Ebay to enter luxury fashion in China with Xiu.com

Ebay Inc. (EBAY) has entered the luxury fashion market in China thanks to a deal with domestic high-end fashion seller Xiu.com, featuring 5,000 brands in apparel, handbags and shoes, said Steve Milton, a spokesman for eBay.

The arrangement lets consumers in China buy new items from eBay merchants in the U.S. while Xiu.com handles sales, shipping and customer service, explained the company on Monday.

“They’ve been very successful going to developed economies, but to continue to grow at those rates ten years from now, they need to be in these larger emerging markets,” Gil Luria, an analyst at Wedbush Securities Inc., said in an interview with Bloomberg. “That’s a tall task because there are incumbents.”

Ebay vice president Melanie Tan said in a statement that the company’s sales in China have increased 40 percent over the last year, but only for those surfing the English website: “Today, Chinese consumers are increasingly coming to eBay and we have seen a 40 percent year on year increase of goods bought by Chinese consumers navigating eBay.com in English. We believe that in the future Chinese consumers will use eBay as a passport to global Fashion styles, especially for leading women’s brands and accessories, and menswear, because our broad selection of new, branded, and designer merchandise will be unmatched in China.”

In virtue of the agreement, Xiu will look through all of eBay’s fashion listings available to China and pick out the best pieces that will be most desirable to a Chinese consumer. It will also implement well-known online payment systems for eBay, and translate the listings into “simplified Chinese,” according to eBay. Xiu will also take care of all the customer service needs in the customer’s native language, advanced EBay.

Commenting the deal, George Ji, CEO of Xiu.com said: “Our mission is to bring the best of the World to China, so eBay, with its global access, is an ideal partner for us. Through our curation efforts, we also hope to introduce a new, more inspiring buying experience to Chinese consumers.”