Gucci debuting two flagship stores on Alibaba’s luxury platform

A global luxury brand is teaming up with a Chinese e-commerce giant.

Gucci is opening two digital flagship stores on Tmall Luxury Pavilion, Alibaba’s dedicated platform for the world’s leading luxury and premium brands. The first Gucci flagship store will open on the Tmall Luxury Pavilion on Monday, Dec. 21, offering the platform’s more than 750 million Chinese consumers access to Gucci’s fashion collections, including leather goods, ready-to-wear, accessories, watches, and jewelry. 

Gucci will open a beauty flagship store on Tmall Luxury Pavilion in February 2021. Operated by Gucci’s license partner Coty, the beauty flagship will provide access to Gucci’s full range of make-up and fragrances. Gucci is following in the footsteps of U.S. upscale fashion brand Marc Jacobs, which launched its digital flagship on Tmall Luxury Pavilion in September 2020.

Gucci launched its Chinese website, gucci.cn, in 2017, and has also developed and implemented a dedicated strategy ensuring a presence on all of China’s most important social media platforms. 

“Gucci has strategically invested in and cultivated a ‘digital first’ approach globally, including the establishment of a dedicated Chinese digital ecosystem over the past years,” said Marco Bizzarri, president and CEO of Gucci. “Today’s announcement therefore represents the next step in this strategy as we provide our customers in China with an authorized, customized e-commerce experience on the Tmall Luxury Pavilion in partnership with Alibaba.” 

“Chinese consumers are fueling the global luxury market and they expect an elevated, seamless, digitally-enabled experience,” said Michael Evans, president of Alibaba Group. “We look forward to working with the iconic brand Gucci to help them forge even greater success in the Chinese market by meeting the expectations of today’s digitally-native luxury consumers.” 

Launched in 2008, Tmall serves as a platform for consumers in China and overseas to buy both homegrown and internationally branded goods, as well as products not available in traditional retail outlets. In the 12 months ended March 31, 2020, Tmall was the largest third-party online and mobile commerce platform for brands and retailers in terms of gross merchandise value (GMV), according to Analysys.