Making purchases on WeChat, browsing hairdressers’ profiles and making appointments with them using a mobile app, and transforming yourself from a management trainee to a fashion blogger for an international fashion week are all activities made possible in today's digital marketing era.
The first Shanghai Fashion Web, which took place in the rooftop restaurant Kathleen’s 5 at the Shanghai Art Museum on September 13, addressed these new digital marketing trends in the Chinese fashion market, as well as many others. Gathering 150 professionals in the fashion and business industry and hosted by Velvet Group's founder and CEO Patrice Nordey, the event featured eight guest speakers including an independent designer, fashion e-commerce specialists, fashion social media gurus, and WeChat marketing service providers. Jing Daily was present for the event and has provided a summary of each presenter below. Chemical Distribution Industry
Glamour Sales (魅力惠) and Yoox Group are both fast growing e-commerce platforms in China, but their positioning and strategies differ. At the talk, Glamour Sales' CEO Thibault Villet and Yoox.com's regional manager Mimi Vong shared their flash-sale and online boutique marketing strategies, respectively. When asked whether or not it is challenging to sell luxury goods at “boutique prices” in China's online market, Vong believed that it depends on a brand's operating status in the country, stating that Emporio Armani, one of Yoox Group's past collaborators, runs a fairly successful official online store in China.
Yoox.com's regional manager Mimi Vong.
In addition to providing an introduction to the company's two new online platforms for the WeChat agency which services premium brands, Alexis Bonhomme, Curiosity China's general manager of business development, also demonstrated WeChat's new functions for a better user experience and a new B2C marketing framework.
Established in April 2013 and founded by Diana Tsai and Stephany Zoo, Bundshop is an online platform for exporting contemporary Chinese design. The company currently collaborates with fifty Chinese designers, selling high-quality stylish furniture, home accessories, jewelry, and stationery. Bundshop also provides gifting services for corporations; past collaborators include Standard Chartered Bank, Hotel Shangri-La, and Van Cleef & Arpels. The platform values customers’ visual experience and the stories behind each design. As the founders put it during their talk, “Bundshop is the first online platform that focuses on the 2Es—experience and e-commerce.” Tsai and Zoo also invited a leather goods designer they are collaborating with, Mary Huynh, to the talk and share her design concepts.
Leather goods designer Mary Huynh (R), seated next to Bundshop co-founder Stephany Zoo (L), shared her design concepts at the talk.
According to CEO Michael Shi, Hairbobo is a social media platform that connects hairdressers, salons, and clients. They currently have two products—Hairbobo.com (波波网) and a mobile app. Through the platform, hair salons can gain brand publicity, provide appointment-scheduling services, and maintain client relationships; hairdressers can obtain training and employment information and gain publicity; and clients can browse hairstyles, obtain hair care suggestions from professionals, get discount information, and schedule appointments. The app is growing quickly: there are currently 300,000 registered hairdressers, and every day, 60,000 new hairstyle photos are uploaded, according to Shi, who also gave a demonstration of the app's interactive functions.
Established in 2007, social media platform P1.cn now has more than three million influential, affluent users of the new generation. At the talk, Svante Jerling shared his experience as one of the founding members, and introduced features of the platform, including HD-image sharing and brand pages. P1.cn is known for its role as a leading fashion database, compiling six million street snaps from 150 professional photographers from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong. P1.cn also provides information on a specific trend, for example, women's changing clothing color preferences in a major city during a certain period of time. In addition, P1.cn is planning to publish a book on fashion trends by the end of the year.
Fashion blogger Peter Xu’s speech was the climax of the event. He shared his fascinating journey from a management trainee to a fashion blogger for international fashion weeks. A self-proclaimed fashionista with 1,280,000 followers on Weibo, Xu is frequently invited to represent brands in online marketing campaigns. Xu straightforwardly stated his observations on blogger-brand collaborations in China, saying that most are generally uncreative and brands to think outside the box in order to create truly successful campaigns.
Leather Care This article originally appeared in Chinese. Translation by Jasmine Lu.