Selling luxury online in China

Summary

1 Introduction
1.1 Backgrounds
1.2 Thesis structure and scope
1.2.1 Structure of the thesis
1.2.2 Scope of the study

2 Literature review
2.1 Luxury definition
2.2 Luxury brands in China
2.2.1 Luxury sales expansion in China
2.2.2 Luxury consumers in China overview
2.3 Online luxury: traditional retail versus online sale

3 Market and environment analysis
3.1 Analysis Tools
3.1.1 PESTEL analysis
3.1.2 SWOT: Selling luxury online in China
3.2 Buying online in China today
3.2.1 Development of B2C and C2C websites
3.2.2 OnlinebuyersinChina
3.2.3 New ways ofbuying: M-business and “social commerce”
3.3 Luxury Online in China today
3.3.1 Main players in Luxury E-commerce
3.3.2 Luxury online buyers

4 Methodological considerations
4.1 Research method
4.1.1 Topic of the research
4.1.2Objective
4.2 Data collection

5 Analysis of the survey results
5.1 Online
5.1.1 Buying habits
5.1.2 Social networks
5.2 Online Luxury
5.2.1 Getting information
5.2.2 Buying Luxury
5.2.3 Added value and drawbacks as regards online buying
5.3 Limits

6 General implications and recommendations
6.1 Chinese students’ online buying habits
6.2 Chinese students apprehension as regards Luxury online world
6.3 Recommendations

7 Synthesis

8 Appendix
8.1 Questionnaire
8.2 Online questionnaire extract

9 References

ABSTRACT

Selling Luxury online has been at the heart of a debate among Luxury professionals for many years already. For some of them online selling is good for mass market products but goes totally against the idea that a luxury product is rare, precious and has to be sold within a specific luxury buying experience. For others, selling luxury online is just a normal way to adapt luxury sales channels strategy to the today’s world. But how considering this question for the Chinese market? Is it relevant for luxury brands to develop online strategies to sell their products specifically in China?

Today, the Chinese population is getting richer. The emerging middle class goes on growing and will constitute an interesting group of clients for luxury products. The same way, the Only Child generation (OC) which has benefited from better life conditions than their parents, grow up in a new hedonistic society (born after the Economic reform). This generation represents interesting potential consumers for luxury goods. Globally, all these potential luxury buyers and especially the ones from OC generation live today in a fast moving environment where the high urbanization and the development of Internet access are central. The overwhelming use of smartphones is also typical of this new Chinese society.

Online buying in China has been accepted very quickly by urban population. The current winner of the online sales battle is obviously the group Alibaba which created the two most visited online selling websites: Taobao (C2C) and Tmall (B2C). Chinese consumers developed little by little specific tastes for online buying, often quite different from Western habits. Social interactions, colorful design, aggressive discounting policy are some of the main Online Chinese consumers’ expectations that need to be understood by brands wishing to enter the online market. As for Luxury, certain characteristics have to be added to the previous list: certified branded products, high quality delivery services and limited online offer (vs in-store) are some examples of elements that could push the Chinese consumers to buy online.

Understanding the young generation expectations in term of online buying and Luxury world apprehension constitutes the key to understand the relevance of developing online strategies for the luxury brands. Based on a quantitative survey among the young generation consumers, it appears clearly that online selling is unavoidable to maximize sales in China. The survey also reveals that the young Chinese generation is particularly used to buy on the Internet and is highly connected to social networks. Almost half of them even declare they would be interested to buy directly on social networks. The use of the smartphones is also a main characteristic of the young generation habits. However, even for them, Luxury store buying experience remains really attractive and online buying should not replace it but rather complement it.

Referring to the evolution of Chinese society and to a quantitative survey among the young generation, selling luxury online in China is thus unavoidable if a brand wants to maximize its profits in China. Moreover, in spite of the strong urbanization, many areas located in 2nd and 3rd Tier cities do not have an access to Luxury stores, selling luxury products online would be also an asset to seduce those consumers and expand sales. Nevertheless, it should not be seen as a way to replace in-store buying experience. On the contrary, it has been noticed that online buying boosts global (online and offline) sales and increases them.

1 Introduction

1.1 Backgrounds

After working during 6 months for a luxury fashion brand in France, I realized that online selling was not fully accepted by all the luxury professionals. Many brands still appear reluctant to launch their own e-store, convinced that luxury buying experience should take place in physical stores. Nevertheless, Chinese way of thinking and buying is quite different from western habits. Apprehending this question of online selling in China appears to me perfectly relevant considering the fact that Chinese customers seem to appreciate online buying and look to be more and more “online addicts” in their daily communications.

Today in China, the market for luxury brands is growing, following the rising standard of living. New consumers are emerging: we often talk about the emerging Chinese middle class that will certainly reach around 1 billion people in 2030! Chinese people from the new generation are almost born with a smartphone in their hands and used to live with a constant link with the internet.

“Is it relevant for luxury brands to develop online strategies to sell their products in China?”

Studying how Chinese consumer do their shopping online and understand who the luxury consumers in China are today will be part of my study. Even though in-store shopping is fully part of the luxury buying experience, today, the new tendency is to buy online, how can we consider this current way of buying as regards luxury goods in China? Would it be relevant for such a market?

From the understanding of the market to the study of the new online trends, I would like to deliver a concrete approach of what a good online strategy could be in China for a luxury brand.

1.2 Thesis structure and scope

1.2.1 Structure of the thesis

When it comes to speaking about luxury brands in China, what are we really speaking about? From how long those western luxury brands have been started to sell their products in the Middle kingdom? In my first part which I named “Literature review”, I would like to deliver a general overview of what we refer to when we speak about selling luxury goods in China. From an historical point of view, I recall the different steps that lead us to think doing online luxury in China could be an interesting issue today.

Moreover, it is true that the Chinese market structure and the global economic situation in China are very specific and need to be taken into account. This is why, in my second part, I go deeper in the market and environment analysis. Then, from a study about the Chinese habits as regards “Online buying”, I try to identify potential online luxury consumers.

The last three parts of my study are focused on the survey I lead among Chinese consumers. From the description of the methodology, passing through the questionnaire administration, I deliver a synthesis presenting the general implications and my recommendations.

1.2.2 Scope of the study

Developing online strategies to sell luxury brands in China is a large issue. What should be included and how define the scope precisely?

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Luxury brands

The concept of luxury is not strictly defined today. But, we have a quite clear idea of what we call a luxury good: a luxury product is supposed to combine a high level in quality and design, as well as to embody the particularities of a specific brand, and should be sold at high price. In my study, I did not choose to focus on particular luxury goods categories. Nonetheless, define which kinds of products the Chinese consumers are more willing to buy online, is also part of the study. However, I would remind here that most of luxury brands are western ones, this way I will approach the question of online selling in China including the difficulties that can be caused by cultural differences and give concrete recommendations adopting a more western point of view.

Online selling

Actually, the issue of selling goods online is generally treated together with the issue of doing online marketing and communication. Most of the time, this even corresponds to a unique department within a company, which can be named “Digital department”. How to consider online in the luxury industry: is it just a way to communicate around the brand and the products? Or is it a real sales channel brands need to develop? This question is of course treated in this study. Nevertheless, I won’t develop on how to communicate online. The study only focuses on the relevance to sell online and which particular online channels are more appropriate to sell luxury goods.

Chinese market

Understanding which Chinese consumers are the more willing to buy luxury products online is part of my preliminary research. For that matter, I do focus my research on the Chinese wealthy and middle classes. More than a consumer study, I also describe in my research the global economic context in China including all major social evolutions.

2 Literature review

Through diverse sources of documentation such as academic research papers, newspapers and books, I found out relevant information regarding my thesis subject. I decided to organize my Literature review in 3 parts. In the first one, I try to give a precise definition of the term “Luxury”. In the second one, I remind how luxury brands enter China and who the main Chinese consumers for luxury goods are. Finally, I treat about a constant sales channel debate opposing Traditional retail versus Online sale.

