JD.com, China’s biggest internet retailer by revenue, is launching a standalone luxury ecommerce platform to target buyers in the country’s smaller cities.

中国收入最高的互联网零售商京东(JD.com)推出一个独立的奢侈品电商平台，瞄准中国较小城市的消费者。

China’s mid-tier cities, defined as those smaller than Beijing and Shanghai but still with populations in the millions, accounted for more than 80 per cent of the country’s luxury online sales in 2016. Few luxury retailers have set up stores in these cities, prompting consumers to shop online.

中国二三线城市的规模不及北京和上海，但人口仍高达数百万，占2016年中国奢侈品在线销售额的80%以上。奢侈品零售商几乎没有在这些城市开设门店，促使这些消费者上网购买。

“Luxury brands have to have an online presence in China, to help themselves reach into second- and third-tier cities whose residents might not have easy access to purchase luxury items offline,” said Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group, a consultancy.

咨询公司中国市场研究集团(China Market Research Group)的董事总经理雷小山(Shaun Rein)表示：“奢侈品品牌必须在中国的网上确立地盘，以帮助它们自己进入二三线城市，那些城市的居民可能不容易在线下购买奢侈品。”

China is the world’s largest consumer of personal luxury goods — the country’s sales reached €74.7bn ($87.9bn) in 2016, almost one-third of the global total, according to Bain, a consulting group.

根据咨询集团贝恩(Bain)的数据，中国是全球最大的个人奢侈品消费国，去年的销售额达到747亿欧元(合879亿美元)，占全球总销售额的近三分之一。

JD’s platform, called Toplife, will feature “dust-free” warehouses in Shanghai and a delivery service with white-glove wearing couriers — as well as premium customer service, the company said. Brands on the platform include La Perla, Emporio Armani, Louis Vuitton and B&O Play.

京东表示，京东的奢侈品平台名为TOPLIFE，将在上海设“无尘”仓库，送货服务将由戴白手套的快递员完成，另外还提供高端客户服务。这个平台上的品牌包括La Perla、Emporio Armani、路易威登(Louis Vuitton)和B&O Play。

JD earlier this year invested $397m in a partnership with UK luxury platform Farfetch to serve China’s growing appetite for online luxury.

今年早些时候，京东投资3.97亿美元与英国奢侈品平台Farfetch合作，以满足中国对在线奢侈品越来越大的胃口。

JD trails its top competitor Alibaba in its luxury ecommerce push. In August, Alibaba launched a luxury goods section on its Tmall.com, selling goods from Burberry, Hugo Boss and La Mer. Luxury goods groups including Burberry, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Michael Kors have also launched ecommerce services in China.

在奢侈品电商领域，京东紧跟其最大竞争对手阿里巴巴(Alibaba)的步伐。今年8月，阿里巴巴在旗下的天猫(Tmall.com)上推出奢侈品频道，销售来自博柏利(Burberry)、Hugo Boss和海蓝之谜(La Mer)的商品。包括博柏利、古驰(Gucci)、路易威登和Michael Kors在内的奢侈品集团也在中国推出了电商服务。

“It’s not an easy win for JD or any other single player, and there are many companies who want to get into this space,” said Mr Rein.

雷小山表示：“对京东或其他任一参与者而言，想要取胜都不容易，有很多公司希望进入这个领域。”

Platforms need to gain shoppers’ trust that the goods they sell are authentic, given the prevalence of counterfeits in China, he added. They also have to persuade consumers to buy in China as opposed to going abroad, where luxury products are usually much cheaper.

他补充称，鉴于中国假货泛滥，平台需要获得消费者的信任，让他们相信它们销售的商品是真货。它们还必须说服消费者在中国买，而不是出国买。在海外，奢侈品通常要便宜得多。

Globally, online sales made up 8 per cent of the luxury industry in 2016, according to the consultancy McKinsey. Chinese consumers trail slightly in this segment, doing about 7 per cent of their luxury shopping online, despite Chinese consumers’ broad comfort with ecommerce.

根据咨询公司麦肯锡(McKinsey)的数据，全球而言，在线销售占2016年奢侈品行业的8%。中国消费者在这方面略微落后。尽管中国消费者对电商普遍放心，但中国消费者的奢侈品在线购物仅占到7%左右。

At the same time as online purchases are growing, offline stores are closing in China. Luxury retailers shuttered a net 62 luxury stores in China in the 12 months to July 2017, the largest number of closures of any country, according to a report by Bernstein, an asset manager.

与此同时，随着在线购物的发展壮大，在华的线下门店不断关门。根据资产管理公司伯恩斯坦(Bernstein)的一份报告，在截至2017年7月的12个月里，奢侈品零售商在中国净关店62家，为所有国家中最多。