Alibaba’s Tmall and VF Corporation Deepen Partnership in China

Tmall, China’s largest B2C platform under Alibaba Group, formed a strategic partnership with U.S.-based VF Corporation on June 13. The aim is to expand the global leader’s offerings of branded lifestyle apparel, footwear, and accessories in China.

VF is the parent company of several famous apparel brands such as Vans, The North Face and Timberland, and Tmall’s first high-level partner in the apparel category.

Under the agreement, Tmall Innovation Center (TMIC) will provide VF with consumer analytics from the 654 million annual active consumers across Alibaba’s marketplaces, enabling VF to tailor their products specifically to Chinese consumers.

“With Tmall’s unparalleled customer insights, strong technical support and in-depth market knowledge, we are eager to work with the world’s leading companies to help them bring their best products into the China market in the most-effective and efficient way,” said Liu Bo, general manager of Alibaba’s Marketing Platform Business. “Through our partnership with VF, we are committed to helping VF create products that can precisely match the appetite of the Chinese consumer.”

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The partnership will focus on identifying new consumption trends, pre-launch testing, consumer profiling, and post-launch tracking to optimize product design, range, and assortment to meet the needs of Chinese consumers.

“We’re very excited to partner with TMIC to further unleash the power of consumer insights and analytics,” said David Wagner, executive vice president of Global Strategy & Growth Platforms for VF. “TMIC’s data-driven insights have enabled VF brands to better serve the Chinese customers, who make up one of the most-important markets for our business and brands.”

Featured photo credit to Alizila