The WorldFootwear.com had a conversation with Maria Amelia Odetti from Secoo, an online e-commerce platform selling luxury brands. We took the opportunity to discuss the main trends of the footwear industry, such as the digital, the importance of communciation and the status of the Asian market, with Maria Amelia and bring you the highlights of that conversation today.

The impact of digital
Social media marketing and any kind of digital marketing and tool search changed a lot the conversation between the consumer and brands. In particular, at Secoo, a digital platform, we believe that our real partnerships with brands could enhance the presence and the visibility of luxury brands for the Chinese consumer.

Secoo is the biggest ecommerce platform for luxury products and services in China and in Asia. It has 25% of the market share in China and 15% in Asia. What we offer to consumers is a range of products that go from experiences, such as food to travel, and also cars and even helicopters (yes, sold online), and garments and luxury products that could meet the customer’s needs and their requests.

Every two years we publish a white book on the consumer and that combined with the digital support we can have a better and detailed idea of what our customers want, who they are, where are they going, and this helps a lot. In this sense, big data is a way to secure that the marketing is well targeted.

It is more difficult to communicate in the sense that you need to know more, and every single market has its own characteristics. So, if you want to communicate your brands in Italy or in China you need to use different tools, different languages: the grammar and the way the language is used to communicate these products is different. You need to go to the market with someone who knowns the market in depth. You cannot go by yourself and try to understand it by heart.

The Asian market
Nowadays, Asia is the biggest market: one out of every three luxury items sold in the world is sold to Chinese customers; not necessarily in China, but also when they travel abroad and buy luxury items.