Italian luxury jewellery brand Pasquale Bruni announced its decision on 29 January to enter the Chinese market with a virtual storefront on the country’s e-commerce giant, Tmall Global to promote products through a large, existing userbase as well as minimising inventory risk.
As of 30 January, the brand geared up for its official presence on multiple Chinese social media platforms including Xiaohongshu (lifestyle-sharing community), WeChat (instant messaging app) and Weibo (microblogging site) which have been registered already.
In the meantime, the brand’s online flagship store is being built and is set to open to the public in Q1 of 2023. The brand expressed its strong confidence and optimism towards the Chinese marketplace and hopes this move will further leverage Pasquale Bruni’s brand awareness.
Founded in 1967 and named after its founder Pasquale Bruni, the Italian label made its name in the jewellery industry through its delicate hand craftsmanship blended with distinctive brand characteristics. The five-petal flower is the signature symbol of the house and its exquisite feminine glamour has won over the hearts of female consumers at home, with many influencers joyfully sharing posts about their Pasquale Bruni collections.
Among all the luxury categories, jewellery and watches were most favoured by Chinese consumers, contributing to almost half of the country’s luxury goods sales revenue for years according to Statista. Prior to the pandemic, the top ten most established luxury players all had their brick-and-mortar stores in the country due to Chinese shoppers’ incredible passion for high-end items along with their astonishing spending power.
Nevertheless, the lengthy toll COVID has had on China has largely changed the retail landscape, resulting in almost 23% of China’s luxury goods being sold on e-commerce platforms, which has increased by 13% yearly. Furthermore, the bourgeoning live streaming industry has also contributed to the online shopping scenario with approximately 60% of shoppers placing their orders during or immediately after watching the luxury brands’ live stream sessions.
The aforementioned factors indicate that the launch of Pasquale Bruni’s Tmall flagship store can be considered a safe step, as it provides the brand a chance to conduct market testing whilst avoiding the inventory risk of a physical store as well as the considerable rent cost.
More interactive online services such as VR try-ons, online product consultations and personalised jewellery design can also be initiated to attract consumers’ attention amongst all the mesmerising campaigns. In the long run, however, physical shops are still needed to better engage with consumers and showcase products especially in the post-pandemic era where the offline retail market in China is gradually rebounding.
