Swiss luxury brand Chopard to open store on JD.com

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Swiss luxury watch and jewelry brand Chopard is opening an online store on its platform, said China's second largest e-commerce giant JD.com on Wednesday.

This is the first time for this 157-year-old luxury company to open an online outlet in China.

Chopard has teamed up with JD.com because of its industry-leading services both online and offline, according to Liu Xia, president of JD's fashion segment.

Photo from Chopard's official website

This comes following a series of moves ratcheting up its competition with the country's No. one e-store Alibaba's Tmall.

JD.com is a latecomer to online luxury fashion industry compared to its rival Alibaba, as it started off and earned its reputation selling electronics and home appliances.

However its self-operated logistics system and trustworthy image amongst customers, unlike Alibaba which has long been haunted by counterfeit issues, has earned the company consumer and business confidence.

Before Chopard, renowned luxury brands including Gucci, Vivienne Westwood and Zenith have already joined JD.com.

Its partnership with British online luxury marketplace Farfetch with an investment of 397 million US dollars is seen as a major fightback against Alibaba's almost simultaneous opening-up of its "Luxury Pavilion" for China's high-end consumers.

VCG photo‍

Apart from this exclusive site for luxury goods, Alibaba also has been demonstrating its determination and confidence to eliminate counterfeits by closing down fake goods stores and forming alliances with luxury brands.

With over 500 billion yuan (74.2 billion US dollars) spent by Chinese consumers in 2016 alone, accounting for one-third of the world's total luxury sales volume, China stands as the largest contributor to this market.

With the enormous potential of luxury purchasing, China is expected to make up nearly half of global luxury consumption in 2025, as per CBN Data's report.