Luxury Brands Are Keen On Releasing Tanabata Limited Handbags.

Geoffroy de la Bourdonnaye now comes to Shanghai at least two times a year. As the chief executive of French fashion brand Chlo e, he is familiar with the Chinese market no less than his native France.

Today, China has become a battleground for global luxury brands. BoF and McKinsey jointly launched the 2019 global fashion format report, which shows that this year China will surpass the United States for the first time to become the world's largest fashion market. Although no one will deny the potential of the Chinese market, it is not easy for luxury brands to identify strategies in the Chinese market and attract more and more smart consumers. De la Bourdonnaye also feels this kind of pressure all the time.

"Everyone wants to continue to launch the explosive products, but at the beginning of design, none of us can predict its market performance, especially in the Chinese market, in the case of changing consumer demands, we also need to constantly adjust ourselves and pursue innovation, because it only stays in the past successful cases, and repeated operations will definitely not work." De la Bourdonnaye said in an exclusive interview with BoF.

In July 15th, Chlo e tried a brand new action, and a well-known fashion net, Mr. Hongbo Bao, who issued a limited edition handbag for the Tanabata Festival, which was sold on WeChat applet. More specifically, the specially designed Aby Lock handbag is the first Aby Lock package in the world, and the rest of the general cost will need to wait at least one month before it will be available. On the day the product was sold, the price of the product was sold at 66 in a minute, with a total of 199 restricted handbags, which were sold out in seven hours. 13800.

Mr. Bao has nearly 1 million fans on micro-blog and WeChat, and its influence is beyond doubt. What Chlo value is more important is that it can still provide independent reviews and guides for users without excluding commercial cooperation, and let high-end luxury brands know what kind of bags Chinese women are more interested in.

"Mr. Bao told us that Chinese young women now have a deep understanding of luxury goods. They like the products that are passed down and have stories, but at the same time they hope to have some new ideas on the basis of classics." De la Bourdonnaye said. And this special Tanabata special Aby Lock is designed based on this concept.

Chlo e once had a very special and explosive Chlo Paddington bag. Its large locks and keys are the most striking signs of this bag. When the bag was launched in 2005, 8000 locks were sold short before they were put on the shelves. Paddington can be said to be Chlo It, and even the first It bag in the real sense of the whole fashion industry. But the package was shut down around 2009. Aby Lock is a small flip flask with a round circle and its metal handle. It looks like an enlarged version of the Paddington logo lock. It appeared for the first time in the Chlo 2019 autumn and winter show. Cooperation is made by Mr. Bao's exclusive color design, and the concept of lock bag is also very close to the theme of Tanabata.

Chlo e Shanghai backstage photo source: the other side offers

Chlo ye, who entered the Chinese market in 2005, is really popular in China. It also depends on the popularity of bags Drew and Faye launched in 2014 and 2015. This is not the first time that Chlo ye and Mr. Bao have been working together. Last year, on the seventh day of the festival, Mr. Bao joined Chlo AI to launch the "cloud blue" Tanabata Limited Edition Chlo e Faye Day handbag, with a global limit of 85. The article issued less than five minutes, online booking will show "sold out". It was with the successful experience of cooperation that Chlo made a bold start of starting the world in this year.

Mr. Bao formed a team in June 2016 and began working with brands to introduce the brand to fans. In addition to Chlo, he and Givenchy, Burberry, Tod 's, Longchamp, Dunhill, Strathberry and other brands have launched cooperation funds, and almost all of them are sold out in a short time.

In a short two years, a fashion blogger with many fans and large traffic volume has released the "Tanabata limited handbag" on WeChat platform, which has become a new popular strategy for digital marketing of luxury brands. "Most luxury consumers have gone through the stage of buying bags simply for buying big bags. Now they want to buy a bag often to celebrate a particular moment, or because they fall in love with a brand new design or color matching. Mr. Bao said Liang Tao to BoF. Last year, there were 15 representative luxury brands on the seventh day of the year. Among them, 10 brands set up special small program timed shops for Tanabata series.

Compared with flagship stores such as Tmall or Jingdong's three party e-commerce platform, brands will be fixed for a long time once they are settled in, while lightweight small programs are more flexible choices for luxury brands, just like opening an online flash store. In addition, compared to the platform that the business platform is also subject to the data provided by the other party, luxury brands can enjoy absolute control over the customer experience on WeChat, and it is easier to impress the more conservative luxury brands.

In fact, the old luxury brand has been hesitant to enter the electricity supplier. On the one hand, the domestic e-commerce platform has been difficult to eradicate the problem of counterfeit goods, but more importantly, the attributes of luxury goods need to maintain scarcity, which is inconsistent with the essence of the electricity supplier through improving the efficiency of the supply chain. But WeChat's selling point is its social attributes. Fashion KOL can directly guide users to buy WeChat's applet on the public after issuing the public address.

You can already feel the taste of WeChat coming from behind in this competition for luxury goods. Gartner L2's latest "2019 China luxury market digital IQ report" shows that WeChat has reached the outbreak point of luxury shopping. This year, 60% of the fashion brands launched micro shop services, compared with 36% last year. Nowadays, most brands offer some form of electricity supplier selection through their official WeChat public number, of which 88% of brands will access WeChat's brand mobile version of e-commerce website through WeChat links.

In contrast, Jingdong announced in early July that its luxury service platform TOPLIFE has been integrated into the global fashion shopping platform Farfetch and will be closed in July 21st. Rather than "merger", it is actually "selling".

Some electricity providers are also aware of this problem. In early July, Mr. Bao with Farfetch's WeChat applet went online and opened up barriers between content and business. "There have been too many bags of powder constantly asking me, how can I recommend bags, especially a lot of niche brand bags, there are no official shops in the country, so it will be a lot easier to buy in small programs." Liang Tao said.

China's luxury goods market has reached 100 billion scale. Over half of consumers tend to buy luxury goods online. Among them, 23 to 37 year old young people are the main force of online consumption of luxury goods.

In the Tencent's luxury consumption insight report, the current luxury consumption "new customers prefer seasonal and trendy", "more trust in friends' recommendation" and "want now". More than 50% of respondents said their luxury online purchases began to read or study on mobile devices. The report also points out that about 12% of Chinese consumers choose to acquire luxury brand information through micro-blog and WeChat public numbers on KOL. 12% of the consumers get the latest information through the official account of the brand on the social media platform, and 11% of the consumers get luxury information from the official website of the brand, the application program and the applet.

No wonder that luxury brands will see more social platforms like WeChat and jitter. De la Bourdonnaye said that Chlo is one of the first French fashion brands to be distributed on WeChat. With WeChat channels, making marketing opportunities through limited sales will be an important strategy for the brand in China.

In June 5th, Chlo e held the 2020 Spring Festival holiday Series in Shanghai west dragon Museum of art, the first time Chlo ye put the show outside Paris. On the evening of the big show, the brand opened a 48 hour flash store on the WeChat applet, and launched the exclusive four T 12200 C Mini Chlo "handbag" released on the platform.

On the other hand, Chlo has not, in marketing terms, tied up the brand image with a specific brand ambassador in China like many luxury brands. They are more willing to set up a community of "Chlo girl" (#chloeGIRLS), so that ordinary consumers and celebrities share the label of "#chloeGIRLS" without distinction. The concept of this community seems to fit in with the social application of young people's fascination.