Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research, volume 203

Proceedings of the 2021 3rd International Conference on Economic Management and

Cultural Industry (ICEMCI 2021)

Consumer Behavior and Marketing Strategy of

Apparel Luxury Goods on Chinese E-commerce
Platform
Yuyang Li1, *
1
Keystone Academy, Beijing, 101300, China.
*
Corresponding author. Email: Yuyang.li.1@student.keystoneacademy.cn

ABSTRACT
Since 2008, e-commerce marketing has become an important way to market luxury goods with the increase of online
luxury consumption in China. E-commerce platform not only promotes economic development but also gradually
becomes a way of life and consumption. The methods of this paper are literature analysis and summarization and
induction. This paper has analyzed the current status of the Chinese E-commerce apparel luxury market and the
problems and issues of the E-commerce platforms, mainly including product, price, and service issues. This paper
summarized the social motivational behaviors of E-commerce apparel luxury consumers, including conformist,
showing off and psychological comparison; and personal motives, including information gathering, convenience, self-
actualization, and hedonism. Based on the existing problems and consumer motivations, this paper has suggested four
marketing strategies: product strategies, pricing strategies, service strategies, and process strategies. This paper
analyzes the current situation of apparel luxury E-Commerce platform, organizes the consumer motivation, and
proposes the corresponding marketing strategy. It is a reference for luxury brands and luxury e-commerce enterprises
to carry out better online marketing strategies, which has certain guiding significance and provides research materials
for subsequent research.

Keywords: Chinese E-commerce Platform, Apparel luxury goods, Consumer Behavior, Marketing Strategy

1. INTRODUCTION purchasing luxury goods [2]. Nevertheless, E-commerce

platforms have only emerged in recent years with the
With the reduction of import tariffs, rapid advancement of the Internet. Hence the marketing
development of technology and emergence of strategies of online platforms are still in an immature
millennials (Born between 1980 and 1995, about 320 state. Without the right marketing strategy, the
million people) and Generation Z (Born after 1995, of development of the apparel luxury goods market in
whom about 80 million) consumers, China has become China will be hindered. Therefore, it is necessary to
one of the largest markets of luxury goods. In 2018, analyze the consumer behavior of apparel luxury good
Chinese consumers’ consumption of luxury goods consumers on Chinese E-commerce platforms and
reached 770 billion RMB, accounting for one-third of suggest pertinence marketing strategies to ensure the
the total global consumption of luxury accessories [1]. stable development of apparel luxury market in China
By 2025, the total consumption of luxury accessories is and mature E-commerce platform marketing.
expected to increase to 1.2 trillion RMB [1]. These
increases have largely promoted the growth of the In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith defines
national economy and benefited the economic consumer goods as necessities and luxuries, where
development of China. In E-commerce platforms, the necessities are those goods that people can use to
online penetration of luxury sales in China grew from support themselves to live, and those goods that are not
around 13% in 2019 to 23% in 2020. Generation Z necessities are luxuries [3]. For the not-necessities,
Consumers spend an average of five hours on mobile consumers must have some extent of incentives or
devices, which accounts for increasing consumers using motivations for purchasing them. Those motivations can
E-commerce platforms as the main channel for largely be categorized as social factors and personal

Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press International B.V.

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license -http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. 18
 Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research, volume 203

