Alibaba launches Luxury Soho for young, value-conscious luxury shoppers

Alibaba's Tmall has debuted a new discount channel called Luxury Soho. Aimed at young shoppers, the platform offers savings on seasonal luxury items. The company sees Luxury Soho as a way to introduce younger consumers to luxury brands through a more accessible price point.

Luxury Soho allows brands to manage their inventories and uncover new consumer insights to improve their engagement with different consumer segments across the product life cycle. Through the platform, brands can move select products and collections into an online outlet store to introduce the products to a specific audience.

The new outlet platform complements the existing Tmall Luxury Pavilion, which serves as a way for brands to manage online boutiques for new launches of luxury products.

Luxury Soho allows for more flexibility in how consumers shop for luxury items and how brands handle off-season or excess products online. Coach was one of the first brands to sell through the platform, and will be joined by Emporio Armani, Hugo Boss AG, Versace, Diesel, La Perla and Calvin Klein.

"[Luxury Soho is] a response to the need in the fashion industry for brands to be able to efficiently manage their inventory and stock – an issue that’s been compounded by the Covid-19 outbreak," Christina Fontana, head of Tmall Fashion and Luxury in Europe, explained in a Q&A emailed to FashionUnited. "Restricted movements led to reduced foot traffic in brick-and-mortar stores – including from Chinese tourists who were not able to travel to brands’ boutiques and outlets in Western countries like they used to."