2.1 Luxury definition

The word “Luxury” finds its origin from Latin language “Lux” which means light¹ . This word seems thus to embody something lightening and shining such as precious metal or stones. Professor Bernard² Dubois in his research paper “Observations: understanding the world of international luxury brands” , the "dream formula” defines luxury as a higher-priced tier of offer in almost any product or service category. However, despite the high quantity of knowledge accumulated during the past few years, it seems particularly difficult to make all researchers agreed on a common definition.³ Many other expectations have been made to define luxury using the price-quality dimension: high priced products in any category are luxury.⁴ The same way, scholars have used the uniqueness aspect of luxury too. Professor Jean-Noel Kapferer in his research paper “The specificity of luxury management: Turning marketing upside down”⁵ defines luxury as “items which provide extra pleasure by flattering all senses at once”. Other researchers focus on exclusivity aspect and support that luxury symbolizes the feeling of belonging to a certain elite group. For some others scholars such as Uché Okonkwo, Luxury include anything that is desirable and which exceeds necessity and ordinariness⁶.

To synthetize all these definitions, let’s say that a Luxury or prestige good is usually synonym of high price, high quality, and premium brand image. The luxury goods also convey a standard of excellence. A luxury brand is also associated with socials codes indicating access to rare, exclusive and desirable. A luxury brand is not able to exist without a brightening and glamorous history which also often defines the ADN and brand values. Most of the famous Luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Channel, and Hermes, all are a case in point.

2.2 Luxury brands in China

2.2.1 Luxury sales expansion in China

Up to the year 2005, Luxury brands started massively to enter Chinese market.⁷ Today, for many scholars, China appears to be an essential country in any luxury’s distribution strategy. According to McKinsey 2011 study research⁸, China will count for about 20 percent ($27 billion) of global luxury sales in 2015. Even during the global crises time in 2009, sales of luxury goods in mainland China rose by 16 percent, down from the 20 percent growth of previous years but far better than the performance of many other major luxury markets. In China, the rapid urbanization and the increasing standard of living has led to create many geographic markets. Many small cities are on the way to become large enough to host new stores. The area such as Qingdao or Wuxi will certainly grow in the coming years for example. By 2015, the consumption in this kind of city could reach the ones in Hangzhou or Nanjing, which are two of the best luxury goods markets. Today, global consumption generates 500 billion RNB in 30 cities, but these figures should double in the 5 coming years. All studies agree on the fact that the most important thing is to be consistent on the location you choose: the right location in the right city is necessary. Some authors even compare with the situation of Manhattan in the 19th century. The companies who decided to be at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street made an amazing choice. Being in the right corner is going to be the key! Today, almost all the brands are already on the market, nevertheless, the huge growth of urbanization forces the brands to actively think on what the next good places would be. But the next good places could not be online?

2.2.2 Luxury consumers in China overview

In their research paper about the Young luxury consumers in China⁹, Professor Johann Ngai and Erin Choi from the new school for Design (New York) explains that love for luxury in China is not new. Lifestyle during imperial times already includes the use of luxury goods. Contrary to the western society where luxury lifestyle were strictly reserved to nobles, in Chinese system talented people could also joined scholars and bureaucrats through the imperial examination system and have an access to a more luxury lifestyle. This class of scholars-bureaucrats enjoyed a lot of privileges till the Cultural Revolution. The idea of wealth and luxury reappeared then during the Economic reform lead by Deng Xiaoping in 1978. Many reforms such as the open door policy in 1990 contribute to open the Chinese market to foreign trade. From this moment, the availability of consumer goods knew an exponential growth.

Thanks to the fierce economic growth in current years in China, the purchasing power has increased dramatically and still continues to grow. According to the McKinsey report “Insights China”¹⁰, the number of wealthy households in 2008 (defined as urban households with annual income in excess of 250,000 RMB-around 36,000 USD) reached 1.6 million in China. The number is predicted to increase more than double to 4.4 million in 2015, making China the fourth in number of wealthy households after the USA, Japan, and the UK.

Today, Chinese consumers can be divided into three different generations. The three generations have been defined as followed¹¹:

-Suffering or Cultural Revolution generation (CR generation): currently between 50 and 65 years old who were born during the time of Cultural Revolution

-Transitional or Mobile generation (M generation): currently around 30-49 years old who were in their early 20s’ when Economic Reform started

-One-child generation (OC generation): born after Economic Reform and with One-child policy

All three generations are totally different from one to another because they evolved in different social and economic context. The two first generations lived in a period of economic instability while the last one grew in a fast emerging country where purchasing power increased a lot. The One child policy leaded by the government to control population growth also characterized this new Chinese generation. Most of people from this generation have a great access to education and are supported by their family in all their activities because parents and grand-parents all expect the only child to succeed in his life. As a result, this generation is going to be more educated and have higher incomes than their parents’ generation. Because the children from OC generation were alone in their families, they used to have the entire parent’s attention and also enjoyed all the resources the parents had to offer. Thus, they have been used to more comfort and they started developing a taste for luxury lifestyle till their young age. This OC generation is consumerist, hedonistic, and confident in the future, trusting the amazing economic Chinese growth. This generation is appealed by westernization in the one hand but they are also proud to be Chinese on the other. The one child generation is expected to consume more than the former generation and certainly also to buy more expensive goods.

Globally, Luxury Chinese consumer’s number is increasing today among wealthy customer (with incomes above $36,000) but also among the upper middle class (incomes between $16000 and $36000). In 2011, they account for about 12% of the market but they are going to count for 22% of luxury good purchases in 2015.¹² Their interest is focused on luxury goods such as: fashion, bags, accessories but also luxury services such as spa or wellness activities. On top of that, according to a study from Nicolas Oudinot,¹³ professional at the Boston

Consulting group, the new emerging upper middle class (people whose annual revenue start around $16000) which is actually growing very fast, are really willing to spend a lot on luxury goods comparing with the European or American middle class. It has been proven that a Chinese can spend two months of salary just to buy a luxury bag. And within two or three years, this part of the population would certainly consume as much as the entire population of Germany or France. Professor Lingjing Zhan and Yanqun He from Hong Kong University and Fudan University explained in their research works¹⁴ that marketers have to understand more middle class expectations and how they are going to shop in the coming years. What would make them buy one brand or another one? Most of the time, marketers and retailers used to focus and target only the wealthy consumers but right now in China, it would be unavoidable to take into account this new social class.

Many scholars such as Chensvold Christian¹⁵, also find out that Chinese consumers tend to be more sophisticated than before. Because they have been more exposed to luxury goods through the Internet, fashion magazines, travels and first in-store experience, they are really more familiar with all the luxury brands and theirs attends as consumer are more precise. They expect high quality products and they know better how to make the difference between the different prices and quality levels.

2.3 Online luxury: traditional retail versus online sale

Today, online buying is becoming a common habit for many customers as regards mass market products. However, when it comes to talking about luxury markets, professionals and scholars don’t all agree¹⁶. For a few, luxury buying experience has to remain a high quality buying experience which includes a visit in store. This in-store experience is in fact fully part of the buying experience. The discovery of the brand universe and values is enabled by the presence of the customer in the luxury boutique. Traditional practitioners of in-store buying strongly believe that it is not possible to deliver a high quality experience over a website and that it could mistreat the luxury image of the brand. Online is synonym of “cheap image” from their point of view .¹⁷

Iyer Byravee from the Boston Consulting Group¹⁸ relates a very different point of view. Marketers first noticed that digital media are even more effective than off line marketing today. From this statement, the question of selling online started to be unavoidable. But how to consider online buying? It is a real new way of distributing goods or is it just part of the marketing and communication strategy? The digital strategy is often seen as a way to drive consumer to the stores. They can, for example, start looking on the e-shop the products they could eventually buy as well as familiarize themselves with the brands’ codes, prices and products collections. Then, they can finalize their buying in store. Here, e-business is more seen as a way to communicate about the brand and the products than a real sales channel but for many customers, it would be the essential first step before a buying session in store.

