京東推出奢侈品平臺TOPLIFE

JD.com, China’s biggest internet retailer by revenue, is launching a standalone luxury ecommerce platform to target buyers in the country’s smaller cities.

中國收入最高的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)零售商京東(JD.com)推出一個獨立的奢侈品電商平臺，瞄準中國較小城市的消費者。

China’s mid-tier cities, defined as those smaller than Beijing and Shanghai but still with populations in the millions, accounted for more than 80 per cent of the country’s luxury online sales in 2016. Few luxury retailers have set up stores in these cities, prompting consumers to shop online.

中國二三線城市的規(guī)模不及北京和上海，但人口仍高達數(shù)百萬，占2016年中國奢侈品在線銷售額的80%以上。奢侈品零售商幾乎沒有在這些城市開設(shè)門店，促使這些消費者上網(wǎng)購買。

“Luxury brands have to have an online presence in China, to help themselves reach into second- and third-tier cities whose residents might not have easy access to purchase luxury items offline,” said Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group, a consultancy.

咨詢公司中國市場研究集團(China Market Research Group)的董事總經(jīng)理雷小山(Shaun Rein)表示：“奢侈品品牌必須在中國的網(wǎng)上確立地盤，以幫助它們自己進入二三線城市，那些城市的居民可能不容易在線下購買奢侈品。”

China is the world’s largest consumer of personal luxury goods — the country’s sales reached €74.7bn ($87.9bn) in 2016, almost one-third of the global total, according to Bain, a consulting group.

根據(jù)咨詢集團貝恩(Bain)的數(shù)據(jù)，中國是全球最大的個人奢侈品消費國，去年的銷售額達到747億歐元(合879億美元)，占全球總銷售額的近三分之一。

JD’s platform, called Toplife, will feature “dust-free” warehouses in Shanghai and a delivery service with white-glove wearing couriers — as well as premium customer service, the company said. Brands on the platform include La Perla, Emporio Armani, Louis Vuitton and B&O Play.

京東表示，京東的奢侈品平臺名為TOPLIFE，將在上海設(shè)“無塵”倉庫，送貨服務(wù)將由戴白手套的快遞員完成，另外還提供高端客戶服務(wù)。這個平臺上的品牌包括La Perla、Emporio Armani、路易威登(Louis Vuitton)和B&O Play。

JD earlier this year invested $397m in a partnership with UK luxury platform Farfetch to serve China’s growing appetite for online luxury.

今年早些時候，京東投資3.97億美元與英國奢侈品平臺Farfetch合作，以滿足中國對在線奢侈品越來越大的胃口。

JD trails its top competitor Alibaba in its luxury ecommerce push. In August, Alibaba launched a luxury goods section on its Tmall.com, selling goods from Burberry, Hugo Boss and La Mer. Luxury goods groups including Burberry, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Michael Kors have also launched ecommerce services in China.

在奢侈品電商領(lǐng)域，京東緊跟其最大競爭對手阿里巴巴(Alibaba)的步伐。今年8月，阿里巴巴在旗下的天貓(Tmall.com)上推出奢侈品頻道，銷售來自博柏利(Burberry)、Hugo Boss和海藍之謎(La Mer)的商品。包括博柏利、古馳(Gucci)、路易威登和Michael Kors在內(nèi)的奢侈品集團也在中國推出了電商服務(wù)。

“It’s not an easy win for JD or any other single player, and there are many companies who want to get into this space,” said Mr Rein.

雷小山表示：“對京東或其他任一參與者而言，想要取勝都不容易，有很多公司希望進入這個領(lǐng)域。”

Platforms need to gain shoppers’ trust that the goods they sell are authentic, given the prevalence of counterfeits in China, he added. They also have to persuade consumers to buy in China as opposed to going abroad, where luxury products are usually much cheaper.

他補充稱，鑒于中國假貨泛濫，平臺需要獲得消費者的信任，讓他們相信它們銷售的商品是真貨。它們還必須說服消費者在中國買，而不是出國買。在海外，奢侈品通常要便宜得多。

Globally, online sales made up 8 per cent of the luxury industry in 2016, according to the consultancy McKinsey. Chinese consumers trail slightly in this segment, doing about 7 per cent of their luxury shopping online, despite Chinese consumers’ broad comfort with ecommerce.

根據(jù)咨詢公司麥肯錫(McKinsey)的數(shù)據(jù)，全球而言，在線銷售占2016年奢侈品行業(yè)的8%。中國消費者在這方面略微落后。盡管中國消費者對電商普遍放心，但中國消費者的奢侈品在線購物僅占到7%左右。

At the same time as online purchases are growing, offline stores are closing in China. Luxury retailers shuttered a net 62 luxury stores in China in the 12 months to July 2017, the largest number of closures of any country, according to a report by Bernstein, an asset manager.

與此同時，隨著在線購物的發(fā)展壯大，在華的線下門店不斷關(guān)門。根據(jù)資產(chǎn)管理公司伯恩斯坦(Bernstein)的一份報告，在截至2017年7月的12個月里，奢侈品零售商在中國凈關(guān)店62家，為所有國家中最多。