Not wanting to miss out on the jewelry opportunity sister brand CHAUMET officially launched on Tmall under the mini-program model last night (January 3rd).

This represents one of the last jewelry brands to open on Tmall from LVMH’s Watch and Jewelry brands listed on their website (with only REPOSSI remaining, which has little presence in China after a brief search). Additionally, it is also one of the last of the big jewelry brands moving onto the platform outside of LVMH – with the notable other omission being Harry Winston.

Jewelry has been one of the categories that has shown stronger resilience during the changes seen in 2023 in the China market. With high consumer interest towards gold (a typical investment in China when economic uncertainty is on the rise) as well as pearls.

It seems that jewelry brands are not wanting to miss the opportunity of new customer acquisition that platforms such as Tmall offer.

The use of the mini-program model as the new MO for brands is also interesting. There are pros and cons to the model, the pros being a much more brand focused and controlled experience – the UI is much more customized than the typical TMall page with a tighter look and feel, the cons are a limited integration into TMall services.

The move has answered the question posed last week and given the trend it should only be a matter of time before we see other W&J brands within LVMH follow suite – Hublot being the most notable to keep an eye on (an interesting move if it happens given the higher price point).The next question that will be interesting to keep an eye on is whether brands with current flagship stores not under the mini-program model will lobby to move toward them, essentially creating a closer look and feel to a WeChat mini-program aggregator for luxury rather than a standalone platform – Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels would be ones to watch for this move.