LVMH Watch and Jewelry has been slowly taking over the Watch and Jewelry segments on Tmall as Richemont appears to deprioritize the platform.

At the start of 2022, Tmall was missing some of the biggest Watch and Jewelry players – Tiffany & Co. and Bulgari showed no signs of adopting the platform, and during this time Richemont had a consolidated hold on the platform.Historically Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels have been two of the top performers at an overall luxury level – and the group held a commanding average market share of 68% during 2022.

Things started to change with the introduction of Bulgari in September 2022 – with initial success, the brand really started to pickup by Valentine’s Day 2023, over taking the previous LVMH star on the platform FRED Jewelry.

Throughout 2023, the market share started to shift from Richemont to LVMH – with Richemont moving from 67% in Q1 to 57% in Q4, and LVMH 8% in Q1 to 12% in Q4.This is not to say that this is a coup from LVMH, sneaking in and stealing market share. The Richemont powerhouses have gradually been dialing back their promotions on the platform (as an example of this Cartier had zero products with interest free payments during 11.11 in 2023, down from a significant assortment in 2022 and 2021), resulting in an overall decline in revenue.

This signals a strategic move away from the platform and the financial reports from 2023 reflect a strong offline performance from the China market for Richemont.It is interesting however that Richemont is moving in the opposite direction to LVMH W&J – I recently wrote about Tiffany, CHAUMET and Hublot launching on the platform – the result? 2024 market share of W&J across Tmall flagships has reached more than 30%.

Tiffany especially has had a strong start with nearly 50% more revenue in the first three months compared to the first three months of Bulgari on Tmall. This narrative represents a microcosm of strategic decisions that are being made across the China luxury market as we enter a period of uncertainty. Do brands look towards new channels in the hope of capturing the Future Core Consumer (FCC), often requiring high acquisition cost, and entry level assortment or instead focus on consolidating channels that may be aligned toward the Current Core Consumers (CCC) and building greater depth in terms of loyalty.In reality, a holistic strategy is needed and the current situation between Richemont and LVMH is perhaps a reflection of which side the groups are tackling the current situation from.