Ecommerce sales record for Yves Saint Laurent

Yves Saint Laurent Beaute has set a record for the most sales by a beauty brand in its first day on Tmall, reports the Chinese B2C shopping platform.

In just 14 hours, the L’Oreal-owned brand generated more than RMB30 million (US$4.77 million) in sales when it opened its Tmall flagship store. Ten hours later, sales had reached RMB38 million, with the store’s followers totalling 1.2 million.

French fashion brand Givenchy set the previoussingle-day sales record of RMB29 million when it made its Tmall debut last month.

L’Oreal says the appetite for high-end make-up has accelerated this year, largely driven by Chinese consumers. Its luxury labels also include Giorgio Armani Beauty, Kiehl’s and Lancome.

“The luxury market is really flying right now,” says L’Oreal Group chairman/CEO Jean-Paul Agon. “In geographic terms, the highlight of the first quarter is the return to strong growth in the new markets, especially in Asia Pacific.”

Interactive offering

YSL Beaute has also joined Tmall’s Luxury Pavilion, making it one of the first brands to launch on the site’s dedicated section for premium brands. Tmall and YSL Beaute have developed interactive features that can display make-up shades in various ways. For example, when Tmall app users tilt their smartphones they can see images of models with and without lipstick applied.

“Our product pages should be the coolest on Tmall to date,” says YSL Beaute China brand director Sebastian Xing.

Tmall is more than a sales channel, he says. It is able to tell brand stories and heighten engagement with consumers.

YSL Beaute is already tapping into the platform’s consumer analytics to inform product research and development, and will design marketing campaigns catering to Tmall user preferences, says Xing.

Tmall’s latest figures show that more than half of YSL Beaute customers on the platform fall within the 18-25 age group, while consumers’ 26 to 30 years old make up 22.4 per cent – a far younger turnout compared to YSL Beaute offline counters, where the average customer age is about 27.