First ever Taostyle omnichannel store opens in China

Alibaba-owned online marketplace Taobao has teamed with Hangzhou Shunhong to pilot the first Taostyle store at the Hangzhou Kerry Center in China. Plans are afoot to expand the model to more locations “in the near future”.

This currently offers about 350 items from a rotating selection of 20-plus independent clothing brands that sell on Taobao, including Lamps, Roaringwild, Ayuko and THESSNCE.

Each garment has a unique QR code, which customers can scan with their phones to access its product page on Taobao, find out the price, get detailed product descriptions and customer reviews. The store also allows people to place orders online in addition to buying in-store.

Large LED screens showcase featured brands, while across every clothing rack there are smaller screens for brands to display their product images and videos. A booth is also available, where merchants and Taostyle staff promote and sell products via livestreaming.

“We don’t just want to open a traditional shop to sell clothes. We want to explore a new way of merging online with offline,” says Xia Yu, General Manager at Hangzhou Shunhong. “For us, business doesn’t stop when the mall closes. Using livestreams, we’re able to interact with consumers all day, especially between 8 pm and 2 am when young people are most actively shopping online.”