In the academic paper “Comparing online and in-store shopping behavior towards luxury goods”, Professor Xia Liu from Lousiana state university ¹⁹, also explained online buying can please certain categories of consumers. The ones who prefer the online products availability and who trust online customer reviews, would largely prefer buying online. On the contrary, some others shoppers values in-store shopping experience more, because you can touch and see the products directly. However, the idea of selling luxury online does not win unanimous support for the sake of traditional luxury experience in store.

3 Market and environment analysis

So as to understand if it is relevant or not to develop online strategies for luxury brands and how, I think it is necessary to have first an analysis of the market environment. Based on personal researches on the Internet and discussions with potential Chinese online buyers, I deliver here an overview of what the current market looks like as regards general E-commerce and Luxury E-commerce. Defining what are Chinese specificities on this specific market and how to adjust one’s brand strategy is also treated in this preliminary research.

3.1 Analysis Tools

3.1.1 PESTEL analysis

The PESTEL analysis model corresponds to the macro environment analysis. This method enables to analyze the impact of all the external factors on a particular industry. Each letter represents a specific factor: Political factors, Economical factors, Social factors, Technical factors Environmental factors and Legal factors.

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3.1.2 SWOT: Selling luxury online in China

The SWOT matrix is frequently used in a company to decide or not to launch a specific activity. Here, I think it is a good way to synthetize the good and bad points as regards launching strategies to sell luxury products online in China.

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3.2 Buying online in China today

Around 10 years ago, China starts developing business online. In 2013, Online buying generated over $100 billion sales³⁹. According to a Bain & Company recent study, Chinese consumers seem to be willing to buy online as much as off line.[39] Understanding how online business works in China is a key point for every brands or company which wants to develop online sales. Chinese specificities have to be understood because even for online business, Chinese consumers do not have exactly the same expectations than western ones.

3.2.1 Development ofB2C and C2C websites

Taobao, one main player⁴⁰

Today, 80% of all C2C transactions go through Taobao. Launched by Alibaba group in 2003 to fight against Ebay entering China, they started to develop C2C business in the first time. Today 92% of all transactions are C2C, with almost as many sellers as buyers. The website counts more than 800 million products and more than 500 million users registered. Taobao seems to have defined online shopping in China over the past 10 years. Taobao has recently open the website in Hong Kong and Taiwan and enable payments via Visa or MasterCard’s credit cards but the website is for the moment only available in Chinese.The only difficulty they have to face currently is controlling fake products selling but it remains a tricky issue.

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[Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten] Then, B2C business started 5 years later in 2008 with the introduction of an E-retail website Tmall. Today T-mall represents 50% of all B2C transactions in China.

In both websites, Taobao’s founders succeeded to get consumers’ trust at all steps: -Creating Aliwangwang, a chat on the website to guarantee close contacts between buyers and sellers. The price is generally fixed in advance by the seller

-Comments and advice are all welcome and create a trustful atmosphere on the website -Payments are secured thanks to a third part which first accept the payment from the buyer and deliver it to the seller after the buyer received the good.

Finally, according to Taobao’s success, we can say that this website slowly defined the concept of E-commerce in China.

Others players in B2C Business

In 2012, B2C Leaders cannot really compete with T-Mall which possessed 48% of the market shares⁴¹. Only Jingdong, which is specialized in Electronic equipment, succeeds to get 15% of market shares [41]. Nevertheless, we should keep in mind that changes happen very quickly in China, those second players might change in the short run.

Leaders in E-commerce B2C [41]⁴²

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Today, Vancl and M18 are both more famous clothing e-retailer ⁴³.

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Screenshot from Vancl.cn

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Screenshot from M18.cn

As regards the other websites: Newegg is more focus on high technology products; Dangdang is the largest online bookstore in China; Amazon is selling general merchandise but is more known for electronics and books ;and Yihaodian sells mostly only food products[42].

Main difficulties⁴⁴

For all these websites, the main difficulty in China is to deal with fake products sold online. It is really hard to control as there is such a high number of sellers but Taoabo has declared that this is their first priority.

-However, in mainland China except Shanghai, most buyers used to complain against Logistics and delivery’s problems. The organization is not fully in place and still need to be improved.

Western players in trouble

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In China, Amazon started entering the market in 2005 but it is not really successful since they faced many problems to launch their key product: the Kindle e-reader and Kindle store.⁴⁵ Moreover, they did not totally understand the mentality of the Chinese consumers and their expectations in term of online buying. Today, Amazon gets less than 1 % share of global e-commerce market and his future is anything but certain[45]

After investing more than $250 million in China, Ebay, number one American C2C website has had great difficulties competing with Taobao ⁴⁶. Their model was strictly copied from the American one and did not take into account main Chinese specificities. For example, the website did not enable real contact between sellers and buyers. On top of that, they did not succeed to offer free services to the customer as Taobao [46]. In 2006, they left the Chinese market[46].

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3.2.2 Online buyers in China

E-commerce Buyers segmentation

Starting from a BCG study on Chinese Internet users ⁴⁷, I found out that potential E-commerce buyers could be segmented the following way.

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Chinese specificities

The key main points that embody Online E-commerce Chinese specificities could be described as follow.

-Developing an interactive buying experience online⁴⁸.

Chinese customers are really extraverted on the Net. They love to share opinions and point of view, to post many photographs of themselves (taking “selfie” pictures is really common in China). They also enjoy being part of privileged clubs and social circles. For many Chinese, online is the place where they can express themselves, far from real life pressure. For the One Child (OC) Generation, this is all the more true as they have to deal with their parents and grand-parents high expectations of academic and professional success. This is why; buying online has to be an interactive experience.

-Creating trust between sellers and buyers is the key. As I already said to explain Taobao’s success, creating trust with the consumers is essential in any business relationship in China including online. At all steps, the buyer has to feel that the seller is transparent and won’t trick him. For, that matter, developing a chat on the website and allowing customers to comment publicly the product they bought is necessary. Another point I already mentioned above is managing secure payment through a third party delivering the money to the seller or enabling the customer to pay by cash on delivery. The latter would be a great solution as few Chinese customers still prefer to pay by cash than using credit cards.

-Having a website in Mandarin is absolutely necessary and it is a great plus if the website is hosted in China, that’s to say “.cn” website⁴⁹. The downloading time can sometimes be till 10 times longer if the website is hosted in Europe. Waiting 40 seconds just to get the access to a front page could be actually quite frustrating and buyers would give up very easily.

-Websites design should please Chinese taste[49]. Contrary to western tendency to minimalist style, Chinese would enjoy pages rich in text, images and colors. The example below illustrates how it could be possible to adapt an English website to Chinese taste.

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As you can see in the two pictures of the websites Alibaba, the English version is far less colorful and rich in text than the Chinese one.

-Define a short buying process is better⁵⁰. Three steps would the maximum that a Chinese customer would tolerate.

-Anticipate while defining the technical structure that database management is more complicated in China than anywhere else[50]. First, there is a huge number of potential buyers considering that the middle class is going to reach 50% of the population which means a huge number of consumers’ data to manage. Second, there is not a large range of Chinese names and the email is less used than in western countries (or it could also be a multiple contacts email), thus, customers are most of the time identified by several data such as: name in Chinese characters, email or IM address, physical address and mobile number.

-Considering the concept of discount is essential. In their daily life as well as in professional negotiations, Chinese customer used to bargain for every transaction. If the price offered does not reveal any discount, Chinese customers won’t certainly buy the product.

