LONDON — Saint Laurent has joined the luxury speed-to-market crowd in China via a deal with the retail platform Farfetch, which earlier this summer inked a deal with Chinese e-tailer JD.com.
Farfetch said Tuesday that Saint Laurent will be the first to benefit from that agreement: Collections from Saint Laurent stores in China will be integrated into the Farfetch platform, starting with those in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong.
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This follows the recent launch of dedicated Chinese web sites from brands including Bally, Gucci and Louis Vuitton.
In addition to same-day delivery, in October Saint Laurent will be the first luxury brand to offer 90-minute delivery in China via Farfetch to customers in Shanghai and Beijing, followed by Hong Kong, leveraging the 90-minute delivery service that Farfetch already offers in 10 cities globally.
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Farfetch said its improved China platform will allow Saint Laurent to reach luxury consumers digitally “at scale, with a focus on the Chinese Millennial customer.”
Francesca Bellettini, president and chief executive officer of Saint Laurent, said the collaboration marks an important step in the company’s global omnichannel strategy, “and it gives to us the opportunity to further consolidate our leadership on the Chinese market.”
José Neves, founder, co-chairman and ceo of Farfetch, said that e-commerce “is the only route to fully penetrating this market.” He said that, until now, doing online business in China at scale was “incredibly complex for luxury brands, and this is why we have built an unrivaled platform for China.”
As reported in June, JD.com has invested $397 million in Farfetch and the partners said their aim was to open the “ultimate gateway for bringing luxury brands to China,” an $80 billion market.
China is already Farfetch’s second-largest market, and is set to grow more as the platform uses the partnership to expand. Farfetch users in China will also gain access to JD Pay and JD’s microcredit channel Baitiao.
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