Glamour: Online Shopping Luxury

The rapid growth of e-commerce is shifting from low end to high end, and online shopping demand for luxury goods is booming.

Affected by the global financial crisis, the international luxury market is weakening.

In 2009, sales in Europe, Japan and the United States dropped by 8%, 10% and 16% respectively, and China's sales increased by 12%.

According to the World Luxury Association statistics, as of December 2009, China's total consumption of luxury goods amounted to 9 billion 400 million US dollars, becoming the second largest luxury consumer in the world after Japan.

It is estimated that in the next 5 years, China's luxury goods market will reach US $14 billion 600 million, which will occupy the first place in the global luxury consumption market.

The strong consumption power of Chinese luxury goods is noticeable.

In April 27, 2010, glamour invited Xu Jinglei, the Internet celebrity, as a spokesman for the image to enter the luxury market in China.

It adopts the way of member invitation system and limited time rush to purchase, and sells the top international brand clothing, accessories, bags, jewelry and cosmetics at the price of 3~7 discount.

Glamour was founded in August 2009 in Tokyo, Japan, as Asia's leading member of the online luxury retail authority. It is also the only officially authorized luxury online sales shop of more than 200 top international brands.

At present, glamour has 200 thousand loyal users in Japan.

As of press release day, in less than a month, the number of glamour China online users exceeded 50 thousand.

Wei Yibo, chief executive of glamour China, believes that luxury consumption in China is showing a younger trend. Those who view online shopping as a way of life are "the mainstream force in the future of Chinese luxury consumption".

For brands, charm is also a great help.

On the glamour platform, 80% of the products are sales of off season products, together with the restriction of member invitation and limited time rush to buy, so that brands can find a new balance between maintaining brand value and maximizing profits. "More and more luxury brands begin to choose new marketing methods including e-commerce."

Global luxury brands continue to set up stores in China, but they have also begun to work hard to deepen the domestic online shopping market.

Brands that have made most of the urban youths feel distant, such as MIUMIU and BURBERRY, began to appear on high-end B2C shopping websites at 50 percent off prices.

"The consumption channels of luxury goods will be diversified," Wei Yibo pointed out. "For luxury goods with a price of less than 100 thousand yuan, online stores and OUTLETS (brand discount stores) and online OUTLETS (online discount mall) will become more and more important sales channels, especially OUTLETS on the Internet."

Glamour's "online scenery"

"Luxury online sales are the general trend.

Especially for high-end consumer goods worth thousands of yuan to 100 thousand yuan, the 2 edition of the consumption era is coming.

Wang Depei, vice president of the Shanghai Economic Restructuring Research Institute and vice chairman of the China Economic Restructuring Research Association, said in an interview with the media.

According to the survey of Ai Rui, the rapid growth of e-commerce is shifting from low end to high end, and online shopping demand for luxury goods is booming.

Many international first-line brands have opened Chinese version of online official shopping sites, such as Giorgio Armani and Dunhill.

Among them, brand clothing, shoes, bags and household products will become the main force.

Charisma goes along with the trend, expanding online luxury sales channels.

As the only officially authorized luxury online sales shop of many luxury brands, glamour has almost no competitors in the Japanese e-commerce field, and the number of users has exceeded 200 thousand in less than 1 years.

80% of the products introduced by charisma are over season products, and the season is from 3 months to 1 years. The other is new products. "There are too many products sold on the brand and sold through our channels at a discount rate below the line"; the third is that products that have not yet entered certain markets are first sold on the website of glamour.

Distinguished from luxury brand entity stores, glamour aims to target customers in urban white-collar women aged 25 to 35.

They are different from luxury high-end users' persistence in new products, but pay more attention to the balance between brand quality and price.

In terms of brand choice, according to its insiders, the glamour online brand is mainly concentrated in the second-line luxury sector, and as a breakthrough point, it gradually contacts with the first-line luxury brand business.

Since its establishment, glamour has made 250 special sales in Japan.

The so-called "time limit sale", that is, each brand appears in the form of time sale, and chooses 40~50 products of the brand in a fixed period of time. After testing and testing the upcoming products, it reviews through fashion consultants.

Glamour has a new line of activity every day. "It's a main way to keep users informed by e-mail," he said.

Mr. Wei Yibo said.

In the way of recruiting members, glamour smartly applies the role of "fashion leader" as the opinion leader, looking for bloggers who have more influence on blogs. "The general cumulative volume is above 2 million, and some can reach more than 10 million". The website of glamour benefits is linked to the first page of the blogger. Users can directly login to the website through the link and become a member of the glamour benefit. "After registration, we will give bloggers a bigger discount or cash discount".

The success mode extends to China.

Two of the 4 founders have been in China for more than 7 years. Wei Yibo himself was Couch's CEO in China. Before that, he was a senior vice president of L'OREAL in China. He said he had "witnessed the development and prospects of e-commerce in China in the past 7 years, and has great confidence and interest in China market".

Glamour benefits China's market, and technology draws on many successful experiences in Japan, such as simplification of shopping process. "In April 2010, we just revised the website of Japan, and China's charming website was inspired by the Japanese charm reversion."

Wei Yibo added.

Nevertheless, in Wei Yibo's view, China's online luxury online shopping market is quite different from that of Japan. First of all, the number of cities is different. "In Japan, there are only two cities with attractive benefits, while 600 in China," he laughs. "In China, we pay more attention to the development of online communities. For example, links such as SNS, BBS and so on can also let existing members share with friends of Kaixin and Renren."

Wei Yibo stressed that "in Japan, many people follow a brand; in China, everyone has their own strong personality, keen brands and styles are different. The 200 luxury brands that have already worked with us will have good opportunities for expanding sales channels."

Robert Tliffs, executive vice president of Armani group, also welcomed the online sales channel. "Online sales can greatly increase sales radius, get more potential customers, and thus increase sales."

But not all brands are buying attractive accounts. For example, Chanel (Chanel) has made it clear that it does not want to focus on online sales.

There are only 5 stores selling Chanel bags in China, and the prices are still high. They want to create a sense of distance that consumers want to buy but not easy to buy.

Wei Yibo believes that luxury goods are not only judged by the price level, but also on the platform of attractive benefits, the brand business has passed the middleman and the expensive shop facade cost, and has directly gained the price advantage through the network with consumers.

In December 2009, glamour raised $13 million. "Investor Zhang Songyi is from China. He is also a major shareholder of sina and a member of the board. We are very lucky to work with him in China."

Wei Yibo pointed out that this fund is shared by the Chinese market and the Japanese market, but the specific usage ratio is not convenient to disclose.

"Glamour's next year's plan is to expand in other Asian countries and regions, such as Korea and Taiwan, China."

When asked when to make profits and whether there was a listing plan, his expression was calm. "Strive to achieve profitability in 3 years. First, we should do a good job of user experience at hand, and do in-depth communication with brand dealers. We haven't considered the issue of listing yet."