How Rimowa Boosts Tmall E-Commerce Sales with New China Brand Ambassador

The LVMH-owned German luxury suitcase brand Rimowa is experiencing a sales surge on its official flagship store on Alibaba’s B2C marketplace Tmall in China thanks to the new brand ambassador Jackson Yee, who is arguably one of the most popular Gen-Z pop stars among the country’s Millennial and Gen-Z generations. As a member of the Chinese boyband TFBoys, Jackson Yee currently has over 75 million followers on Weibo. On June 28, he wrote a post to announce his brand ambassadorship with Rimowa, calling for his fans to keep an eye out for his ad campaign featuring the brand’s new collection of Rimowa Essential seasonal colors - Sage, Saffron, Coral, and Slate - that launched in stores in June 2019. By the time of this publication, the post has been commented by more than 760,000 users, shared by over one million times, and liked by almost 810,000 people. Yee’s massive popularity not only helped enhance Rimowa's brand awareness among younger customers, but also increased sales for it. Rimowa’s official Weibo account re-tweeted Yee’s original post by adding a Tmall store link, facilitating his fans to land on the mobile version of the sales page. Though the brand is not authorized to reveal the exact sales figures, the public data on Tmall indicates the strategy is working fairly well. The monthly transaction volume of new products (as highlighted) is far more than that of other previous models (see image above). In addition, the brand has seen customers on its Tmall shopping store — within the age group of 18-25 — doubled since Yee’s partnership. The collaboration between Yee and Rimowa once again shows that celebrity endorsements in China, when done right, can serve as a powerful tool for luxury brands on different dimensions from increasing online awareness to driving sales. Yee has long been a darling to luxury brands owing to his wide popularity and commercial value. He is ambassadors for a slew of high-end labels including Bottega Veneta, Givenchy Beauty, and Huawei. Working with someone like him is vital for luxury brands to reach the next-generation Chinese shoppers, who, according to Boston Consulting Group, is going to account for more than two-thirds of Chinese luxury shoppers by 2023.

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How Rimowa Boosts Tmall E-Commerce Sales with New China Brand Ambassador