I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Barbara Kahn, Patty and Jay H. Baker Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania, about New Retail technologies, China’s consumer market and the future of luxury for her SiriusXM Marketing Matters show.

It was a great discussion on how Alibaba is enabling brands to digitize operations and position themselves for growth. Here are a few of the highlights from our conversation:

• Online marketplaces provide brands with the same kinds of benefits physical malls do. As more and more consumers turn to the convenience of e-commerce, brands must successfully recreate the offline shopping experience online. Alibaba’s digital marketplaces serve a function similar to the one malls do in the brick-and-mortar world. Alibaba builds infrastructure the same way a mall would, but in the digital world, providing an online space where brands can tell their stories and present their products to consumers. With 779 million shoppers across our platforms, our brand partners benefit from significant online traffic, just as tenants would benefit from foot traffic in a physical mall.
• Livestreaming is a powerful channel for engaging with customers and reaching new audiences. Tmall, Alibaba’s B2C e-commerce platform, provides an array of advanced digital tools that enable brands to connect with shoppers, including livestreaming capabilities, 3D store recreations and customer feedback channels. Cartier is among the luxury brands that have leveraged these tools to maintain their exclusivity while embracing digitization. During Alibaba’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, the brand livestreamed an exclusive exhibition that attracted an audience of high-net-worth consumers who wanted to experience the brand live.
• Brands can incorporate New Retail technologies at all levels. As brands strive to integrate online and offline experiences successfully, they must adopt digital solutions across their business in marketing and logistics, merchandise management, and fulfillment. Having an integrated interface will not only increase efficiency but allow brands to provide enhanced customer care. Allbirds saw very little disruption in sales in China during Covid because they digitized offline stores to integrate with their Tmall operation fully.
• The importance of China as a luxury market can’t be overstated. China is the largest consumer market for luxury goods and it will be a critical focus for luxury brands for years to come. Throughout the pandemic, China’s younger, highly curious consumers drove demand for global luxury goods. Having a digital presence in China on a marketplace like Alibaba’s Tmall Luxury Pavilion allows brands to tap this market and gather the kinds of data intelligence that can inform product development, marketing and other business decisions.

Listen to the whole podcast.