CCEE visits Europe: European shop Luisa Via Roma brings many big names to enter the Chinese market

Stefano Venza

Under the guidance of Zhejiang Government, Cifnews announced that it would partner with the Zhejiang Province E-commerce Promotion Association to hold the 2018 CCEE in Zhejiang. Then, Cifnews’ founder & CEO Barry Weng, VP Ken Zhao and the Global team set off for a visit to the European market.

The special trip calling for European collaboration not only adds an international element to the CCEE Zhejiang, which will be held in June but also follows the mission of Cifnews: to help global SMEs do cross-border business.

“Global brands are trying to take a share of China’s coveted e-commerce market“

The trend of globalization is becoming more and more obvious, and cross-border e-commerce is becoming more and more acceptable. In 2017, the total volume of retail import and export, via the cross-border e-commerce management platform of the customs, reached 90.24 billion yuan (about 13.2 billion dollars), a year-on-year increase of 80.6%. Global brands are trying to take a share of China’s coveted e-commerce market.

Italian culture has a profound influence on the fashion industry. Every year, the Milan Fashion Week also drains the world’s fashion consumption trends. It is also highly sought after by Chinese imported e-commerce industry players and online shopping consumers. When coming to the Italian fashion industry, Luisa Via Roma has to be mentioned. As Italy’s top luxury brand platform, it sells 600 world brands of clothing, shoes and hats bags and home products, including luxury brands such as Balmain, Chloé, Dsquared2, Dolce & Gabbana, Givenchy, Valentino, and fashion brands such as Mary Katrantzou, Alexander Wang, and Charlotte Olympia.

On Apr. 10, 2018, Barry Weng, founder, and CEO of Cifnews, Ken Zhao, VP of Cifnews, Guido Ghedin, COO of Cifnews Global and the global team visited the headquarters of Luisa Via Roma in Florence, and discussed in depth with Luisa Via Roma CEO and Director, Maria Odetti, on e-commerce operations sector and the Chinese market strategy. The two sides will then cooperate on the in-depth development of CCEE and Luisa Via Roma in the Chinese market. The European consulting company, OBOR, which is wholly merger and acquisition by Cifnews, is also expected to provide a series of services such as market research for Luisa Via Roma to access in the Chinese market.

"A visit to Luisa Via Roma’s office"

The Luisa Via Roma offline physical flagship store has been established on the Roman road in central Florence since 1930. What is more noteworthy is that its founder surpassed the forward-looking pattern of the era, allowing this boutique luxury store to have its own independent online store as early as in 1999, and it also became one of the earliest luxury shopping websites for online fashion trade. All online products of Luisa Via Roma are packaged in the Italian warehouse of the headquarters in Florence, and delivered by international direct shipping to over 200 countries around the world.

“Luisa Via Roma’s official website“

China is a blue ocean market that Luisa Via Roma valued and focused on. With young people around the world gradually becoming the main consumers of luxury goods. In China, consumers of luxury e-commerce in 2016-2017 are mainly concentrated in the 23-37 ages. And the GMV of China’s luxury e-commerce market has reached 57.35 billion yuan, (about 8.4 billion dollars), increasing of 80.2% compared with 46.5 billion in 2015. Therefore, compared with the U.S. market, China has a higher return on investment. This trend of buying by Chinese consumers continues to inspire the confidence of most global brands, including Luisa Via Roma, in the Chinese market.