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了在中国城市地区寻找有钱的消费者外，奢侈品生产商正在一个新地方开店：中国互联网。安普里奥•阿玛尼(Emporio Armani)率先做出了尝试，上周在世界上增长最快的奢侈品市场之一通过自己的网站启动了网络销售业务。
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
YOOX SpA的创立者兼首席执行长马切蒂为阿玛尼创建了中国网站。
其他公司──包括PPR SA旗下古琦(Gucci)、巴宝莉(Burberry Group PLC)和意大利制鞋商Tod's SpA──说它们也有计划要从中国呈爆炸式增长的网购人群中获利。
高端品牌决定通过互联网直接向中国消费者销售手包和服装，这表明它们试图更加深入到一个消费者渴望通过购买奢侈品来显示其新财富的国家。
几年前消费者就已经可以在中国的网站上买到奢侈品了。但它们通常是通过中间商而不是直接来自相关品牌，而且中间商提供的款式很多都已过季。西方的网站对于中国消费者来说可用性有限，部分原因是因为不是所有公司都会向中国发货。此外，高额的中国进口关税也令消费者不愿从品牌的海外网站上购物。
东部大型城市如北京和上海的竞争日益加剧。同时，在中国中部和西部地区，新财富的产生速度是最快的，那里的经济因政府基础设施支出而得到提振。
时尚业巨头去年你争我赶地在中国知名度不那么高的城市开设店面，如内蒙古呼和浩特和云南昆明，而以前很少有西方零售商进入这些地区，当地主要由家庭式商店占据。
创建于2006年、总部位于北京的奢侈品电子商务零售商呼哈网(Wooha)创始人连庭凯(Corey Lien)说，在呼哈网每月购买奢侈品牌的15,000至20,000人中，中国内陆地区的消费者占到了近60%。这些人的购物开支往往也要高于大城市的购物者，后者有更多的实体店可供选择。呼哈网说，云南消费者的单笔购买金额平均为3,865元（约580美元），相比之下北京的仅为1,836元。尽管呼哈网的库存直接来源于时尚公司，如Steve Madden和Miu Miu，但仅有30%的库存是当季商品。
据咨询公司贝恩公司（Bain & Co.）说，从中国消费者在全球的购买量来看，中国是全球第二大奢侈品消费市场，并将在未来几年取代日本成为第一；去年奢侈品在中国的销售额上涨了20%，达到92亿欧元（121亿美元）。
据易观国际（Analysys International）统计，中国第三季度电子商务销售额增至人民币1342亿元（201亿美元），比去同期翻了一倍。
然而，许多奢侈品品牌不愿通过普通零售网站销售，担心质量控制和客户支持会有问题。同时还担心，在这种消费者通常寻求高折扣的地方销售会损害其品牌价值。中国交易量最大的电子商务网站、阿里巴巴集团旗下的淘宝网说，其去年的交易额为300亿美元，其中大部分靠低于实体店的价格。
咨询机构麦肯锡公司（McKinsey & Co.）驻上海副董事安宏宇（Yuval Atsmon）说，互联网能提供很多机会，但同时也伴随着巨大的风险；许多奢侈品品牌都不愿涉足进来。
YOOX通过网络和电话提供客户支持服务，同时还有次日送货服务。每件商品都装有无线电频率识别芯片，对商品从上海仓库发至消费者的过程中进行全程追踪。
苏州一家国营保险公司人力资源经理韩欣（音）说，奢侈品开始在网上销售让她很激动。30岁的韩欣说，她迫不及待地希望她最爱的品牌香奈儿（Chanel）能够开始网销。
她说，我会第一个尝试在线购物，因为我觉得网店可选择的种类会比实体店多，还可能会更便宜。第二点也许会让她失望，因为阿玛尼（Armani）等公司说他们计划在中国网销的产品以原价出售。
中国电子商务展现出的机会太多太大了，让人不得不重视。据弗瑞斯特研究公司（Forrester Research）统计，约80%的网购者年龄都在45岁以下，在美国这个比例是30%。
YOOX创始人马尔凯蒂说，我们认为我们能打造一片新天地，使互联网代表美丽和奢侈，而不仅仅意味着折扣。
Laurie Burkitt
（本文版权归道琼斯公司所有，未经许可不得翻译或转载。）
Emporio Armani led the way, opening online sales last week through its own website in one of world's fastest growing markets for luxury brands.