3.2.3 New ways of buying: M-business and “social commerce”

M-business⁵¹

This year, Mobile business in China is set to reach $50 billion, nearly double than the previous year. The main player in this selling category is of course the giant Taobao and Tmall, which generate more than 76,1% of m-commerce spending. M-commerce also tends to be the link between shops and buyers; it has an evident role of communication for all the shops.

With high proportion of smartphones users among Chinese people - smartphones represent 80% of all new phones sales - M-commerce is expected to grow even faster than e-commerce in the coming years. As regards mobile buyers, 50% of them are aged between 24 and 24 and 30 years old. 58% of the buyers are males and 42% are woman.

Considering the buying process, in average, purchases which have been done through Mobile are paid faster than e-commerce buying. More than 30% of the payments are done by SMS and more than 22% are paid through the application.

We can notice that main players in the Mobile business are pretty similar to B2C leaders as shown in the following diagram. Today ecommerce is already closed to saturation; it means that in the 2-3 years, the tendency should also reverse for mobile business and grow slower.

M-commerce leaders ⁵²

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“Social networks + e-business = Social commerce”

Today, social networks are increasingly helping generating online transactions. Sales generated thanks to social networks are mostly indirect. Brands pages on social networks used to present products catalogues and customers can be reoriented thanks to direct links to the e-

shop or e-retailer⁵³. For instance, the network Weibo-commerce works this way. But today, some e-retailer companies also start to create direct buying platforms in cooperation with pre­existing social networks. In 2013, Weibo and Taobao decided to create a common tool to allow Weibo users to make direct buying on Taobao⁵⁴.

Most famous social networks in China ^{55 56}

So as to create a winning-winning partnership with social network, it is essential to choose the appropriate network. Below, I sum up most famous social networks in China and the relative targets.

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Even social networks can deeply facilitate business in China; it can also lead brands to tricky situations. As regards social networks practices in China, it is necessary to be aware that competition is really strong. Some practices considered as disloyal in the West, have been fully accepted in China. What is called “snipers to hire” is a case in point: many brands used to give falsely negative comments on their competitors websites. The only solution remains to use the same practice to counter attack the competitors⁵⁷.

All in all, it is necessary for a brand to be aware of the huge possibilities related with social networks. Today, most social networks used to facilitate e-business transactions. As I explained in the last part, Chinese consumers like to express themselves about the products they buy. Social networks have to be included in any brand strategy in China whatever the way: creating a social space directly on the e-commerce brand website, developing strong links with famous existing social networks, or selling products through giants e-retailers which have already developed buying processes with well-known social networks... All of these possibilities should be considered.

3.3 Luxury Online in China today

As I largely explained in my last part, online buying is well expanded in China and consumers used to buy online very often. As regards luxury products, how should we consider the online [56]

market? What are the favorite online sales channels of Chinese consumers?

3.3.1 Main players in Luxury E-commerce

Sales platforms; B2C versus self-operated websites⁵⁸

Selling luxury online is currently possible via two main ways: Through a B2C website specialized or not in Luxury products or thanks to a self-operated website owned by the brand itself.

Today, most of Online Luxury purchases are made on B2C websites. International Luxury brands have actually been slow to start selling online fearing to damage their brand images and deprive the customer of a full experience in store. Since 2010, more and more International luxury brands starts selling Online in China.

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A winning strategy to sell Luxury online in China should be composed of a mix of appropriate e-retailers. Many brands start their selling through T-mall as it is quite easy to begin online.

As regards Neiman Marcus brand, they choose a different strategy⁶⁰. They decided recently to develop a close partnership with Glamour sales so as to sales their goods on a common website, betting on their knowledge of luxury E-retail in China. Other alternatives can still be envisaged, in 2013, IFC mall in Hong Kong innovated, they decided to duplicate their mall online, creating new way of selling luxury online.⁶¹

Mobile buying⁶²

As I described in my last part, Chinese customers are addicted to smartphones. According to a recent survey leaded by Bain & Company group, 50% of digital shoppers browse via their mobile phone. Developing buying tools on mobile to complete the online offer has to be considered. As regards B2C websites, most of them already deployed Mobile business in complement of their standard website.

Influence of blogs and social networks on online Luxury sales Chinese customers are really inclined to follow blogs recommendations or friends advise on social networks. As I also described previously, social networking have to be taken into account in any online brand’s strategy and especially as regards apparel items and cosmetics.

3.3.2 Luxury online buyers

Based on the E-commerce buyers segmentation developed in part 3.2.2 and the study about potential luxury buyers 2.1.1, without forgetting the social factors influence developed in the PESTEL analysis, I establish here a potential Luxury E-commerce buyer’s segmentation.

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Whatever their social class, almost every Chinese consumer would be interested in discounts. Traditional Chinese habit to bargain for every transaction is certainly the reason why.

Expected future consumers: the OC generation

In the consumer segmentation, I would like to focus on the OC generation. In fact, as I previously explained, this specific part of the population is supposed to be more willing to consume luxury goods than their parents’ generation. They benefit during their childhood from the attention of 6 adults (2 parents + 4 grandparents) and enjoyed a better quality of life. The nickname of this specific generation is also “Little emperor” which illustrates perfectly the idea they used live like emperor with a better quality of life than their parents. Many of them attend universities, pushed by their parents which have great expectations from their only child. Today, already a small part of them are young professional but still many are studying or even children. This specific generation grows up with digital and is used to be online through social media and thanks to their smartphones. They are expected to be online shoppers more than all the others. Understanding what could be their expectations in term of Online shopping, and especially as regards luxury, would be the first step to understand those potential future luxury online buyers.

4 Methodological considerations

After studying online business environment using external data, I will complete my research with a quantitative study focusing on online buying habits and online luxury in China. In my survey, I decided to target students from OC generation since they represent potential luxury online buyers once they have found a job. Apprehending this category of consumer will enable luxury brands to develop an appropriate online strategy to attract them once they start earning money after their graduation. Understanding if they could be luxury online consumers will also enable me to validate or invalidate my thesis question: “Is it relevant for luxury brands to develop online strategies to sell their products in China? “ In effect, I consider that if the youngest generation would be real potential luxury online buyers, there is no reason to doubt to develop online strategies to sell these products in the future.

4.1 Research method

4.1.1 Topic of the research

In the 10 coming years, more and more people from the OC generation will become active consumers. Today, most of them are still students or even children and they are globally not able to afford luxury products. Nevertheless, I decided to target this part of the population in my survey because they grow up with digital and they should be more used to buy online than the former generation. Moreover, as I explained in my preliminary research, those customers are expected to be willing to buy luxury products because they used to enjoy a good quality of life during their childhood comparing with the former generations.

To anticipate and be able to understand their expectations in term of luxury online buying, I decided to target these future potential online luxury customers in my study and used as sample university students.

Understanding students from OC generation as regards online buying in general and more precisely apprehending their expectations as regards luxury universe is the key for luxury brands to anticipate and develop an interesting online approach to attract those potential consumers in the future.

4.1.2 Objective

So as to complete my study, I decided to develop a questionnaire to respond to two different questions:

- What are the Chinese students’ Online buying habits?

- How do the Chinese students apprehend the Luxury online world?

According to my previous research, I organized my questionnaire into different questions. This way I would be able to identify Chinese student’s habits and expectations and give concrete recommendations.

Online buying habits:

- Ql: How often do you buy online?
- Q2: Through which media do you buy online?
- Q3: On which kind of website do you buy the most?
- Q4: What kind of product do you buy online the most?
- Q5: How often do you go on social networks?
- Q6: On which social networks do you go the most?
- Q7: Would you like to buy products directly through social networks?

Luxury online world:

- Q8: Supposed you want to find out some information about luxury brands, where would you go?
- Q9: Supposed you want to buy a luxury product, where would you buy it?
- Q10: What kind of luxury products would you buy online more easily?
- Q11: Supposed you want to buy a luxury product online, on which kind of website would you prefer to buy?
- Q12: What kind of service could push you to buy online?
- Q13: For you, what would be the first drawbacks to buy luxury online?

