Tmall collaborating with VF Corporation

21 Jun '19

3 min read

Liu Bo (left), GM of Alibaba's Marketing Platform Business, and David Wagner (right), EVP-Global Strategy & Growth Platforms for VF, signing a strategic partnership in Hangzhou./Pic: Alibaba

Tmall, China’s largest B2C platform under Alibaba Group, is collaborating with VF Corporation to expand the global leader’s offerings of branded lifestyle apparel, footwear and accessories in China. The two have formed a strategic partnership and signed an agreement. VF is the parent company of apparel brands Vans, The North Face and Timberland.

Under the agreement, Tmall Innovation Centre (TMIC), the dedicated retail innovation arm of Tmall, will provide VF data-driven consumer analytics from the 654 million annual active consumers across Alibaba’s marketplaces, enabling it to tailor products for Chinese consumers. VF is the parent company of apparel brands Vans, The North Face and Timberland and is the first TMIC high-level partner in the apparel category.

“With Tmall’s unparalleled customer insights, strong technical support and in-depth market knowledge, we are eager to work with the world’s leading companies to help them bring their best products into the China market in the most-effective and efficient way. Through our partnership with VF, we are committed to helping VF create products that can precisely match the appetite of the Chinese consumer,” said Liu Bo, general manager of Alibaba’s Marketing Platform Business.

The partnership will focus on identifying new consumption trends, pre-launch testing, consumer profiling, and post-launch tracking to optimise product design, range and assortment to uncover unmet needs of Chinese consumers.

“We’re very excited to partner with TMIC to further unleash the power of consumer insights and analytics,” said David Wagner, executive vice president of Global Strategy and Growth Platforms for VF. “TMIC’s data-driven insights have enabled VF brands to better serve the Chinese customers, who make up one of the most-important markets for our business and brands.”

The deeper partnership follows a series of successful collaborations between VF and TMIC. Drawing on insights from pre-launch testing, VF’s accessories brand, Kipling, launched a new style of backpack that became the bestseller on Tmall among the brand’s products that have debuted in 2019. Earlier this year, Dickies, the workwear brand under VF, also collaborated with TMIC to come up with tailored products featuring elements of street culture for Chinese consumers, to meet increasing demand for the category, as highlighted by TMIC’s analytics.

Supported by Alibaba’s data technologies, Tmall, the world’s largest third-party online and mobile commerce platform for brands and retailers, has long been an effective channel for showcasing new products and a one-stop shop for consumers seeking the hottest new items online. (SV)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India

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