With its enormous population of 1.4 billion and rapidly emerging middle class, China represents a major opportunity for Clarins, who has gained 5,000 to 10,000 new subscribers per month and reports a higher average order value in the country than in Europe or the U.S. by as much as 30 per cent.
While these sales still represent a relatively small portion of overall sales in the country, China is one of the world's fastest growing markets, and according to Forrester Research; “Online retail is expected to grow from $169.4 billion in 2012 to $356.1 billion by 2016, surpassing U.S. e-commerce sales.”
“Almost one third of online orders in China come from locations where Clarins does not have a physical point of sale presence,” adds Clarins China & North Asia E-Commerce manager, Julien Chiavassa.
Despite the company's products being available via popular Mainland commerce sites like Taobao and T-Mall, the E-Commerce manager says it had a strong desire to establish a more official, direct connection with its customers that would provide it with direct control over pricing and brand presentation.
Mastering an online presence comes with its challenges
According to Chiavassa, although the website is expected to become the largest Clarins store in China, it is also a country that is still relatively closed to the outside world for both cultural and political reasons which presented several challenges back in 2012.
He then points to legal and regulatory challenges with regards to licensing requirements for operating a transacting site, as well as technology and infrastructure challenges, including operating within the restrictions of the 'Great Firewall of China.'
Another big challenge he mentions was the use of and integration with key consumer engagement technologies, such as China-specific social networks and search engines.
"Many different social networks are banned in China, including Facebook and Twitter, and even Google is very hard to access, so we had to rethink and localize a lot of different features on the global website to fit Chinese needs, including switching all international social networks to local social networks."