All in all, I defined 13 questions to address to the targeted respondents. I also added 8 other questions about personal information. The full version of the questionnaire is presented in the appendix.

4.2 Data collection

So as to administrate my survey, I developed an online questionnaire that I consider the quickest and also most efficient way to get responses. My questionnaire counted 21 questions with 3 parts. The first part concerns consumer’s habits as regards online; the second part was focused on Luxury online buying and the last part concentrates some personal information about the respondents.

As I choose to target students in my survey, I choose to administrate my questionnaire on the Tongji university campus.

However, after getting a few answer at school on my computer, I realized that I would be able to get more responses through a printed version questionnaire. Therefore, I administrated the

questionnaire by distributing printed copies to Chinese students and then I added by hands the results in the online survey.

In a whole, I finally got 105 respondents after one week questionnaire administration. Among them 97 are students, this way I based my analysis on a sample of 97 respondents.

5 Analysis of the survey results

Before, going through the survey results, I will present a few characteristics of the respondents I used.

While administrating the questionnaire, I take care of using as many male respondents as female to be sure my results would be representative ofboth gender.

During the analysis of the results, I also figure out that for a few questions, Male and Female did not get the same response, in particular for the kind of products bought.

However, I was pretty surprised that for the strong majority of the question, the gender does not have an influence on the results.

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As regards the origin of the respondents, there is at least 20% of respondents coming from each 1st, 2nd and 3rd Tier cities.

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After crossing these specific data with the results for all the questions, I realize that the origin of the respondents did not the responses. In effect, my survey is focused on the habits of a young generation today, it appears quite logical that these students have more or less the same habits now. Nevertheless in the future, OC people should be more willing to buy luxury products.

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5.1 Online

In this first part, the information collected concerned general students online habits and are not focus on luxury.

5.1.1 Buying habits

Online buying frequency

01: How often do you buy online?

Among the students, 75% are buying online at least once a month, 35% at least once a week. Globally, students buy online quite often. For them, online buying tends to be as usual as in-store buying.

We can expect that this category of the population will go on buying online when they will starts their professional life and earn money.

Media to buy online

02: Through which media do you buy online?

Among the population, at least 50% of the respondents used their mobile phone to buy online.

This habits has to be considered by all luxury brands which have to include mobile buying in their strategies.

Q3: On which kind of website do you buy the most?

In their weekly or monthly buying, the students used to go on B2C websites, more than 80% of them used to go on B2C websites. On the contrary, less than 10% of them used C2C websites, brand websites or discount websites.

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Brand websites (for ex: Discount website (for ex: Samsung website) Dazhongdianping)

Q4: What kind of product do you buy online the most?

Products the more bought online

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In this survey, 70% of the respondents declare they buy fashion and accessories online. Around 50% buy food and 45% Culture goods.

Products the more bought online by women

As regards fashion luxury brands, they should certainly develop online strategies to sell their products in China in the coming years to seduce these future consumers.

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If I compare the last figures with this chart which represent the more bought products by women, it can be noticed that Cosmetics and perfume should also be concerned by online selling.

5.1.2 Social networks

Q5: How often do you go on social networks?

Connection on social networks frequency

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55% of the respondents declare that they go on social networks at least three times a day.

Actually, 85% of the students go on social networks at least once every day, which represent a strong majority. Developing online strategies partnering with social networks should be a great asset for luxury brands in the future.

Connection on social networks frequency by gender

It can also be noticed that women seems to go even more often than men on social networks.

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Q6: On which social networks do you go the most?

More than 85% of the students declare going on Wechat, 65% on Sina Weibo and more than 40% on Renren.

Limits: However, I realized after administrating my questionnaire that QQ could have been another interesting social network to consider in the survey. Thus, the use of this ranking is limited because QQ has not been included.

More visited social networks

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Q7: Would you like to buy products directly through social networks?

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Among the students, 43% would be willing to buy products directly through social networks. This is almost half of the students who would be ready to buy directly on social networks.

Developing direct buying in partnership with social networks should be an interesting opportunity for brands.

5.2 Online Luxury

In this second part, the information collected concerned specifically Luxury online.

5.2.1 Getting information

Q 8: Supposed you want to find out some information about luxury brands, where Would you go?

5.2.2 Buying Luxury

Q9: Supposed you want to buy a luxury product, where would you buy it?

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I can clearly see here that Shops remain an important channel even for young people when it comes to speaking about luxury brands. In-store experience still make young people dream.

Around 45% of the students would be ready to buy a luxury product online. It remains a high proportion of potential online buyer.

Q10: What kind of luxury products would you buy online more easily?

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Fashion products are the first category of products that could be potentially bought online by the student’s generation.

70% of them consider that they could buy fashion products more easily. The categories Cosmetics and perfume, Jewelry/Watches and Accessories are following.

Oil: Supposed you want to buy a luxury product online, on which kind of website would you prefer to buy?

Almost half of the students declare they would prefer buying luxury products online on brand websites, followed by C2C and luxury B2C websites.

If we consider that brands websites are the online equivalent of physical stores, it is interesting to notice that stores online and offline remains very attractive for the young generation.

Limits: “T-mall” was not presented as a plain choice on the proposed answer even if it was more or less included in Luxury B2C websites. The presence of T-mall might have rebalanced the proportion between brands websites and other retailers.

5.2.3 Added value and drawbacks as regards online buying Q12: What kind of service could push vou to buv online?

Both discounts and specific products offer only dedicated to online selling would be important element of an online offer for luxury products.

More than 80% of the students declare that discounts could push them to buy online and more than 50% thinks specific products offer only dedicated to online selling could push them to buy online.

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Q13: For you, what would be the first drawbacks to buy luxury online?

The impossibility to try and see the product has been pointed out as major drawback to buy luxury online by almost 70% of the students. 25% of them could prefer to have an in-store experience in the first time.

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5.3 Limits

After studying the results of my survey, I think that it could also be interesting to launch another survey among Young professionals and Active middle agers.

In fact, it could have been interesting to compare the results I got for the student’s generation with 4 others consumers categories:

-Young professionals

-Active middle ager from Mass middle class -Active middle ager from upper middle class -Active middle ager from wealthy class It could be part of coming researches in the case of a larger survey.

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

6 General implications and recommendations

Based on the previous survey analysis, I will here divide my work in two parts and answer to the key questions of this survey:

- What are the Chinese students’Online buying habits?

- How do the Chinese students apprehend the Luxury online world?

6.1 Chinese students’ online buying habits

Results recap table

Results (R)

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According to these different results, I would deduce that student’s generation is used to buy online very often. Most of them do their purchases on B2C websites such as T-mall. Many of them already used to buy Fashion and accessories online as it is the product’s categories the more bought by the students. For women Cosmetics are also interesting products to buy online.

As I previously explained, Chinese people are smartphone addicts and this phenomenon is

even truer for the youngest generation: 50% of them even buy online directly through their mobile phone. As regards social networks, there are also completely into it: 85% of the students declare going at least once a day on social networks, and almost half of them would be willing to buy directly through social networks. Their favorite social networks are Wechat, Sina Weibo and Renren. QQ should certainly be added to the list but had not been tested here.

