The past few months have seen the number of luxury online retailers mushroom across China. 'We don't want to miss out,' says Stephanie Horton, head of communications for New York-based Shopbop.com, during a recent visit to Shanghai for the Chinese version of the site.
It's understandable that Shopbop finds it hard to resist the booming Chinese market; the numbers are certainly looking good. Chinese internet users hit 485 million as of June this year, according to the China Internet Network Information Centre. And a study on China's online luxury shopping users, issued last week by China-based consulting group iResearch, says mainland spending on online luxury shopping is expected to reach 10.73 billion yuan (HK$13.1 billion) by the end of this year, a 69 per cent jump compared with last year.
Since the launch of TheCorner.com.cn by Milanese luxury internet retailer Yoox Group in September, Shopbop is one of the few international players to challenge home-grown sites such as Secoo, 5lux and various high-end shopping channels on portal websites such as Sina, Alibaba and Tencent. The crowded landscape also faces competition from international sites that deliver to China such as Asos, Gilt Groupe and Net-a-porter.
Earlier this year, Lane Crawford and Joyce jumped on the luxury e-commerce bandwagon, as well as a string of smaller Hong Kong-based operations such Zeuz.com and Aroxta, which went online last week.
For the retailer chains such as Lane Crawford and Joyce, the launch of their e-stores is as much for publicity as for business.
'We want to expand our store's experience online but also use the e-store as a channel to prepare for future physical stores opening and gaining new customers,' says Morgan Tan, Lane Crawford's vice-president of e-business.
While most China-based online shops focus on established designer brands such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Hermes at discounted prices, their international counterparts offer a mixed selection of high fashion and up-and-coming designers aiming to tap into the country's young and increasingly wealthy online shopping market.