Sports Weekly All Media Reporter Peng Lei “If you dare to open it, I will dare to buy it…” Such a slightly joking and enthusiastic comment scrolls below the AC Milan club’s Chinese feed. For three consecutive days, AC Milan has been counting down. Enthusiastic fans also quickly spotted the familiar “cat” from the background silhouette. That’s right, on April 30, 2022, the AC Milan flagship store officially entered Tmall, which is also the club’s first e-commerce flagship store in China.
AC Milan enters Tmall
Through the Tmall flagship store, “Rosenelli” (nicknamed by AC Milan fans) will be able to purchase the club’s official authentic products with confidence, including products jointly developed with official partners and popular products, such as 1996 retro series, 2021/ 22 season home jersey and fourth jersey. In addition, the cooperation with Tmall will enable the club to develop customized and exclusive products that fit the general consumption habits of the Chinese market, such as the AC Milan single-label series that has been launched in the AC Milan store, which is in line with AC Milan’s innovative spirit on and off the field. .
As an old Serie A club, AC Milan, known as the “Rosé and Black Army”, has more than 146 million fans in China. In the past 7-8 years, AC Milan’s poor performance has made many fans extremely depressed. But it is impossible to get rid of powder, and what everyone is waiting for is an opportunity. From returning to the Champions League after a lapse of seven years last year to leading Liverpool at Anfield in the new season, the tears of the middle-aged uncles in the stands vented the emotions of Milan fans. Today, AC Milan has created miracles again and again in the battle for the Serie A championship. Such achievements are awakening the passion of the massive “Rosenelli”. It is conceivable how such passion will be transformed into consumption power!
AC Milan Football Club Chief Revenue Officer Kasper Stischweig said: “With the opportunity of opening a new online store, AC Milan is providing an excellent customer experience to many Rosenelli in China, which is It has become more and more diverse and meets their habits and needs.” Objectively speaking, Milan fans are generally middle-aged and have considerable spending power, but what they need is a high-quality platform and a product system that is more in line with the consumption habits of Chinese fans.
Rodrigo Cipriani Foresio, General Manager, Southern Europe, Alibaba Group, said: “I am very pleased to welcome AC Milan, one of the most successful and beloved football clubs in the world, to the Tmall. This will bring many Roseannes closer to their favorite teams through a unique shopping experience with the latest digital innovations.”
A number of football giant clubs settled in Tmall
At present, more than ten top European football clubs and national teams have opened stores on Tmall. In addition to football, IPs for the Olympic Games, Asian Games, NBA, and UFC, the world‘s top mixed martial arts event, have also entered Tmall.
Specific to football, Tmall has now settled in nine major international football giants, the top three from Serie A – Milan duo and Juventus, the top two Bundesliga – Bayern and Borussia Dortmund, French hegemon Paris and Premier League Manchester City , Arsenal and Tottenham.
Among them, Bayern Munich has entered Tmall International to reach domestic fans in the form of overseas flagship stores since 2015, and entered domestic Tmall in 2019, making delivery faster and avoiding tariffs and cross-border returns and exchanges. It improves the operational efficiency and experience, and reflects the increasing attention paid to Chinese fans. The impressive Bayern has won the Bundesliga championship for 10 consecutive years, and every time the championship is hot, a commemorative medal will be put on the shelves to let fans share the joy at the first time. This year’s championship model has also been put on sale, and the number of visitors on the night of the championship day was four times that of the usual.
With a steady rise, Arsenal fans are encouraged by their gratifying results in the Premier League this season. Hangzhou Fude, the domestic e-commerce operator, has also provided fans with a wide range of jerseys, casual clothing and a variety of fan collections. The business has doubled compared to the previous season!
Paris Saint-Germain has received a lot of attention under the leadership of Messi. On the day of the official announcement of Messi’s joining in 2021, the number of visitors was 20 times the daily number, bringing consumers a large number of local high-quality fan souvenirs.
The multi-team collection store, the flagship store of Juxing Power, provides authorized products of Barcelona, the Portuguese national team, the Argentine national team and the Spanish national team. Relying on the excellent design capabilities of derivative products, it provides a variety of fan peripherals, plus related IP. It just happens to have the keyword bonus of Messi and Ronaldo’s peerless superstars, and its sales are among the best, with a year-on-year increase of 80% this season.
It is reported that after the initial run-in, with the efforts of the Tmall platform and domestic operators, more giant clubs such as Manchester United and Real Madrid are working hard to enter the Chinese market and build a satisfactory consumption platform for fans.
Overseas Sports IP China’s “Business Economics”
For clubs, opening a store on Tmall is more than just “business experience”. Direct to consumer, referred to as “DTC”, means a direct-to-consumer business model, which is realized through a certain medium or carrier. It can be said that the brand’s products are directly sold to consumers, or the needs of consumers can be directly transmitted. to the brand side.
The club IP is settled on Tmall, and with the help of the consumer insights of the Tmall platform, it can more accurately predict the consumption habits of the target group, and better implement its C2M reverse customization business. With the advantages of Tmall platform and resources, we will improve the cultural ecosystem of fans, provide fans with more accurate, high-quality and diversified product and service experience, and allow fans to have a full range of experience from watching games, social interaction to product services.
In addition, Tmall’s diversified marketing model brings more opportunities for cross-layer marketing to all parties. For example, cross-border co-branding, circle-level operations around sports people, marketing activities, etc. Brand owners can directly communicate with fans through this platform, serve consumers, and expand brand influence.
At present, the added value of my country’s sports industry only accounts for about 1% of the entire GDP, but in developed countries, the added value of the sports industry usually accounts for 2% to 3% of GDP. In other words, the domestic sports industry market scale still has huge value-added space. According to the “Several Opinions of the State Council on Accelerating the Development of the Sports Industry and Promoting Sports Consumption”, by 2025, the total scale of China’s sports industry will reach 5 trillion yuan.
Industry insiders pointed out that for brands, the value of e-commerce is no longer at the sales level, but also a community for user communication and experience. Based on the current situation, Tmall is also making some attempts, such as cooperating with 8 top IP exhibitions and events in the world, NBA Tmall official flagship store, Olympic Tmall official flagship store, Chinese Super League Tmall official flagship store, Chinajoy animation Tmall official flagship store The stores correspond to the four major projects of basketball, comprehensive sports, football and e-sports, covering sports enthusiasts indiscriminately.