6.2 Chinese students apprehension as regards Luxury online world

Results recap table

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Regarding Chinese student’s approach of Luxury online buying, brands websites and shops seems to be important channels for them to get information about their favorite brands. On the one hand, when I asked them about online buying vs in-store buying for a luxury product, I noticed that having an experience in store still make them dream. On the other hand, a bit less than 50% of them would prefer to buy online than in store, this proportion remains very high and needs to be heard by all the luxury brands who want to sell their products in China. As regards the type of products bought, the products which are more concerned by luxury online buying are Fashion (which is not surprising if we compare with their today buying habits), Cosmetics/perfume, Jewelry/Watches and Accessories. Comparing with their online buying habits, students seems to prefer buying on brands websites or C2C website such as Taobao more than on B2C websites as they used to do for other kind of products. Another interesting point that has been revealed by the survey and which confirm partly my previous researches is

that discounts are a great motivator for Chinese to buy products online. Having a specific online products offer could also push consumers to buy online. Nevertheless, for 70% of the students, the impossibility to try or see the product remains a major drawback in luxury online buying. Nevertheless, Online payments seem not to afraid the young generation anymore. Actually, online payments were a main drawback for the older generation who did not trust online so much.

6.3 Recommendations

So as to understand the youngest Chinese consumers and help luxury brands to prepare the future, I deliver here a list of recommendations based on the survey results.

-Selling luxury online is unavoidable: To seduce the young Chinese people and in particular potential consumers from OC generation, it is now unavoidable to develop an online strategy. In effect, this category of consumers is buying online very often and an online offer would be a great asset for any luxury brands. However, it has to be pointed out that in-store experience still attract the youngest consumers as well. Online offer should not be considered as a way to replace in-store offer but a way to boost them and increase global (in-store and online) sales. For the luxury brands selling Fashion products, Accessories, Jewelry and Watches, selling online is even more inevitable as it is the kind of products the young generation already used to buy online.

-Choosing the right online channel to start: As revealed by the survey, young consumers used to buy on B2C websites. In my preliminary research I noticed that T-mall registers the highest market share in term of Online buying, developing a page on T-mall could be a first step of an online strategy for a luxury brand. However, the survey reveals also that young people think that brands websites is an important channel to buy luxury product online. Developing an e-store could be the second step to enter the online market. As it requires setting up a more complex organization, it is certainly a larger investment in term of money and efforts. Nevertheless in the long run, having an e-store on the brand website should be a real asset. For the customer a brand website is also certainly synonym of luxury experience online more than on B2C channels. Young customers would be willing to have this luxury buying experience.

-Developing specific offer and services online: Buying luxury products online is not evident for many customers since you buy a product at high price and you cannot see or even try the product. So as to facilitate the purchase, I am convinced that it is necessary to apprehend Chinese consumerà buying motives. For the young (but not only as we have seen before), getting discount on the product they buy is a real source of motivation to buy the product online. Discounts and Luxury is not really seen as a winning partnership by the luxury brands but I support it is essential to conceive that for Chinese consumers discounts are a true motivator in any purchase. As I previously explain, Chinese traditionally used to bargain for every transaction they do to get discount each time they buy something. For instance, selling former collections at a small price could be an interesting idea to attract the consumer on the website. Another element that appears as an important buying motive is the possibility to buy online products which are not sold in store. Developing limited series of products specifically dedicated to online sales would be an interesting idea to drive the customer to the website. However, developing high quality services online which could enable the customer to see the products before paying could be nice: for example developing a luxury delivery with at home fitting could be an idea.

-Enabling social interactions between consumers: Most of young Chinese consumers are social networks addicts. In any online strategy to sell in China, including social connections between the consumers is necessary and even generates direct buying. Diverse strategies are possible: developing a chat or networking platform directly on the brand website, developing a brand page on most famous social networks in China, partnering directly with social networks and creating a common buying platform... What I called “social commerce” in my 3rd part perfectly reflects this idea of interconnected consumers. But, it is not just about communication, it is more than that, it is about multilateral interactions: from the brand to the consumers but also from the consumers to the brand, and between the consumers themselves. However benefiting this kind of interaction is for the luxury brands, it remains a difficult tool to manage in the ultra-competitive market of China.

-Creating appropriate applications and websites to sell on smartphones: Young Chinese are social networks addicts but also smartphones addicts. Almost half of them are ready to buy on their smartphones. Developing a brands store application or e-store version for smartphone could be an interesting 3rd step to guarantee a complete online strategy.

7 Synthesis

Selling Luxury online has been largely disputed over the past 10 years among all the western brands. Luxury professional did not all agree on this point. For some of them Luxury purchases has to be done in store for the sake of the buying experience in the luxury world but for a few others, selling online isjust a normal way to adapt sales strategy to the current time. This question might still be discussed for the western world but as for China, I am convinced there is no reason to hesitate anymore and go online.

Reasons to sell Luxury online in China

It appears now clearly that selling luxury online in China is unavoidable to maximize sales and increase market share. Today, the Chinese population is getting richer and general online sales increases, following the development of Internet access everywhere in China. Consumers from 2nd and 3rd Tier cities generally have a limited physical access to the luxury shops and Internet buying is an interesting alternative to target them. In addition, Chinese are also important smartphones users that are becoming more and more addicted to social networks. These new habits make them all the more liable to buy online. Then, the young OC generation has also some interesting pre-dispositions to buy luxury online: known as “little emperor” in China as they benefit from a better quality of life when they grow up, they are almost born with the internet and are used to surf and buy online. As I explained in my survey methodology, studying this part of the population helped me to validate the fact that it is effectively relevant to start developing online strategies to sell luxury goods in China today.

How to sell luxury online: Different strategies for different kind of consumers

Based on my survey results but also on my preliminary researches, I deliver in this part my point of view on what could be a good strategy for a luxury brand to sell its products online. In China, the potential luxury online buyers would have different expectations depending on their social status and their age. To dissociate 3 main consumers’ categories which have to be targeted using different tools, I would establish this new segmentation:

-Young professional freshly educated consumers -Active middle agers from the mass middle class -Active middle agers from wealthy and upper middle class

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So as to be sure to fit all the customers’ expectations, I would recommend a 3 steps action plan to launch luxury online sales:

1st step: Developing a page on T-mall to appreciate the potential of online sales for the brand and offer to the customers at least one possibility to buy the brand products online.

2nd step: Launching a brand website fitting as much as possible all Chinese specificities in term of design, social interactions, luxury services, language and hosting (.cn), dedicated product’s offer (selling former collections at small price but also specific products collections including niche products or limited edition products), as well as embody the brand values and image.

3rd step: Creating new buying concepts on smartphones and building dedicated partnerships with social networks so as to benefit from the huge wave of smartphones users.

Last but not least, it remains necessary at all steps to remember that most Chinese consumers appreciate discounts. Even if the wealthy and upper class are less price oriented than the active middle agers and young professionals, discounts will always push any Chinese consumers to buy a product.

Conclusion

Today, after studying the specificities of Chinese consumers, selling Luxury online in China appears to be completely relevant. Online selling must not be considered as a way to replace traditional channels but a way to respond to Chinese consumer’s expectations. All the more, it has already been proven that online sales do not replace in-store sales but on the contrary support them and even increase global sales. Finally, the motives of a few luxury professionals who still believe that online buying embody a “cheap” image and that luxury buying experience has to happen in store to enable consumers to have a complete experience of the luxury brand, have no reason to exist anymore.

In China the “Online rules” are different from the ones in western countries since the consumers do not have the same expectations. First, it is necessary to remind that buying online won’t impede the consumers to have an in-store experience as well and thus getting this precious buying experience at “the brand’s land”. Second, buying online should also be considered as an interesting luxury experience for the consumers. Defining what is the best way to guarantee the same level of service and a high quality experience should be the new debate to have. Third, considering that today, already many fake luxury products are sold online, I truly believe that it is necessary for the luxury brands to offer to the customers the possibility to buy real products online and offer them an online luxury buying experience. At last, I think luxury websites designers have to be really careful because Chinese consumers have very specifics expectations and taste as regards online and most of the time those expectations are very different from sober western tastes.

Defining a coherent online customer experience close to the brand values and responding to the Chinese customer’s expectations should be the key to unlock this new market potential.