factors [4]. In social factors, consumers buying luxury 2. METHODOLOGY

clothes have the intention to show off their wealth,
achieve vanity and obtain a higher status. In personal 2.1. Literature Analysis
factors, some consumers are hedonism who buys luxury
goods as a way of self-enjoyment; others simply pursue The literature analysis is a method of obtaining
high quality and unique design luxury clothes [4]. With information based on a certain research purpose or the
the emerging of E-commerce platforms, consumers also topic of investigation. This method helps to gain a
value the efficiency and convenience it provides and the comprehensive and accurate understanding of the
advantage of gathering more detailed information online. problem to be studied. Its functions are to understand
In the Chinese market, 47.3% of E-commerce the history and current situation of the issue in question
consumers are traditional entry-level consumers who are and to help determine the research topic. It can form a
influenced by a variety of motivations rather than a general impression about the research object and get
specific one [5]. According to those consumer comparative and realistic information [7]. In this paper,
motivations, Fei has provided the following marketing literature analysis might include reports and industry
strategies. In terms of product strategy, enterprises report data on the current state of the E-commerce
should actively seek official brand authorization apparel luxury market, such as the consumption and
cooperation, provide overseas purchase services, and sales data. By using the literature analysis method, this
develop after-sales service products. Price strategy study examines the current state of the apparel luxury E-
needs to implement price transparency, and use the high commerce market, whether the market is performing
price strategy appropriately. In addition to actively well or not, which is important as the first step of the
building E-commerce word-of-mouth and TV research approach.
advertising, the promotion strategy should also attract
consumers with other new value-added services, such as 2.2. Summarization & induction
small interest-free loans for consumers or second-hand
luxury goods consignment [5]. Balasyan & Casais also Summarization and induction are a method of
points out that “the key success factors of luxury E- arguing from the individual to the general. It passes
commerce are product range, qualified team, provided through many individual examples or sub-arguments
service and webpage” [6]. and then summarizes the characteristics they share to
reach a general conclusion [7]. This paper will
At the present stage, most scholars focused on the summarize the consumer behaviors of apparel luxury E-
consumer behavior of luxury consumers and mainly commerce consumers in China. There are various
analyzed the motivations that promote consumers to buy motivations for consumers to purchase apparel luxury,
luxury products. In addition, many articles focused on summarized into social and personal factors. This paper
the analysis of offline luxury stores as online platforms will also summarize the main characteristics of
have only gradually appeared in recent years. Few consumer behavior to develop and optimize marketing
papers have studied consumer behavior specifically in strategies accordingly.
China's apparel luxury E-commerce platform and
provided targeted marketing strategies. 3. RESULTS
This paper will use the method of literature analysis
and summarization & induction. First, this study will 3.1 Chinese E-commerce apparel luxury
analyze luxury clothing brands' consumption status and market analysis
sales status on China's E-commerce platforms. The two
main E-commerce platforms which will be investigated 3.1.1 The status of Chinese E-commerce apparel
are Taobao and JD. Next, this study will analyze luxury market
consumer behavior characteristics of those apparel
luxury brands consumers using Taobao and JD. This Both the number and scales of apparel luxury market
part is mainly divided into two sections which are social E-commerce platforms are enormous, with China’s
motivation and personal motivation. Finally, this study luxury e-commerce platform selling 57.36 billion yuan
will optimize the existing marketing strategy and in 2016, up by 43.0% from 40.1 billion yuan in 2015 [8].
propose new marketing strategies according to the This boom cannot be overstated and will continue to
consumer behavior of China's apparel luxury E- grow rapidly in the future. The main platforms that
commerce platform. apparel luxury consumers choose to use are Taobao, JD,
Tmall Global and Du. The main consumers of those
apparel luxury markets are millennials. Millennials
spend an average of 17.5 hours per week on the Internet,
and about 98 percent of millennials use social media [9].
Hence, many millennials users have largely contributed
to the rise of apparel luxury E-commerce platform.

