Tmall Luxury Pavilion launches loyalty program

The Tmall Luxury Pavilion has launched a New Retail-driven loyalty program allowing brands to create a personalised and seamless online-to-offline experience for customers.

Launched in August, the Pavilion aims to deliver the same brand exclusivity and tailored shopping experience online for China’s high-end consumers they would expect at a brick-and-mortar store. Through the new Luxury Pavilion Club, customers will also have access to exclusive offers, celebrity events, flexible payment options, priority purchases and door-to-door returns.

“This is the latest move from Alibaba to bring the online shopping experience to a new level with a premium touch,” Tmall fashion and luxury president Jessica Liu said at a launch ceremony in Shanghai.

With nearly 50 brands, including Burberry, Givenchy, Hugo Boss, La Mer, Maserati, LVMH-owned Guerlain and Zenith, the Pavilion offers products ranging from apparel and beauty products to watches and luxury cars. According to Tmall’s latest figures, more than 100,000 shoppers on the Pavilion each spend more than RMB1 million (US$159,000) a year.

All shoppers on the invitation-only Luxury Pavilion automatically become members of the new club. A premier option offers the most-exclusive offerings from the Pavilion as well as offline services, such as spa sessions at the Four Seasons in Shanghai courtesy of Guerlain or a personal shopping concierge.

Nearly half of the luxury consumers on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms were born after 1990 and account for more than 45 per cent of luxury purchases on the sites, says Tmall. A third of the shoppers on the Luxury Pavilion are in the same age group. Over the next three years, Tmall will focus on connecting luxury brands to this younger demographic and their rising buying power.

“We want to better serve the 100 million consumers that form the ‘new middle class’ and help them move closer to the lifestyle of their dreams,” Tmall president Jet Jing said.

One way Tmall plans to make those connections is through Alibaba’s digital-marketing capabilities. Its Uni Marketing platform uses analytics and insights from more than 500 million users to help brands find and engage with potential customers.

Alibaba Group chief marketing officer Chris Tung said that 28 of the brands on the Pavilion had signed on to use the platform, through which they had reached an average of 6.5 million consumers. One brand reached 30 million users during one of its campaigns by using Uni Marketing.