8 Appendix

8.1 Questionnaire

Thesis study - Buying luxury online in China

1) How often do you buy online

Everyday

At least once a week At least once a month Less than once a month Less than three times a year

2) Through which media do you buy online?

From your computer From your mobile phone Both

3) On which kind of website do you buy the most?

Brand websites (for ex: Samsung website)

B2C websites (for ex: Taobao, Tmall)

C2C websites, 2nd hand products (such as Taobao) Discount website (for ex: Dazhongdianping)

Other:

4) What kind of product do you buy online the most? (3 answers max) High Tech Food

F ashion/accessories Travels/Leisure Cosmetics and perfume Culture (Music/Book/etc..)

Wellness

Cars

Other:

5) How often do you go on social networks? At least once every hour At least three times a day Once everyday At least once a week At least once a month Less than once a month

6) On which social networks do you go the most? (3 answers max)

Facebook Twitter What’s app?

Sina Weibo Renren

Tencent weibo We chat Weixin Other:

7) Would you like to buy products directly through social networks?

Yes

No

8) Supposed you want to find out some information about luxury brands, where would you go? (3 answers max)

Brands websites

Blogs about Luxury

Social networks brands pages

Online retailers

Shops

Other:

9) Supposed you want to buy a luxury product, where would you buy it? (2 answers max)

In shops

Online from your computer Online from your smartphone Other:

10) What kind ofluxury products would you buy online more easily? (3 answers max)

Fashion

Jewelry /Watches

Wellness

Luxury Travels

Accessories

Cosmetics and perfume

Cars

Other:

11) Supposed you want to buy a luxury product online, on which kind of website would you prefer to buy? (2 answers max)

Brand websites (for ex: Louis Vuitton website)

Luxury B2C websites (for ex: Jiapin.com; Xiu.com)

C2C websites, 2nd hand products (for ex: Taobao)

Discount website (for ex: Dazhongdianping)

Other:

12) What kind of service could push you to buy online? (3 answers max)

To get cheaper prices online than instore To buy products you cannot find instore in China

To get a made to measure delivery To be guide in a more personalized way Being able to pay easily

To be able to get a reimbursement longer than in store

To buy faster

Other:

13) For you, what would be the first drawbacks to buy luxury online? (3 answers max)

Impossibility to see or try the product

Product prices are still too high

Prefer to have an experience in the brand store

Not enough brands offer to buy his product online

Afraid of online payment with huge amount of money

Afraid that the product won’t be delivered

Less choice in products offer

Other:

14) What is your age?

15) What kind ofjob do you have?

Farmer

Top Manager and CEO positions Executives and top executives Storekeeper

Employee in social service or medicine

Factory Worker

Student

Unemployed

Retired

Other:

16) What is your gender?

Male

Female

17) Are you the only child in your family?

Yes

No

18) What is your income range? (salary a month)

No salary currently 1000-10000 RMB 10001-20000 RMB 20001-50000 RMB 50001 RMB andmore

19) What is your nationality?

Chinese

Other:

20) What is your citizenship?

From 1st Tier city: Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macao, Chongqing From 2nd Tier city: Nanjing, Suzhou, Xian, Chengdu, Wuhan, Fuzhou, etc...

From 3rd Tier city: Weihai, Yantai, Zibo, Guilin, Beihai, etc.

Other:

21) In which kind of city do you live?

1st Tier city: Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macao, Chongqing 2nd Tier city: Nanjing, Suzhou, Xian, Chengdu, Wuhan, Fuzhou, etc.

3rd Tier city: Weihai, Yantai, Zibo, Guilin, Beihai, etc.

Other:

8.2 Online questionnaire extract

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- OKONKWO Uché, Luxury Online, Chapter 1: Is luxury (still) afraid of the Internet?,
- Chapter 2: Connected luxury, Chapter 3: Web 2.0, The social web is real!, 2010
- OVAZZA Youmna, E-commerce in China, what is the best strategy for western brands, November 2011: http://www.butter-cake.com/e-commerce-in-china-what-is-the-best- strategy-for-western-brands/
- OXFORD DICTIONARY, definition of Luxe, available at: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/luxe
- PARKS Peter, Alibaba announces collaboration with Sina Weibo for Taobao users to buy products directly on Weibo, The next Web, August 2013, available at: http://thenextweb.com/asia/2013/08/01/alibaba-announces-collaboration-with-sina-weibo- for-taobao-users-to-buy-products-directly-on-weibo/
- RED LUXURY, Luxury IFC to launch e-commerce site, December 2013, available at: http://red-luxury.com/brands-retail/hks-luxury-ifc-mall-to-launch-e-commerce-site
- SIMCOTT Richard, Social media fast facts: China, February 2014, available at: http://www.emoderation.com/social-media-fast-facts-china
- THE INTERNATIONAL LUXURY BUSINESS ASSOCIATION, Luxury In China, What’s Next?, February 2013
- T-MALL website, available at: www.tmall.com
- YAN Sophia, Alibaba has a major counterfeit problem, CNN Money, Sept 12, 2014, available at: http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/11/technology/alibaba-counterfeit- ipo/index.html
- ZHAN Kowloo Lingjing and HE Yanqun , Understanding luxury consumption in China: Consumer perceptions ofbest-known brands, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Faculty of Business, October 2011

[...]

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¹Gaffiot, translation of Luxe, available at: http://www.lexilogos.com/latin/gaffiot.php?q=lux+

² Observations: understanding the world of international luxury brands: the "dream formula", Dubois Bernard, Paternault Claire, Journal of Advertising Research, Jul 1995

³ The Concept of Luxury Brands, Klaus Heine, Aug 19,2011

⁴ Oxford dictionary, definition of Luxe, available at: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/luxe

⁵ The specificity of luxury management: Turning marketing upside down, Jean-Noël Kapferer, Journal of Brand Management, Mar 1, 2009

⁶ Luxury Online, Chapter 1: Is luxury (still) afraid of the Internet?, Uché Okonkwo, 2010

⁷ Chasing Gold In China: Luxury Brands Step Up Expansion In The East, Socha Miles, WWD, Nov 11, 2009

⁸ Tapping China’s luxury-goods market, Mc Kinsey study, Yuval Atsmon, Vinay Dixit, and Cathy Wu, April 2011

⁹ The young luxury consumers in China, Ngai Joann and Choi Erin, Young Consumers 13.3, 2012

¹⁰ Understanding China’s growing love for luxury, McKinsey study, Atsmon Y., Dixit V., Leibowitz G. and Wu C. ,2011

¹¹The young luxury consumers in China, Ngai Joann and Choi Erin, Young Consumers 13.3, 2012

¹²Tapping China’s luxury-goods market, Mckinsey article, Yuval Atsmon, Vinay Dixit, and Cathy Wu, April

¹³ Luxury In China, What’s Next?, The International Luxury Business Association, February 2013

¹⁴Understanding luxury consumption in China: Consumer perceptions of best-known brands, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Faculty of Business, Kowloo Lingjing Zhan and Yanqun He, October 2011

¹⁵ Selling to the New Chinese Consumer, Chensvold Christian, Apparel Magazine, Nov 2011

¹⁶ Luxury Online, Chapter 1: Is luxury (still) afraid of the Internet?,Uché Okonkwo, 2010

¹⁷ Why some luxury brands still don’t sell online, Dhani Mau, Fashionista blog, March 31 2014, available at : http://fashionista.com/2014/03/whv-some-luxurv-brands-still-dont-sell-online

¹⁸ Are luxury brands ready to take the leap to online?, Iyer Byravee, Campaign Asia - Pacific, Nov 01,2012

¹⁹ Comparing online and in-store shopping behavior towards luxury goods, Xia Liu, Alvin C. Burns, Yingjian Hou International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 41

²⁰ In Hong Kong, Retail Rents Lose Their Shine; China's Crackdown on Corruption Hits Sales of Luxury Goods, Te-Ping Chen, Wall Street Journal, Oct 03,2013

