Samsonite to expand retail presence with e-commerce website

Global luggage maker Samsonite International SA plans to launch its own e-commerce website while expanding its bricks-and-mortar retail presence in the Chinese mainland to increase direct-to-consumer sales. It will also cooperate with more Chinese designers to cater to the increased aesthetic demands of Chinese consumers.

"Online sales currently contribute 20 percent of the total sales in the mainland, on third-party platforms such as Tmall and JD, and it is the fastest growing sector. With the launch of our own e-commerce website, I think the sales will continue to grow in both online and offline platforms, because our website is not only used for selling products, but also to communicate with the customers and to market our brands," Samsonite CEO Ramesh Tainwala told China Daily.

The Chinese mainland is the second-biggest market for Samsonite, but Tainwala said it is the market the company considers most important, because Chinese customers are buying products not only inside China, but also outside the country.

"Today our business here accounts for 10 percent of the global business, but if we look at the goods sold to Chinese customers, the figure increased to 15 percent. Thus, what we do here influences the Chinese consumers buying outside of China," he added.

Samsonite has more than 250 stores in the mainland at the moment. It intends to set up 30 new stores across the mainland this year, while revamping 17 stores to make them more "women friendly", as female consumers tend to be willing to pay more for their favorite items than men. There will be 15 new stores set up under the brand Tumi, the luxury baggage maker Samsonite acquired in 2016.

Tainwala recognized that Chinese customers are becoming increasingly sophisticated in purchasing products. They are becoming more confident with regard to their choice of brands and products, trading up from mass products to premium products, and increasingly pursuing products with bolder designs.

"When I came to work in China 15 years ago, the Chinese people were basically buying a brand, looking for big logos. But now, they are more selective on the goods, they pay attention to the details of a product even far beyond what westerners would look at ... In my observation, now they are much more ready to go for bolder design than the western consumers would be, so we will use some local guest designers to design patterns specifically for Chinese consumers," he added.