obstacles in its quest to entice Chinese customers. The U.S.-based e-commerce behemoth closed its Amazon China marketplace but kept its shop open on Tmall. The company also has its own plans to pursue the luxury market, a move that appears to be on course despite the coronavirus pandemic, according to Women's Wear Daily.