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Another notable point is that many Chinese e-commerce especially the repair and maintenance of goods, which is
platforms sell more mainly foreign clothing brands, an important factor that prevents consumers from
such as Louis Vuitton, Coach, Burberry, etc. However, buying [5]. "The service range of local comprehensive
in recent years, Chinese designer brands like Alexander luxury e-commerce platforms such as SECOO, Mei is
Wang are gradually being recognized by the public. so wide that it is difficult to return consumers’ expenses
or exchange their unsatisfying goods [8]. "
3.1.2 The challenges faced by apparel luxury E-
commerce platform 3.2 Analysis of E-commerce apparel luxury
consumers’ behavior and characteristics in
Despite the number and size of luxury E-commerce China
platforms in China are steadily increasing, many of the
platforms still have significant and non-negligible The consumer behavior of E-commerce platform
problems. apparel luxury brand consumers mainly originates from
consumers' purchase intentions. This paper will mainly
3.1.2.1. Product analyze the two major types of motivations, namely
social and personal motives.
First, most of the luxury clothing sold on online
platforms are the most popular and trendy styles, which
3.2.1 Social Motives
can lead to problems such as lack of supply and out of
stock. In this way, consumers will choose offline or “Social values and norms of social institutional rules
other shopping channels, causing the lack of consumer that arose from the side of family and other reference
base of the E-commerce platform. groups put pressure on consumer luxury purchase
Second, the supply source of some online platforms intention” [10].
is unclear, and these platforms usually do not have
official cooperation with luxury brands. Therefore, the 3.2.1.1 Showing off
authenticity of apparel luxury sold online is questioned
Under the category of social motivation, the most
by consumers, and this will become a very serious
common motivation is showing off. Consumers in this
problem if the quality of the products is not guaranteed.
category purchase luxury apparel to show their wealth
“However, although most platforms are equipped with
and status, intending to obtain social recognition from
the slogans "100 % certified products" and "Ten times
their surrounding people. Generally, show off
compensation
consumers pay less attention to the brand culture of the
apparel luxury, but value more how the public
3.1.2.2. Price
recognizes the brand. Among the overall E-commerce
In order to meet the needs of growing customers, apparel luxury consumers, this group accounts for
some e-commerce platforms will use low-price 22.3%, most of which are students and male consumers
strategies to attract consumers. This phenomenon is with immature consumption concepts [5].
evident in many platforms. “For example, 80 percent of
the luxury goods on ihaveu, Mei, Vip, Net-A-PORTER 3.2.1.2 Conformist
and Farfetchare under 10,000 yuan, with a small
The second type of consumer is conformist, who
proportion higher than 15,000 yuan and more than
follows the trend and conforms to bandwagon to pursue
50,000 yuan [8].” While this marketing strategy does
the most popular and latest luxury clothing. When
bring in considerable amounts of customer volume in
buying luxury products, they will consider whether the
the short term, it also leads to a tarnished image for
products are popular, conform to the trend and
platforms. If luxury e-commerce platforms continue to
especially the aesthetic trend, because their main
sell luxury clothing at lower prices, consumers will
purpose is to follow the trend. Therefore, E-commerce
question the authenticity and quality of the products,
platforms are considerably useful for conformists’
and the public will distrust these platforms. Therefore,
consumers to search for the most popular apparel luxury
e-commerce platforms need to find a reasonable balance
products online.
between discount and high price.
3.2.1.3 Psychological comparisons
3.1.2.3. Customer Service
The third type of social factor-driven consumers are
The customer service of the e-commerce platform
those who often compare themselves to others. They are
has also become a major problem. Luxury goods
largely influenced by their surrounding people, friends,
Brands are reluctant to provide after-sales service, and family. When others purchase apparel luxury
and the website after-sales service is not perfect, products, consumers who try to be preeminent would

