Will Luxury Brands Win Big on Singles’ Day?

Key Takeaways: With over 300 luxury brands, including Prada, BALLY, and Salvatore Ferragamo, JD hopes to attract young, spendthrift Chinese consumers. Taobao Live is fueling sales through its livestreaming sessions, and 700 KOLs and celebrities are expected to participate in the event. Some luxury brands have even created NFTs for Alibaba’s shopping events. Alibaba and JD.com are battling for luxury shopper attention at this year’s Double 11 shopping extravaganza, and both of them brought their A game. With over 300 luxury brands, including Prada, BALLY, and Salvatore Ferragamo, JD hopes to attract young, spendthrift Chinese consumers. Consequently, the e-commerce giant has launched AR-powered virtual functions that enable customers to try out footwear via mobile phone. In fact, Berluti, Tod’s, and Hogan are already using these virtual functions on JD.com, according to a JD press release. Additionally, JD.com introduced the Nearby channel on its app homepage, which pinpoints products that get delivered in an hour or less. Moreover, coupons, discounts, and red envelopes are back and are even available for the shoppers who pay with the digital currency e-CNY. This year, premium and independent brands have also joined the shopping festival, with more than 6,000 new apparel brands taking part, including Victoria’s Secret, Peace Bird, and Bosideng. On the first day, the transaction volume of over 300 apparel brands surpassed ten times the amount of 2020's festival. And 150 international brands, such as Levi’s and ECCO, increased their first-day transaction volume by at least five times over 2020. Tod’s success during this year’s Singles’ Day shows the incredible potential of this digital shopping festival. In fact, the transaction volume of the Italian company's first minute at this year's event exceeded its entire first-day sales last year, according to a JD press release. Luxury beauty also performed quite well. In the first ten minutes of the shopping festival, the transaction volumes of 40 brands on JD Beauty surged by more than 100 percent, year-on-year, and 50 luxury brands — including Estée Lauder, Helena Rubinstein, Clinique, and Guerlain — increased by more than 100 percent overall, according to JD’s corporate blog. Meanwhile, Alibaba is also going overboard to attract consumers to its platform. Taobao Live is fueling sales through its livestreaming sessions, and 700 KOLs and celebrities are expected to take part in the event. Additionally, Taobao has inaugurated a social feature that empowers users to share their “shopping cart items with friends and family, creating a more social shopping experience,” according to a corporate press release. A record 290,000 brands are participating this year, as per Alibaba, and Tmall will put forward more than 14 million killer deals. Luxury brands have also come up with personalized offers for this year’s event. For instance, Burberry, Coach, and Longines have created special NFTs for Singles’ Day. According to Business Insider, Burberry already sold out its entire batch of 1,000 special-edition scarves that come with an interactive deer NFT and cost 453 (2,900 yuan) each. Meanwhile, Longines put up 45 limited edition NFTs for sale to accompany a 2,700 (17,300 yuan) Swiss watch. A French heritage brand famous for its strict digital sales policy and inflexibility at shopping events, Hermès will also participate this year. Another addition to the group of first-timers is the French luxury house Saint Laurent, which will showcase its product offering during the shopping extravaganza, according to WWD.

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Will Luxury Brands Win Big on Singles’ Day?