Give value, not discounts: Luxury brands can offer exclusive services for unmatched value during shopping festivals – Coty SEA

Mega shopping festivals take place across Asia throughout the year with the most famous being Singles’ Day held on November 11.

Historically, these festivals have been characterised and made wildly successful by the proliferation of heavy discounts and promotions.

“These are key consumption moments not only in China but in SEA, where consumers are looking for deals,”​ explained Katia Darde, digital, e-commerce & CRM director for South East Asia, Coty​.

The success of Singles’ Day, launched by Alibaba, inspired more of these events such as the 6.18 festival initiated by JD.com, as well as Lazada’s 12.12 campaign.

And these are just the major ones. In SEA, shopping events are a monthly occurrence towards the end of the year with 9.9 and 10.10 in addition to 11.11 and 12.12.

These can present a challenge for luxury brands, which potentially risks issues like diluting brand equity with heavy discounts.

“We need to be careful to give them value, but not through high discounts. This is a key question when we are working on prestige brands. We don’t want to do big discounts and looking promotional,” ​said Darde during the inaugural Beauty Forward Summit hosted by CosmeticsDesign-Asia​.

However, consumers have become accustomed to being presented with value-for-money deals.

“But we’re on channels where consumers are coming for deals. So how can you really make a huge difference and why would consumers shop on your flagship store online when you can buy very high discounted products on other channels?​

The value of exclusives​

Over the past few years, the American multinational has been steadily building the online presence of some of its most well-known fragrance brands in SEA with partners like e-commerce major Lazada.

With the foundations in place, the company was able to build upon it to offer exceptionally high-value services that are not available offline.

For instance, Coty brands such as Calvin Klein, Chloe, Marc Jacobs, and Hugo Boss have engraving services that can only be obtained through their respective Lazmall flagship stores.

“We are also partnering we key retailers such as Lazada and Sephora to make sure we have services that help us address and overcome the escalation of promotions and discounts,”​ said Darde.

For more insights from Coty, you can rewatch Beauty Forward 2024 on-demand by registering here​.