Luxury brands debut new products ahead of Valentine's Day

Following the Spring Festival holiday that witnessed strong consumption this year, companies took advantage of Valentine's Day, as more foreign brands launched limited editions of their products and strengthen marketing efforts online while being bullish on the China market.

International luxury brands debuted products on e-commerce platforms ahead of Valentine's Day to seize business opportunities arising from the peak consumption period. For instance, Cartier and Gucci launched new styles of necklaces, while Burberry debuted new earrings on Alibaba's e-commerce platform Tmall ahead of Valentine's Day.

Cartier said consumers could get complimentary engraving services on the boxes for purchases of rings and necklaces before Valentine's Day. The brand also launched augmented reality tryon functions on its WeChat mini programs, which have helped increase the conversion rate from try-on to purchase by 35 percent, according to data from consultancy Frost & Sullivan.

Besides, Bottega Veneta launched new handbags and wallets online with the design elements featuring red hearts, and the brand saw quick sales of those products after launch, Tmall said.

In addition to debuting more kinds of new products online this year, major luxury brands continued to enhance their online services for gifting scenarios, indicating their increasing valuation of the China market.

"Valentine's Day stands as one of the three major periods of luxury consumption in China besides Spring Festival and Chinese Valentine's Day, or Qixi. Based on our data, more than 60 percent of consumers are willing to pay for extra costs for the festival limited editions," said Li Jincan, consulting manager of Frost & Sullivan China.

"Launching limited editions on e-commerce platforms creates a kind of scarcity to help stimulate purchases, and brands can leverage the customer traffic of platforms to reach young consumers with high spending power and those who are difficult to reach at traditional offline stores, such as new middle-income consumers from second and third-tier cities," Li said.

She added that luxury brands have been upgrading their online services in China by enhancing customer stickiness through digital tools. For instance, Dior integrates its e-commerce consumption data with the offline system to achieve cross-channel accumulation of consumption points.

Besides, luxury brands have improved their instant delivery services online. Prada recently launched a one-hour gift delivery service on e-commerce platform JD to meet the last-minute gifting demand of consumers.

China's gifting market has picked up rapidly in the past few years, and by 2027, the size of the country's gifting market is forecast to reach 1.62 trillion yuan ($222 billion), indicating the vitality of the gifting economy and consumers' increased emphasis on holiday celebrations and emotional expression, according to market consultancy iiMedia Research.

Besides luxury brands, some home care brands also launched limited editions of products ahead of Valentine's Day to cash in on demand from quality-conscious Chinese consumers. For instance, British porcelain brand Wedgwood debuted limited editions of cups on China's e-commerce platforms.

As Chinese consumers have indicated a growing preference for improved quality of life, home care was the only segment that maintained growth among fast-moving consumer goods in China throughout the first three quarters of 2024. The category recorded the strongest volume growth compared to other sectors, according to a recent report by Bain & Company and Kantar Worldpanel.

"The Chinese government has launched more stimulus measures and issued guidance to support household consumption since late September. Although it will take patience and time for the stimulus to fully take effect, it is likely to progressively build consumer confidence, which will later translate into higher consumption," said Bruno Lannes, senior partner at Bain & Company.