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also purchase similar apparel luxury products to gratify 3.2.2.3 Self-actualization and hedonism
their own vanity. For these consumers, purchasing
apparel luxury products seems to be a competition, and Consumers who care less about vanity and status
they have a strong desire to excel others. They value purchase luxury apparel only for self-actualization and
brand recognition over brand culture since they want to hedonism. This type of consumers usually is prosperous
purchase the most luxury and valuable brands to win the and wealthy, they have purchased luxury brands for a
potential competition. long time. They value the cultural background and
quality of the apparel luxury that the brands offer. These
3.2.2 Personal Motives consumers consume luxury goods to satisfy their own
aesthetic and emotional needs, and most of them will
“Excellent quality, unique design are the most buy luxury goods to reward themselves for
important factors that personal driven consumers value commemorating certain moments that have special
when choosing luxury good” [11]. They do not need to significance to them. As they have rich knowledge of
use the brand to show off and do not want to have too luxury goods, they are bolder in purchasing products
much contact with the staff in the store. Luxury for them and are willing to try niche or luxury brands that have
is a way of life, reflecting the lifestyles and tastes. They not yet entered China. When choosing products, they
believe that expensive luxury goods guarantee high are not concerned with the price and brand recognition,
quality, good design and workmanship. but the quality and unique design [11].
Consumers are still not motivated by a single factor
3.2.2.1 Convenience to purchase luxury apparel, but rather are motivated by
Under the category of personal motivation, multiple motivations to spend. These individuals
convenience is a strong incentive prompting people to represent 47.3% of the overall consumer [5].
consume on E-commerce platforms. Some consumers
avoid contact with store sales, so online shopping is 4 DISCUSSION: CHINESE E-COMMERCE
more convenient and suitable for them. In addition, e- APPAREL LUXURY MARKETING
commerce provides consumers with a more efficient and STRATEGY AND OPTIMIZATION
convenient consumption experience. Consumers only
need to spend the minimum amount of time on the 4.1 Product Strategy
website to search for the goods they want, instead of
spending a long time in the physical store to choose the 4.1.1 Improve product quality
appropriate luxury clothing. Consumers who live in
remote areas also choose to buy appeal luxury goods via The core of marketing strategy is the product itself;
E-commerce platforms, or in times of special periods it is what the customer values the most. For apparel
like pandemics, people often choose to use E-commerce luxury e-commerce platforms, it is necessary for the
platforms to purchase luxury apparel. Although online platform and the merchant to guarantee the quality of
shopping sometimes faces the problem of consumer. the clothing. Their guarantees to the product quality will
Purchasing inappropriate clothing size, most consumers be more responsible than offline stores because
think that the return and exchange process is still very consumers are not able to physically see and touch the
convenient. goods, not to mention evaluating the quality of clothes.
Besides, apparel luxury is expensive. Consumers don’t
3.2.2.2 Information gathering want to bet on products that are not worth buying.
Therefore, the e-commerce platform must ensure the
The advantage of information brought by e- high quality of clothing luxury, otherwise, consumers
commerce platform to consumers is also not to be will not make a second purchase, and the platform will
underestimated. It is noticeable that consumers involve not build a strong customer base.
in purchasing luxury brands are more conscious about
product & make highly [4]. Therefore, consumers will 4.1.2 Cooperate with brands officials
use access to a large amount of commodity information
on the network platform and compare many A common problem in Chinese e-commerce
commodities. Consumers can also see other customers' platforms is counterfeit goods. Many consumers report
comments, further evaluating the product. However, in that the products they receive do not match genuine
physical stores, sales do not provide comprehensive and luxury goods, mainly due to unreliable purchase
true information about the products, taking longer. channels. Hence, it is essential for e-commerce
Therefore, the large amount of information and various platforms to cooperate with brands officials. Some e-
choices on the e-commerce platform are powerful commerce platforms, such as Taobao and JD, already
motives. have official brand cooperation bases, such as Coach's
official flagship store, Burberry's flagship store, etc.

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However, as more consumers choose to buy apparel 4.3 Service Strategy