²¹Kaleidoscope China Market, Elaine Chen, Conference at Tongji University, September 2013

²²Taobao, l’empire du milieu, Florian Othnin Girard, January 2013, available at : http://histoiresdeweb.fr/taobao/

²³ Half a billion China’s middle class consumers, Dominic Barton, The diplomat, May 30, 2013, available at: http://thediplomat.com/2013/05/half-a-billion-chinas-middle-class-consumers/

²⁴ China Now Has the Second-Most Millionaires in the World, Hannah Goldberg, Jun 10, 2014, available at: http://time.com/2852740/china-millionaires/

²⁵ Half a billion China’s middle class consumers, Dominic Barton, The diplomat, May 30, 2013, available at: http://thediplomat.com/2013/05/half-a-billion-chinas-middle-class-consumers/

²⁶The young luxury consumers in China, Young Consumers 13.3, Ngai Joann; Choi Erin, 2012

²⁷ An Overview of Popular Online Payment Methods in China, Chinese CEO Shifu, Apr 21,2014, available at : http://chineseseoshifu.com/blog/online-pavment-methods-china.html

²⁸ China’s E-Commerce Legislative and Regulatory Framework, China Briefing, August 2013, available at: http://www.china-briefing.com/news/2013/08/09/chinas-e-commerce-legislative-and-regulatory-framework.html

²⁹ Alibaba has a major counterfeit problem, Sophia Yan, CNN Money, Sept 12, 2014, available at: http://money. cnn.com/2014/09/11/technology/alibaba-counterfeit-ipo/index.html

³⁰ Luxury Online, Chapter 2 : Connected luxury, Uché Okonkwo, 2010

³¹ Alibaba has a major counterfeit problem, Sophia Yan, CNN Money, Sept 12, 2014, available at: http://monev.cnn.com/2014/09/11/technology/alibaba-counterfeit-ipo/index.html

³² Half a billion China’s middle class consumers, Dominic Barton, The diplomat, May 30, 2013, available at: http://thediplomat.com/2013/05/half-a-billion-chinas-middle-class-consumers/

³³The young luxury consumers in China, Young Consumers 13.3, Ngai Joann and Choi Erin, 2012

³⁴Why some luxury brands still don’t sell online, Dhani Mau, Fashionista, Mar 31, 2014, available at: http://fashionista.com/2014/03/whv-some-luxurv-brands-still-dont-sell-online

³⁵ Kaleidoscope China Market, Elaine Chen, Conference at Tongji University, September 2013

³⁶ Taobao, l’empire du milieu, Florian Othnin Girard, January 2013, available at : http://histoiresdeweb.fr/taobao/

³⁷ China’s Internet obsession, Mckinsey article, Yuval Atsmon and Max Magni, March 2010, available at: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing sales/chinas internet obsession

³⁸ Winning the battle for China’s new middle class, Mckinsey study, Max Magni and Felix Poh, June 2013, available at: http://www.mckinseychina.com/winnine-the-battle-for-chinas-new-middle-class/

³⁹ China’s e-commerce prize, Serge Hoffman and Bruno Lannes, Bain and company report, 2013, available at: http://www.bain.com/Images/BAIN BRIEF Chinas e-commerce prize.pdf

⁴⁰Taobao, l’empire du milieu, Florian Othnin Girard, January 2013, available at : http://histoiresdeweb.fr/taobao/Logos available at: Taobao.cn, Tmall.com

⁴¹ Luxury and digital in China, Daxue consulting, July 2012, available at: http://daxueconsulting.com/wp- content/uploads/2012/07/LUXURY-Digital-in-China.pdf

⁴² Top 10 online shopping sites in China, China.org.cn, July 2011, available at: http://www.china.org.cn/top10/2011-07/12/content 22974678 7.htm

⁴³ Top 10 online shopping sites in China, China.org.cn, July 2011, available at: http://www.china.org.cn/topl0/2011-07/12/content 22974678 7.

⁴⁴ E-commerce in China, what is the best strategy for western brands, Youmna Ovazza, November 2011, available at : http://www.butter-cake.com/e-commerce-in-china-what-is-the-best-strategv-for-western-brands/

⁴⁵ Can Amazon find success in China?, Zachary Keck, The Diplomat, May 2013, available at : http://thediplomat.com/ 2013/05/can-amazon-fìnd-success-in-china/

⁴⁶ Movie “Crocodile in the Yangtze”, Porter Erisman, April 2012

⁴⁷ China’s digital generation 2.0, BCG Report, May 2010, available at: http://www.bcg.com/documents/file45572.pdf Logos pictures available at: amazon.cn, ebay.com

⁴⁸ E-commerce in China, what is the best strategy for western brands, Youmna Ovazza, November 2011, available at : http://www.butter-cake.com/e-commerce-in-china-what-is-the-best-strategv-for-western-brands/

⁴⁹ E-commerce in China, what is the best strategy for western brands, Youmna Ovazza, November 2011, available at : http://www.butter-cake.com/e-commerce-in-china-what-is-the-best-strategv-for-western-brands/

⁵⁰E-commerce in China, what is the best strategy for western brands, Youmna Ovazza, November 2011, available at : http://www.butter-cake.com/e-commerce-in-china-what-is-the-best-strategv-for-western-brands/

⁵¹ China’s mobile commerce spending to surpass $50 billion in 2014, nearly double last year’s total, Stenven Millward, April 2014, available at: http://www.techinasia.com/china-mobile-commerce-spending-2014-will- surpass-50-billion-dollars/

⁵² China’s mobile commerce spending to surpass $50 billion in 2014, nearly double last year’s total, Stenven Millward, April 2014, available at: http://www.techinasia.com/china-mobile-commerce-spending-2014-will- surpass-50-billion-dollars/

⁵³ Luxury Online, Chapter 3: Web 2.0, The social web is realfUché Okonkwo, 2010

⁵⁴ Alibaba announces collaboration with Sina Weibo for Taobao users to buy products directly on Weibo, Peter Parks, The next Web, August 2013, available at: http://thenextweb.com/asia/2013/08/Q1/alibaba-announces- collaboration-with-sina-weibo-for-taobao-users-to-buv-products-directlv-on-weibo/

⁵⁵Social media fast facts: China, Richard Simcott, February 2014, available at: http://www.emoderation.com/social-media-fast-facts-china

⁵⁶ Luxury and digital in China, Daxue consulting, July 2012, available at: http://daxueconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/LUXURY-Digital-in-China.pdf Logos pictures available at : Kaixin001.com. pengyou.com. renren.com. qq.com. sina.com.cn. qzone.qq.com. Logos pictures available at: vouku.com. Wechat.com T-mall website, available at: www.tmall.com

⁵⁷E-commerce in China, what is the best strategy for western brands, Youmna Ovazza, November 2011 : http://www.butter-cake.com/e-commerce-in-china-what-is-the-best-strategy-for-westem-brands/ Logos pictures available at: vouku.com. Wechat.com

⁵⁸China’s e-commerce prize, Serge Hoffman and Bruno Lannes, Bain and company report, 2013, available at: http://www.bain.com/Images/BAlN BRIEF Chinas e-commerce prize.pdf

⁵⁹ T-mall website, available at: www.tmall.com

⁶⁰ Luxury brands, China’s love affair with Luxury, Andrea Divirgilio, March 2012, available at: http://www.bornrich.com/luxurv-brands-china-chinas-love-affair-luxurv.html

⁶¹ Luxury IFC to launch e-commerce site, Red Luxury, December 2013, available at: http://red- luxuryxom/brands-retail/hks-luxury-ifc-mall-to-launch-e-commerce-site

⁶²China’s e-commerce prize, Serge Hoffman and Bruno Lannes, Bain and company report, 2013, available at: http://www.bain.com/Images/BAIN BRIEF Chinas e-commerce prize.pdf