Fashion brand Emporio Armani is officially selling online to Chinese consumers for the first time, and is set to be followed into the world’s largest market of internet users by other upmarket fashion brands in coming months.
Emporioarmani.cn launched on November 26, powered by the YOOX Group, which has just launched a platform and distribution centre in China.
The YOOX Group currently manages 23 single brand online flagship stores in the US, Europe and Japan. They include dolcegabbana.com, marni.com and valentino.com. It’s set to take a number of the stores it manages into the Chinese market over the first half of 2011. In the second half of next year it will also launch its own multi-brand boutique, thecorner.com, in China.
It’s a market that, according to Forrester Research, is home to the world’s largest body of internet users, and is the second largest consumer of luxury goods.
YOOX Group’s local structures in China include a Shanghai office with a dedicated team working on merchandising, web marketing, content management, customer care and technology, while a logistics centre in the same city handles activities from cataloguing and digital photography to shipping. Sites are in Chinese with dedicated customer care, local currency and anti-fraud seals, while payments are tailored to the local market and include cash-on-delivery services.
Picture: Author: pmorgan; Attribution: Creative Commons
