One week since Alibaba Group officially launched the Luxury Pavilion on Tmall, the exclusive channel for the website's VIP members to purchase luxury items in China, the platform has welcomed the fashion label Loewe to sell a limited-edition handbag, which is tailor-made for Chinese consumers in celebration of the Chinese Valentine's Day, which falls on August 28 this year.
The Spanish luxury brand Loewe is owned by the French luxury conglomerate LVMH Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy. Its arrival on Luxury Pavilion also marks for the first time that LVMH-owned luxury and fashion labels to sell on China's e-commerce market.
Loewe's Creative Director Jonathan Anderson has made Barcelona bags, decorated with a load of red hearts, exclusively for Chinese lovers looking for gift ideas for the upcoming Chinese Valentine's Day. Only 99 bags will be available for purchase and each item currently is priced at 15,900 yuan (2,380), according to Alibaba's news portal Alizila.
Loewe will also become the first luxury label to try out a new marketing tool, "Tspace," that offers 24-hour flash sales on Luxury Pavilion. The flash sale is only open to Alibaba's super VIP members, who will gain access to the site on August 10, one day before other ordinary shoppers. According to the Chinese fashion site LadyMax, Loewe promises 48-hour shipping and seven-day return.
From August 11-18, all shoppers who have access to Luxury Pavilion can participate in the pre-sale and place deposits on a bag. The sale ends on August 19.
Liu Xiuyun, the head of Tmall's Fashion Unit, has told Chinese media outlets that Tmall has been favored by more and more luxury brands recently, as they hope to tap Alibaba's "new retail" business model and big data analytics to attract more young Chinese consumers.
The current crop of luxury labels and premium brands that are available to Chinese consumers on the site are Burberry, Hugo Boss, La Mer, Maserati, Guerlain and Zenith, and the platform is looking to attract more brands to work with.