Opening Ceremony pre-spring 2018. Image credit: Opening Ceremony
Ecommerce giant Alibaba’s Tmall is helping U.S. labels make their entry into the Chinese market through a partnership with New York Fashion Week: The Shows.
This collaboration, in association with Suntchi, will see American designers chosen to participate in Alibaba’s see-now, buy-now runway show during its 11.11 Global Shopping Festival. This partnership comes as Alibaba is working to make more inroads in high-end ecommerce.
Global runway
Tmall’s marathon runway show during Singles’ Day featured 200 models and celebrities and lasted eight hours. Brands that were shown included Burberry and La Perla (see story).
Now, Tmall is adding some American designers to the roster through its new affiliation with New York Fashion Week. Among the brands chosen to participate in the November runway event are Opening Ceremony and Robert Geller.
This spectacular broadcasts during a large shopping day, during which more than 500 million consumers will be visiting Alibaba’s platforms, allowing these brands to make a splash on their first Chinese appearance.
Tmall's Singles' Day runway show in 2016. Image credit: Alibaba
“We are thrilled to support NYFW: The Shows to bring U.S. brands and retailers the ability to reach the ever-growing Chinese consumer base,” said Michael Evans, Alibaba Group president, in a statement. “Alibaba’s scale, technology and deep consumer insight provides brands and designers with truly unique offerings to engage with consumers in the world’s largest market in new and innovative ways.”
In addition to offering exposure to U.S. brands, this collaboration will see the launch of a NYFW: China Day featuring Chinese designers who showed during the Tmall Singles’ Day event. This will take place during NYFW in 2018.
Alibaba recently launched a new invite-only platform designed explicitly and exclusively for luxury brands.
The platform is part of Alibaba’s larger “New Retail” push to emphasize its luxury offerings. The invite-only Luxury Pavilion on Tmall is geared toward high-net-worth Chinese consumers and will launch with products from Burberry, Hugo Boss, Zenith and others, with more on the way in the future (see story).