Social commerce in China: the new frontier of e-commerce in the luxury fashion industry

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to deeply analyze the increasing role that social commerce is having on the Chinese e-commerce sector and how international luxury fashion brands are leveraging this new phenomenon to allow users to complete the whole customer journey without leaving social media platforms. Firstly, I will start by analyzing the current segmentation of Chinese luxury fashion customers, with reference to the co-existence of both traditional and modern features in consumption choices. Then, I will focus on the online luxury fashion industry in China, starting from its evolution to the present, and then covering the impact of Covid-19 on it, with examples of digital initiatives taken by luxury brands during the pandemic. The third chapter is devoted to the analysis of the concept of social commerce. Major social media apps in China, as WeChat (微信), Douyin (抖音), Little Red Book (小红书) and Weibo (微博), offer the opportunity for users to live a smooth and unique luxury shopping experience, as they discover brands and products, complete their purchases and share their opinions about them with others, all from the same app. On the other hand, social commerce also provides brands with the advantage of collecting more relevant information and data about users and customers to increase the level of personalization, the standard of services and develop new promotional and sales initiatives to convert users into customers in the Chinese market. Finally, I will present two case studies, related to the use of social commerce made by Burberry and Coach, to exemplify successful social commerce strategies and the new format of social retail.