Swiss luxury group Richemont’s e-commerce platform Net-a-Porter announced the opening of a flagship store on the Tmall Luxury Pavilion, Alibaba Group’s dedicated channel for luxury and premium brands.
In a statement released Sunday, Richemont and Alibaba said Net-a-Porter’s store will offer more than 130 luxury and designer brands at launch, then continue to expand over the coming months. Tmall’s luxury shoppers will be able to find products from brands such as Balmain, Jimmy Choo, Tom Ford, Brunello Cucinelli, Isabel Marant and The Row, as well as many Richemont maisons, including Chloé, Cartier, Piaget, Montblanc and Van Cleef & Arpels.
The Pavilion store will feature exclusive capsule collections from Net-a-Porter and its menswear counterpart, Mr. Porter, and deliver customized brand pages, personalized content and recommendations and exclusive VIP rewards to shoppers, the companies said.
Man in a Belstaff coat. Photo credit: Net-a-Porter and Mr. Porter
The store launch marks the start of operations of Feng Mao, the joint venture that Alibaba and Yoox Net-a-Porter announced last October. As a part of the partnership, the e-commerce giant will lend its resources and expertise in marketing, payments and technology infrastructure to the JV, while Richemont leverages its strong relationships with leading luxury brands through its subsidiary, Yoox Net-a-Porter Group, the online luxury retailer that operates Net-a-Porter and Mr. Porter. The JV is 51% owned by YNAP and 49% owned by Alibaba.
“The unveiling of the Net-a-Porter flagship store on Tmall Luxury Pavilion is an important first step in the development of our long-term partnership with Alibaba,” said Jérôme Lambert, chief executive officer of Richemont. “Together, we seek to address the sophisticated needs of the Chinese luxury clientele and capture this unique growth opportunity.”
“This partnership will set new standards for the future of luxury online,” Lambert said.
Model wearing Rag & Bone, one of the brands available on Net-a-Porter. Photo credit: Net-a-Porter.
YNAP Chairman Federico Marchetti echoed Lambert, saying the partnership would redefine the way Chinese consumers shop for luxury.
“Net-a-Porter’s flagship store on Tmall Luxury Pavilion will become the online destination where luxury brands want to be in China, leveraging Net-a-Porter and Mr. Porter’s two decades of expertise and pioneering innovation,” said Marchetti. “Chinese shoppers can explore a unique selection of the world’s most desirable brands carefully curated just for them, enhanced by an unmatched personalized experience and exclusive products that cannot be found elsewhere.”
Jiang Fan, president of Taobao and Tmall, said that the Alibaba and Richemont partnership would deliver “an elevated, seamless, and rich luxury experience for Chinese consumers.”
“We are confident this flagship store opening is just the beginning of a long-term partnership that will benefit China’s luxury consumers and the world’s luxury brands who want to reach them,” he said.
https://www.alizila.com/net-a-porter-opens-flagship-tmall-luxury-pavilion/