'This is a strategic move that will open up luxury to the entire nation,' said Federico Marchetti, founder and chief executive of Milan-based YOOX SpA, which created the site for the Giorgio Armani SpA label. Mr. Marchetti said at a news conference that YOOX plans in the next year to open Chinese sites for three or four clients he didn't name. Dolce & Gabbana Srl, Ermenegildo Zegna Holditalia Spa and Valentino SpA are among the e-commerce company's 23 clients.
Other companies -- including PPR SA's Gucci, Burberry Group PLC and Italian shoemaker Tod's SpA -- say they also have plans to cash in on China's exploding population of online shoppers.
The decision by high-end brands to sell their handbags and clothing directly to Chinese shoppers via the Internet marks an attempt to push deeper into a nation with consumers eager to mark their new wealth by buying flashy labels.
Luxury goods have been available for several years on the Chinese Web. But that generally has been through middlemen who offer an array of brands, many of them out-of-season, rather than directly from the labels. Western sites are available to Chinese shoppers only to a limited degree, in part because not all company sites offer shipping to China. Also, steep Chinese import duties discourage buying from vendors' overseas sites.
Competition in major eastern cities such as Beijing and Shanghai is intensifying. Meanwhile, new wealth is being created fastest in central and western China, where the economy has been boosted by government infrastructure spending.
Fashion giants have scurried in the past year to open stores in China's lesser known cities, such as Hohhot, in Inner Mongolia, and Kunming, in Yunnan province, where few Western retail outlets had ventured before and mom-and-pop shops dominate the landscape.
Hinterland customers make up nearly 60% of the 15,000 to 20,000 people who buy designer labels each month from Wooha, a Beijing-based luxury e-tailer that started in 2006, said founder Corey Lien. Distant customers also tend to spend more than shoppers in bigger cities, who have more physical stores to choose from. Wooha said customers in Yunnan province spend an average of 3,865 yuan ($580) per purchase compared with 1,836 yuan for customers in Beijing. While Wooha's inventory comes directly from fashion companies, such as Steve Madden and Miu Miu, only 30% of its stock is from the current season.
China is the world's second-largest market for luxury brands when counting purchases by Chinese consumers world-wide and is set to overtake Japan for No. 1 in a few years, according to consulting firm Bain & Co. Chinese sales of luxury products surged 20% to 9.2 billion euros ($12.1 billion) last year, Bain said.
E-commerce sales in China jumped to 134.2 billion yuan ($20.1 billion) in the third quarter, doubling from a year earlier, according to Analysys International.
But many luxury brands are reluctant to sell through general retail websites for fear of poor quality control and consumer support. The labels also worry they will erode brand value by selling in an environment where consumers typically go to find deep discounts. China's largest e-commerce site by number of transactions, Alibaba Group's Taobao.com, says it drew $30 billion in transactions last year, largely by undercutting brick-and-mortar retailers on prices.
'The Web offers major opportunities but also comes with big risks for this sector,' said Yuval Atsmon, an associate principal at consultant McKinsey & Co. in Shanghai. 'Many have been reluctant to rush in.'
YOOX offers customer-support services -- online and by phone -- as well as next-day delivery. Each item is tagged with a radio-frequency identification microchip that allows YOOX to track the product from Shanghai warehouse to consumer.
Han Xin, a human-resources manager for a state-owned insurance company in Suzhou, 66 miles west of Shanghai, said she is thrilled that luxury items are hitting the Internet. She can't wait for Chanel, her favorite brand, to go online, says Ms. Han, 30 years old.
'I'll be the first to try online shopping because I assume they'll have a wider selection than the physical stores and they'll probably be cheaper too,' she said. She may be disappointed on the last point, since Armani and other companies say they plan to sell their products online in China at full price.
The opportunities e-commerce presents in China are too great to ignore. An estimated 80% of online shoppers are less than 45 years old, compared with 30% in the U.S., according to Forrester Research.
'We think we can create a place where the Internet will mean beauty and extravagance, not just discount,' said Mr. Marchetti, of YOOX.
Laurie Burkitt
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