How Burberry Becomes No.1 E-commerce Fashion Brand in the world?

Trends & Data: Burberry in China, 2025

1. Weak Consumer Demand – Sales in Greater China dropped significantly, though the decline eased to around –5% in Q1, after facing double-digit declines previously.
2. Major Revenue Dip – Burberry’s overall revenue slid about 15% in fiscal 2025, with operating profit plunging nearly 90%—a sharp signal of mounting pressure.
3. Actions on Overhead – The brand is cutting roughly 20% of its workforce (~1,700 jobs) and pushing cost savings to the tune of £60–80M annually.
4. Turnaround Strategy Live – “Burberry Forward” focuses back on heritage pieces like trench coats and scarves, elevating British identity and emotional storytelling.
5. Marketing Reboot – Flagship campaigns like “It’s Always Burberry Weather” and renewed messaging around the knight logo aim to reignite brand desirability.
6. E‑commerce Momentum – Digital sales up for several quarters in a row, thanks to better product mix and richer storytelling—even as wholesale distribution scales down.
7. Competitive Strap‑In – Local Chinese heritage brands gain ground amid a resurgence of cultural pride and guochao sensibilities.
8. Luxury Market Cooling – Analysts foresee China’s luxury market growth slowing to around 4% in 2025, down from earlier expectations of ~7%.
9. Regional Divergence – While China shows weakness, the Americas displayed growth (~4%), signaling some balance in the global portfolio.
10. Brand Reset Starting to Show Impact – Recent trends indicate brand desirability is improving, and early indications hint at stabilizing performance.

According to Exane BNP Paribas’ report, Burberry takes the No.1 selling luxury fashion brand on 10 multi-brand e-tailers in China, including Secoo and JD.com. Other luxury brand Dolce& Gabbana, Tod’s for instance also ranked out the top 5 with product selling on the e-commerce websites in China.

 

There is no doubt that Burberry has made its success on willing customer’s loyalty in terms of its digital strategy. Burberry was entering to Chinese market in 2010 and it was not become the well-known luxury brand in China until the company started its digital campaign in 2011. So, let’s take a look how Burberry nailed the digital strategy in China and worldwide.

 

Olivier VEROT expert in marketing in China comment: “Listen up : Burberry in China isn’t just facing a slowdown, it’s facing a shift. Consumers are getting smarter: they don’t want logos, they want identity. Trench coats and scarves used to rule. Now? You need cultural resonance.

Q1 2025 China sales dropped about 5%, but that’s better than before.

Still : it was down 15% revenue overall. Profits cratered. That’s why Burberry slashed jobs and launched ‘Burberry Forward’: a reset, centered on British signature pieces and emotional storytelling.

And the strategy? It’s working but not instantly.

E‑commerce improved, but Chinese tastes move fast; foreign brands must add local flair, lean into storytelling, and show they get the culture. Because in China now, luxury success means being part of the narrative—not just being the name on the bag

 

1. Follow the digital trend in China and create social media website.

China has become the second largest online shopping users in the world and social media users on weibo and other networks sites are also accounted for huge potential customers, not just fashion business but also other industries. Chinese people now like to spend at least 3 hours per day for just surfing on the internet and buying goods on the e-commerce sites. This trend made Burberry adopted the ecommerce and social media on its Chinese marketing strategy. Firstly, create an official social media website on Weibo. This digital strategy was created to get the attention of Chinese customer and spread the brand awareness. It has gained at least 400,000 fans basis and 70% of traffic on Weibo in 2011 according to the spokesperson of Burberry. And now more 90,000 fans follow the official weibo sites.

2. Consistently interact with customers and increase exposure.

Burberry regularly posts latest pictures of Burberry on Weibo, from Chinese celebrities wear Burberry at events to behind scenes of Burberry new products photo shoot and from street people wear Burberry at different place to Burberry product sketches pictures, fans can find everything about the brand every day. A good example could be company posted people wearing Burberry trend coat in different locations of the city and the fans got to choose which one is their favorite picture. This strategy places the brand into a more confortable zone where Chinese people can feel that the brand is not just a luxury brand from British, but also a brand closes enough to the customer and fits Chinese’s taste

3. Deliver faster connection with customer from Online to off-line / off-line to Online.

Recently, most brands are using online product promote vouchers to attract customer from online to visit off-line physical store by using the vouchers within a limit time. Burberry however, seems goes step faster and further than other brands by using the strategy of off-line to online. The brand is allowing customer to purchase the master pieces online right after or during run way show on the fashion week. This strategy gives customers a unique experience of purchasing latest product online before the product actually selling on the physical stores and increases online coverage. And also, this strategy creates a sense of urgency among the customers which is really smart way to win customers.

 

 

4. E-commerce also suits for  high Luxury brand.

Most of people from the fashion industry saying that this Ecommerce strategy would be harmful tom image of the luxury brand. However, Burberry has been launched about 10 Ecommerce websites in China and it has been proved that Burberry has made the right choice. For example, Burberry launched its E- boutique store on Tmall on April 2014 and about 1500 fans re-post the news within few hours. According to China National Textile and Apparel Council, there are more than 130 sold on E-commerce site for in18 days. This number is good enough for a newly launched luxury brand on the E- commerce site. although still have people criticized the campaign have had the returned rate on the online shop, but they have won customer’s trust with free shipping of returning goods and good customer service (about 60% higher rating than the Other fashion products on Tmall store

 

 

 

 

5. Good content of storytelling. This strategy is similar to the Weibo strategy which bridges brand and customer.

However, it more focus on what information that brand want to tell the customer rather than what information the brand can get from the customer through discussion on social network platform. This strategy enhances the customer’s loyalty of the brand and emphasizes the roots of the brand image.

 

For example, Burberry brought its “Art of Trench” in Shanghai in April 2014; this venue greatly enhanced the connection between Burberry and customers and spotlights the classic Burberry coat in the Venue. The message the brand wants to tell the customers is- we are British brand. We are classic and luxury, and we love China

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is not the first time that Burberry is using the storytelling strategy. They also have been collaborated with Google for the campaign ‘Burberry kisses’ for example by sending letters sealed with a kiss to friends and loved on through the globe.

 

In general, Burberry’s digital success comes to one simple reason. Get closer to your customer as much as you can. How? Make the most use of the social network site and make sure you are on the hot topic every now and then. And you will  win   your customers.

 

Written by Elliot Dao

Further reading

Some thoughts from Shanghai Fashion Week This Year- How technology and Digital Changed Fashion Industry

It’s  Time For Shanghai Fashion Week Times

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