Secoo targets high-end customers to provide luxury services

Li Rixue, Secoo's founder and CEO, speaks at a news conference held in Beijing, Nov 16, 2017. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Secoo wants to be a conduit to help more Chinese brands to go abroad, said Li Rixue, founder and CEO of the firm.

After nine years of development, the firm has gained strong support from customers due to positive word of mouth that no counterfeit products are sold on its online store.

Secoo is a comprehensive luxury goods and services provider that runs an online platform as well as offline product experience and identification centers.

On Thursday, the firm published its remarkable third-quarter results after being listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market September of this year.

According to its unaudited financial report, the firm's net income for the third quarter surged 902.9 percent from a year earlier to $5.1 million and revenue increased 44.2 percent to $147.6 million.

By the end of September, Secoo had 300,000 active customers, and its orders surpassed 3.72 million. The average price for an order was 3,500 yuan ($528).

As Secoo is the first luxury goods e-commerce platform listed on Nasdaq, Li Rixue, and Secoo Luxe's CEO Chen Jianhao accepted an interview with China Daily Website.

Why did Secoo select Nasdaq to go public?

Li Rixue: The move can speed up our firm's push to globalize. Secoo has cooperated with numerous well-known overseas brands. Being listed on Nasdaq is conducive to deepening cooperation with existing partners, and is also helpful to potential partners to understand our businesses.

Moreover, the move will also help with Secoo's future overseas investments and acquisitions.

Chen Jianhao, Secoo Luxe's CEO, speaks at a news conference held in Beijing, Nov 16, 2017. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Secoo has announced its "5+2+1"new strategy. What is the new strategy?

Chen Jianhao: Currently, the firm has set up four offline experience centers including three inbound centers in Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu, and an outbound center in Malaysia, which provide customers high-end quality services such as trying out luxury goods and appreciating them.

This year, another five centers will be set up in more Chinese cities including Qingdao, Changsha, Hangzhou, Xiamen and Tianjin. Some overseas centers also will be set up in the next few years. Each of these centers will have unique characteristics based on the cities' cultures and citizens' customs.

The centers will not only sell merchandise, but can also be used as a gym, yoga club, photography studio, tea room and pub. Customers can try out all the products in these centers.

Moreover, Secoo has partnered with two hotel groups including Wyndham Hotel Group and Country Garden's hotel branch to push out exclusive rooms to customers. Customers can buy all the goods in the rooms on Secoo's online store. If the customer needs it, Secoo will put their ordered products in the rooms before the customer checks in.

In the future, a batch of famous brands including Versace and Diane Von Furstenberg will sign agreements with our firm to develop online-offline partnerships. Customers can order on Secoo's online store, and then pick up products at the brands' offline stores.

Counterfeit goods challenge online platforms. As an online luxury goods platform, how does Secoo prevent fake products from being sold to customers?

Li Rixue: Secoo has three official certified luxury goods identification centers established in Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu.

The centers have not only more than 60 professionals with an average of 15 years of experience but also advanced equipment. After eight years of accumulated work on identifying counterfeit goods, the centers have a lot of data.

The data and professionals can guarantee fake products cannot be sold to customers via Secoo.

What is your view on Chinese brands in the global market?

Li Rixue: Chinese brands should carry out crossover cooperation with famous international brands to take advantage of the overseas high-end market and also should improve on their original creative capacities. 

Based on our reputation of providing high-quality goods and services to customers, Secoo will help more Chinese brands to go global.

In the future, Secoo will build a standard system to rate suppliers, which will help customers to select the best products.