Online retailers hope to challenge industry trend

Chinese online luxury retailers have big ambitions, despite the market's slower growth in recent years.

Sun Yafei, CEO of Fifth Avenue Globe - one of the earliest online luxury retailers in China, said she plans to double her website's turnover in 2013, as the company's sales in 2012 already doubled from the previous year.

As sales growth in China's luxury market declined in the past year, some luxury brands said they would slow the expansion of their store networks and integrate their channels in the market in 2013.

The Internet would be an effective distribution channel for the brands, Sun said.

Brands' attitudes to online retailers also changed in 2012, some business insiders said, although they remain cautious about e-commerce.

"It is much easier to get the brands' permission now," said Sun.

Fifth Avenue Globe has been granted permission from more than 300 brands and distributors to sell their goods, up from around 100 in 2012, she said.

The number of overseas buyers, which used to be a major source of goods for the website, is falling, Sun added.

In September 2012, Zoshow.com, a Chinese online fashion retailer, got permission from Italian luxury goods company Salvatore Ferragamo Italia SPA to sell its goods.

Its permission shows that international luxury brands have started to accept Chinese online retailers.