About the Client: LEMAIRE

Founded by Christophe Lemaire and later joined by Sarah-Linh Tran, LEMAIRE is a French clothing brand known for its “quiet luxury” aesthetics.

Blending timeless Parisian style with cosmopolitan sophistication, it draws inspiration from diverse influences. For over three decades, the brand has been globally recognized for its minimalism, refinement, and precise craftsmanship, defined by exceptional materials and attention to detail.

In recent years, LEMAIRE has strengthened its presence in China through both strategic digital and physical expansion. On November 12, 2024, the brand opened its first store in Chengdu, further reinforcing its foothold in Asia’s luxury market.

The goal is to establish a long-term connection with Chinese consumers, bringing a touch of Parisian elegance to one of China’s most dynamic cities. As China’s fashion landscape shifts toward investment wardrobes and quiet luxury, LEMAIRE’s expansion in China would require a nuanced approach to digital engagement and clienteling.

Goals and Objectives

In order to achieve these goals, the retailer focused on:

• Developing a customized clienteling strategy using WeCom, addressing immediate customer needs during the MVP phase while laying the foundation for sustainable future growth.
• Enhancing service quality to deliver an exceptional customer experience.
• Introducing the Key Opinion Sales (KOS) program on Xiaohongshu (RedNote) to empower Sales Associates as brand ambassadors and bridge public and private traffic.

Solutions

Change Management & WeCom Infrastructure Setup

To facilitate a seamless transition and maximize the adoption of WeCom as LEMAIRE’s dedicated clienteling tool in China, a series of educational workshops was organized for key HQ and local stakeholders.

These sessions served to unify understanding of WeCom across all involved teams, address current challenges, align on shared objectives, and define clear next steps for implementation.

By leveraging WeCom’s advanced client communication and management features, our goal was to establish WeCom as LEMAIRE’s central platform for personalized marketing engagement and clienteling. Ultimately, it could drive traffic from and towards all major online and offline touchpoints and maximize visibility.

Holistic Customer Recruitment & Data-Driven Engagement Strategy

To optimize customer acquisition, interactions, and long-term engagement across all touchpoints, a comprehensive clienteling strategy was developed with structured SOPs that provide clear frameworks for:

1. WeCom Customer Recruitment

A customer onboarding process with ready-to-use scripts was designed to smoothly guide customers from the physical store and digital platforms (e.g., WeChat Official Account and Xiaohongshu) to connect with Sales Associates on WeCom.

This approach enables LEMAIRE to collect and fully own customer data, contributing to building comprehensive customer profiles and supporting more effective future retargeting initiatives.

2. WeCom Customer Engagement

A robust clienteling strategy was implemented to foster ongoing customer relationships and maximize lifetime value. LEMAIRE utilizes various WeCom features, including:

• Automated welcome messages
• Quick-response templates
• Broadcast message
• Tagging and segmentation
• Regularly scheduled WeCom Moments posts
• Client inheritance

Building the clienteling strategy from scratch in China, LEMAIRE is utilizing WeCom as a foundation for acquiring and consolidating customer data, with plans for future integration into global systems.

3. End-to-End Training for Effective WeCom Adoption

To support a smooth transition from personal WeChat accounts to professional WeCom accounts and new standardized clienteling workflows, we delivered a comprehensive, on-site training program tailored to each user group, with full end-to-end support.

• Sales Associates received specialized training on WeCom clienteling best practices, empowering them to deliver exceptional customer experiences.
• The marketing team was instructed on how to prepare marketing materials (e.g., Broadcast message, Moments) and assign tasks on WeCom to Sales Associates to push them to the right client at the right time.
• HR and Finance teams were trained on managing internal processes, such as leave applications and reimbursement requests (for remote sales), within the WeCom platform.

In addition, clear clienteling KPIs and benchmarks were established to set transparent performance expectations and enable effective progress tracking.

4. Key Opinion Sales (KOS) Program on Xiaohongshu and WeCom

Recognizing the power of authentic brand advocacy, a strategic playbook was developed for launching the Key Opinion Sales (KOS) program on both Xiaohongshu and WeCom. The initial implementation was focused on WeCom.

A targeted internal incentive scheme further encouraged the Sales team to actively promote the brand both online and offline. This seamlessly connects public interest with private customer engagement and strengthens relationships across all channels.

Results

Within months of WeCom deployment, LEMAIRE had already seen a significant impact in sales performance, customer onboarding, and long-term loyalty:

• 30% of total sales (both in-store and remote transactions) were directly attributed to WeCom-driven clienteling efforts.
• Thousands of in-store customers were successfully onboarded to WeCom within just 2.5 months, accelerating digital engagement.
• 95% retention rate was achieved among new customers, demonstrating the effectiveness of personalized engagement and follow-up.
• Nearly one-fifth of new WeCom contacts originated from the KOS program on Xiaohongshu, showcasing the program’s success in converting public digital traffic into private, high-value customer relationships.

At IT Consultis (ITC), we were honored to have accompanied LEMAIRE on its digital transformation journey in China and look forward to supporting its continued growth and success in this dynamic market.