Alibaba Adds L’Occitane

Another skin care company hopes to find magic on Alibaba's Tmall shopping site. French skin care brand L’Occitane opened on Tmall this week, joining Estée Lauder and others on the site, which is China's primary online destination for big brands.

L’Occitane, whose online storefront opened Dec. 1 with products such as shimmery cherry-blossom lotion and dry-skin hand cream selling for about $40 apiece, saw an opportunity to launch on Tmall, China’s main online venue for big brands, because its goods were already selling on the platform without its permission, according to Andre Hoffmann, president of the Asia-Pacific region for L’Occitane.

“This is the only way we can assure that expired and damaged goods are not sold,” said Mr. Hoffmann. “Our goal is to be the only authorized seller of L’Occitane products” on Tmall.

“High-end brands are certainly of interest to Chinese consumers and we are going to continue to grow these brands on the (Tmall) site,” said an Alibaba spokesman.

Alibaba, whose $25 billion initial public offering of stock in September was the world’s largest, has promised high-profile brands that once they open an online store, it will purge goods sold on its platforms by retailers not authorized by the brands or do more to fight fakes. Despite the pledge, according to YipitData, about 1,400 listings of L’Occitane items can still be found on Tmall.

Even so, the firm’s analysis suggests that brands can gain better control of their image by opening a Tmall store since “the flagship store can get better positioning on the site and make gray-market goods less visible,” said Jordan Milan, a product analyst at YipitData.

Alibaba doesn’t comment on conversations with its customers or on third-party data, the company spokesman said.