Zara dreaming big with Tmall presence

Spanish retail chain Zara on Monday launched an online store on Tmall.com, China's largest brand and retail platform, to further expand its presence in the burgeoning e-commerce market and to reach out to more customers in China's second-and third-tier cities.

Zara has had an official e-commerce website operational since 2012 and more than 450 physical stores across the country. The Tmall store will offer shoppers the same products that are available in those channels at the same price, according to Zara.

Tmall officials told China Daily that the deal with Zara's parent company - the Spain-based Industria de Diseno Textil SA, also known as Inditex Group - is the result of over two years of negotiations and involved the exchange of over 10,000 e-mails.

Qin Xin, the manager for international business at Tmall, said it takes time, patience and frequent communication to educate internationally renowned brands on Chinese e-commerce platforms.

Last year, Inditex decided to feature its two younger brands Pull&Bear and Bershka on Tmall. A month later, the two brands sold well, providing data, feedback and service experiences to the Inditex officials and helped them make more accurate decisions in terms of new store layouts in the second-and third-tier cities, according to Qin.

Wang Xiaoxing, an analyst with Analysys International, said international brands such as Zara with global influence and the capacity of designing, manufacturing and marketing, have their own pricing power when collaborating with Tmall and would be able to achieve the same price online and offline.

"Joining hands with China's leading online platform will become a trend for international clothing brands," said Wang.

The cooperation with the Alibaba Group will add another distribution channel for the brand and also open up the markets in smaller cities in third-and fourth-tier regions where setting up physical stores could prove challenging for international clothing brands, he said.

Fast-fashion brands have quickly emerged to woo Chinese consumers who are interested in style and fashion at affordable prices. According to statistics from Euromonitor, the apparel market in China has been booming, rising to 1.53 trillion yuan ($245 billion) in 2013 from 904.78 billion yuan in 2008 .

To date, there are more than 4,000 international brands from 45 countries on Tmall, including Burberry from the United Kingdom and The Gap and Old Navy from the United States. Japanese brands like Uniqlo and Muji also receive large volumes of visitors on Tmall.

Still, many foreign brands are hesitant to join the platform. On Sept 10, when H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB unveiled its own online website, its outdoor advertisements were displayed on bus stops and new media channels such as video websites.