Five Years Goal Two Years To Complete Ali To Promote Lululemon Global Digital Channel Growth

Opponents always catch up in different ways. When lululemon used a tight yoga pants to stir the global motor nerve, the traditional sports brand Nike and Adidas were also nervous, and launched their Yoga series.

Now it seems that they need to be more nervous. Just released the 2018 quarter of fiscal year fourth and full year earnings report, lululemon continues to maintain high-speed growth. Because of the expansion of e-commerce business and product line, it even needs to launch a series of protective products. The brand revenue is expected to exceed US $1 billion 170 million, an increase of 26% over the same period last year. In the volatile US stock market, its share price has risen 80% in the past year.

Since lululemon has entered the Chinese market through Tmall's Alibaba, "China" and "digitalization" have become high-frequency words in their earnings and analysts' meetings.

According to the financial statement, only in the fourth quarter, the lululemon e-commerce business grew rapidly, especially in China. The sales revenue of direct business based on online sales increased by 37%. The electricity supplier volume increased by 30%, pushing the business growth of this quarter to 3.44 billion, accounting for about 30% of the total sales. Among them, the Asian market has become the fastest growing market in the world due to the promotion of e-commerce performance. Brand awareness and sales have increased significantly in China, and the electricity business in China has increased by 140%. After the announcement, the company's share price rose 10% after the session.

"In China, we grew strongly in digital channels, and sales increased 200% in the past two years, up 76% this quarter. Tmall double 11 has made brilliant achievements, and Tmall flagship store sales have increased by 150%. lululemon chief operating officer Stuart Haselden focused on its outstanding performance at Tmall flagship store in the third quarter of fiscal year 2018.

As one of the leaders of sports and leisure trends, lululemon's main Yoga product was launched in 1998, from Canada to America and then to China. Because of the popularity of word of mouth, the brand was also popular in various purchasing channels in the early years.

When entering the Chinese market, lululemon adopted a more digital solution. In 2015, lululemon opened shop in Tmall, which became the first step of its access to Ali's commercial operating system. It was not until December 2016 that it opened its first offline store in Shanghai.

In the first year of Tmall, lululemon sales grew by 4 digits year-on-year. Data show that compared to 2017, lululemon Tmall flagship store sales increased by 149% in 2018. Lululemon's 5 year sales target was completed in Tmall two years ago.

Like many international brands that want to test the Chinese market, giving priority to digital channels enables brands to respond faster to consumers' needs and make timely and appropriate business decisions. The world's largest fashion retailer Inditex group's Uterq Uterq E and little white shoe's fashion originator Superga are also the first cats to open flagship stores, and then opened the first store in China and Shanghai respectively.

In 2018, lululemon's "CanadaGoose" also entered the Chinese market. First, the cat opened the shop and then spanferred to the next line. During the Tmall double 11 pre-sale period, the "geese" Parker coat is the most popular, and the spanaction volume easily went up to 7 digits, driving the stock price soaring. Canada goose has just released the latest global expansion plan, adding 5 new stores in the world in 2019, two of which will be in China. Canadian geese CEODani Reiss also directly expressed that the rapid growth of brands should be attributed to the digitalization promoted by Alibaba.

All brands are becoming more and more aware of the importance of cooperation between China and Alibaba. In April 6th, Allbirds, a popular sports shoes brand in North America, announced in the past two years that it was stationed in Tmall and opened the first store in the Chinese market in Shanghai. Co founder Joey Zwillinger told the media that they considered entering the Chinese market a few years ago, and that cooperation with Tmall is inevitable. China's e-commerce is developing faster than the United States. Allbirds also hopes to apply the experience learned here to markets outside China.

Lululemon is also learning more Chinese experience. Like entering any new market, lululemon wants to get more young consumers, while in Tmall, it is learning how to operate these "old" customers. Tmall has to make 3 diagnoses of its brand every year to help it operate its members better. Lululemon is not very keen on the production of down coats as the category is growing. But according to Tmall's data needs feedback, it also has a down jacket in store in winter.

"Lululemon likes to play in China's previous community operations in Canada. But in China, in the face of digitalization and higher demand for Chinese consumers, Tmall recommends retaining them in a number of ways. Tmall junior two.

Another convincing case is that after many years of UNIQLO's entry into China, it finally became "considerate" to design trousers and trousers more suitable for the height and shape of the Chinese people. From the enthusiasm of fans, the most popular lululemon on Tmall is the black tights that make it popular around the world. But in order to make the Asian version different from the European version, lululemon has also modified the pants length of yoga pants.

In order to better adapt to local needs and create new needs, the next step is to make more contributions to Chinese consumers, "it's best to meet the special needs of Chinese people." This is obviously also coming from the voice of "Digitized" consumers.