luxury online, e-commerce platforms need to inject
more official brand partnerships to ensure the quality of 4.3.1 Optimize customer service
luxury goods, while enhancing the reputation of the
Many e-commerce platform users are not satisfied
platforms.
with customer service. The attitude of some online
salespersons is very poor, they are different from the
4.1.3 Cooperate with reliable overseas Daigou sales of retail stores, because it is an online platform, so
channel it is impossible to monitor the attitude of these
employees in real time. This will greatly affect the
In recent years, Daigou has become very popular.
consumer experience, and even consumers will
This is a new way of consumption, some merchants will
complain or leave bad reviews, affecting the reputation
go abroad to buy apparel luxury in bulk and bring it
of the e-commerce platform. Therefore, customer
back to China to sell, which provides consumers with
service is very important. The e-commerce platform
conveniences. However, Daigou is still in an immature
must make sure that the salesperson is always online,
stage, and some consumers have reported problems with
ready to answer any questions from consumers, and
fake products, low quality and high price. Therefore, e-
possess a good attitude. In addition, there are many
commerce platforms can cooperate with reliable
problems with the products during transportation. For
overseas Daigou to provide a more secure Daigou
example, express loss, express damage, slow receipt and
channel to consumers. On the other hand, many e-
other similar problems. Although e-commerce platforms
commerce platforms do not have access to foreign
mainly focus on selling goods, express delivery is also a
apparel luxury goods, and cooperation with Daigou will
very important step. Therefore, e-commerce platforms
be a good opportunity to provide overseas goods to e-
can cooperate with guaranteed courier companies to
commerce platforms.
give consumers the most perfect purchase and
transportation services.
4.2 Price Strategy
4.3.2 Improve after-sales service
4.2.1 Increase price concessions
Customer service in the consumer purchase process
E-commerce platforms can attract more customers is important, and after-sales service is even more
with discounts, coupons, freebies, and other price important. The problem with e-commerce platform to
concessions. Many stores will offer electronic coupons, buy clothing is that the size is not suitable, the style is
which drives consumers to spend repeatedly. In addition, not suitable, or the consumer is not satisfied with the
because consumers can compare the prices of products physical product. Some consumers reflect that the
at a glance when shopping online, many consumers will clothes do not fit after receiving the goods, but the
choose a lower price when purchasing products. Besides, business did not make a reasonable solution, or do not
e-commerce platforms can choose to do promotions allow consumers to return or exchange. Therefore,
during holidays, such as Christmas and Chinese New merchants need to inform consumers whether the
Year, when more consumers will buy apparel luxury to apparel luxury can be returned after the consumer
wear. receives the goods. Most clothing stores are obliged to
4.2.2 Implement price skimming provide consumers with the right to return the product
for seven days, and the e-commerce platform should
While some consumers focus on cheap prices, some handle the cost of the return.
quality-conscious consumers will choose the opposite.
For such consumers, the high price strategy is more 4.4 Process Strategy
applicable. When people see expensive luxury goods,
they will naturally deduce that the quality of the goods 4.4.1 Use big data and technology
is high and worth buying. Therefore, e-commerce
platforms can selectively increase the price of some In the era of big data, e-commerce platforms can use
goods to attract quality-conscious consumers. And when technology to help consumers buy more efficiently and
more customers consume the item, the merchant can conveniently. E-commerce platforms can personalize
lower the price. This strategy is also called price each consumer based on their purchase history,
skimming, in which a high price is set at the time of browsing history and search history. Recommending the
product launch, and then the price is gradually reduced right products to them on the homepage saves time and
as more competitors enter the market. makes consumers more dependent on the e-commerce
platform. “In the early days of the luxury époque, Louis
Vuitton hand wrote specific suggestions to a customer
to recommend particular travel bags for a transatlantic
journey to New York City. Today, big data and

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advanced analytics help brands find opportunities to 5.2 Limitation and prospect
provide services that are uniquely tailored to each
customer and occasion, making the brands appear as The main limitation of this paper is the lack of
authentic as Vuitton’s notes” [9]. Therefore, e- primary data, such as survey and interviews. The Survey
commerce platforms can make good use of big data and can be sent to apparel luxury E-commerce platform
technology to increase customer intimacy. users to investigate their experience with E-commerce
platforms and satisfaction rate. This will provide
4.4.2 3-D fitting customer service
reliable data to argue whether the E-commerce
With the development of high technology, 3-D try- platforms are satisfying the consumer’s need and what
on has become popular. For example, a domestic to improve in the future. Interviews to marketing
sneaker platform "Du" has a special 3-D fitting professions can be conducted to testify the effectiveness
customer service, where consumers only need to put of current marketing strategies of E-commerce
their cell phones at their feet to see how the sneakers, platforms. Hence, future studies should engage more
and to evaluate the suitability of the product. For primary sources to support arguments. The reliability of
apparel luxury brands, this will be a very good secondary data is also questioned. Some of the articles
opportunity to compensate for the missed opportunity are published by university students in China, who
that consumers cannot try on. More e-commerce might possess a biased view of Chinese E-commerce
platforms can use this technology to provide consumers platforms. The data of these articles might be inaccurate
with a reliable consumer experience, so that consumers or imprecise, with errors and outliers.
will also have a greater chance of buying apparel luxury
Future research can also analyze the effectiveness of
products.
Chinese luxury E-commerce platforms' marketing
strategies since nowadays, consumers' tastes and the
5 CONCLUSION development of technology are changing rapidly.
Artificial intelligence and augmented reality can lead E-
5.1 Summary main findings commerce platforms to a promising future.
The paper focuses on the consumer behavior and
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