Home Blog

Alo is defying China’s consumer slowdown, selling $1.5 million in a minute and planning more stores



Chinese consumers are keeping a tight grip on their wallets—but apparently not when it comes to Alo.

Retail sales in China rose just 0.4% year over year in August, half the pace economists polled by Reuters had expected. Weak consumption and a prolonged property downturn had already helped drag second-quarter GDP growth to 4.3%, the slowest pace in more than three years.

Yet when the Los Angeles-based activewear and lifestyle brand opened its official flagship store on Tmall, Alibaba’s business-to-consumer marketplace, on Aug. 12, shoppers spent more than 10 million yuan (about $1.5 million) within one minute of the presale checkout opening at 12:30 a.m., according to Alibaba. Alo, which had announced its arrival on Chinese social media less than two months earlier, went on to set a sales record for a newly launched brand in Tmall’s sports and outdoor category.

The blockbuster debut came with caveats. Dao Insights, a publication that tracks Chinese consumer trends, noted that accumulated preorders, a limited-edition tote bag, and celebrity-driven fan demand may have concentrated sales into the opening rush, leaving the durability of that demand less clear.

Still, Alo is already betting on a much bigger physical presence. On Sept. 16, the company announced plans to open eight more stores across seven Greater China cities through 2027: two in Shanghai and one each in Beijing, Hong Kong, Macau, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Hangzhou. Separately, a previously announced Hong Kong flagship at K11 Musea is slated to open this fall.

Alo had one big advantage: It wasn’t entering China cold. Long before its official launch, Chinese consumers could buy Alo through cross-border e-commerce and resellers, while the brand’s celebrity-heavy marketing and social media presence had already built awareness. In the days leading up to its Tmall debut, Alo-related topics racked up 240 million views on RedNote, the popular Chinese lifestyle and social media platform, according to Dao Insights.

That meant Alo didn’t have to spend its launch introducing itself. Instead, it could focus on shaping how Chinese consumers experience the brand, from its product mix and pricing to its broader wellness positioning. Alo also localized its marketing, tapping actress Zhao Lusi, actor Wang Yibo, and supermodel Sui He, a veteran of multiple Victoria’s Secret Fashion Shows.

Alo’s focus on community

The strategy extended beyond e-commerce. Before the Tmall launch, Alo kicked off an eight-week series of community events in Shanghai, including running clubs, city walks, outdoor yoga, cycling and wellness classes. The programming introduced consumers to what Alo calls the “Alosphere,” its lifestyle ecosystem combining movement, wellness, community and culture.

Early sales also offer a clue to how Chinese shoppers see the brand. As of Aug. 14, Alo’s bestselling product wasn’t a pair of yoga leggings but its 1,150-yuan (about $170) Suit Up straight-leg trousers, with more than 10,000 sold, according to China Daily. A 1,750-yuan (about $260) sneaker sold more than 3,000 pairs. Both were selling at full price.

That mix suggests Alo’s appeal in China may extend well beyond the yoga studio. Its early momentum also fits a broader split in Chinese consumption: Even as overall spending remains weak, premium sports and wellness brands continue to find pockets of growth. On’s Asia-Pacific sales rose 43.1% in the second quarter, with the Swiss running brand citing strong momentum in Greater China, while Arc’teryx operated 79 owned retail stores in Greater China at the end of 2025, a net gain of 61 since 2019.

Alo is also entering a market long dominated by Lululemon—and even the incumbent is showing signs of strain. Lululemon operated 174 stores in mainland China as of Aug. 2, but its comparable sales there fell 8% on a constant-dollar basis in its fiscal second quarter.

Against that backdrop, Alo’s fashion-heavy early sales suggest it may be carving out a niche as much through style and lifestyle as through performance.

Now the brand is betting it can turn that early enthusiasm into a lasting retail business. “Our ambition goes beyond opening stores: we are building an Alosphere,” Benedetta Petruzzo, Alo’s international CEO, said in announcing the expansion.

House Dems seek extended comment period on Trump CRA rewrite



  • Key insight: House Democrats are asking regulators to extend the Community Reinvestment Act proposal’s comment period to at least 120 days, saying the sweeping rewrite needs more time for public feedback. 
  • Supporting data: The proposal would raise asset thresholds for compliance, narrow lending and service activities considered in CRA exams and make it easier for banks to receive an outstanding rating.
  • Forward look: Comptroller Jonathan Gould said the proposal would refocus the CRA on its statutory purpose and prevent it from becoming “a social credit score for banks” or “a funding mechanism for activist NGO networks.”

Democratic lawmakers spearheaded by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., urged the The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Thursday to extend the comment period for their proposed overhaul of Community Reinvestment Act rules to at least 120 days, citing concern that the Trump administration’s proposed rewrite of the anti-redlining regulation was adopted behind closed doors. 

Processing Content

In a letter to FDIC Chairman Travis Hill and Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould, lawmakers — including every Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee — told the regulators that the “expansive” pending rule, which spans over 400 pages, needs more time for review considering that it could also reduce the number of banks evaluated for community development activities.

“The proposal sets out to redefine asset thresholds for rule compliance; narrow CRA evaluation on lending activity; limit the range of services considered for purposes of the CRA service test; makes it easier for banks to receive an outstanding rating; narrow the number of banks evaluated for their community development activities,” the lawmakers wrote. “Taken together, the proposed revisions likely will significantly impact which institutions are encouraged to meet the credit needs of their communities through activities that extend beyond lending such as community development activities.”

The letter also raised concerns about the proposal’s potential interaction with the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, the bipartisan housing legislation Congress enacted this year. 

“More than 375 groups including financial institutions, religious groups, small businesses, local government agencies, and community organizations responded to the recent proposed rule with a letter noting ‘serious concerns’ and indicate that more time is necessary to complete their analysis,” they wrote. “As we and other stakeholders analyze this new proposal, we request that the public comment period be extended to no less than 120 days to give members of the public more time for substantive review and comment on this sweeping proposal.”

Congress passed the CRA in 1977 as a way to address de facto lending discrimination against communities of color. The act requires that banks be graded on how equitably they are lending to low- and moderate-income customers and neighborhoods in their service areas, typically determined by where they have branches and deposit-taking automated teller machines. Banks need to receive a satisfactory mark in order to merge with or acquire other banks.

Read more:

The metrics regulators use to measure banks’ compliance with the law are widely believed to be out of date and in need of a refresh. The implementing regulations — last updated in 1995 — have not expanded many lower-income households’ access to credit, according to a 2023 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. While the study showed the act’s implementation drove more mortgage activity overall to low income areas, this did not drive greater borrowing outcomes — saying banks fulfilled CRA obligations by purchasing loans from CRA-exempt nonbanks rather than expanding credit. 

The first Trump administration made an effort to revise the rules, but the proposal, backed by then-Comptroller Joseph Otting, lacked consensus with the FDIC and the Fed, and the revisions pursued by the OCC alone were rescinded by the Biden administration. The Biden regulators undertook a comprehensive overhaul of their own that was finalized in 2023, but the current slate of regulators moved to rescind those rules in April 2025 after an industry-led lawsuit challenging the rule. 

The most recent proposal, issued jointly by the FDIC and OCC last month, would relax requirements for banks with under $10 billion in assets from reporting the full slate of CRA compliance data and would narrow what kinds of activities count as “credit” on firms’ community reinvestment report cards. Importantly, the Trump-era rewrite also places new restrictions on grants banks give to nonprofits as part of their strategies to meet the needs of underserved local communities.

Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould characterized the recent proposal as an effort to refocus CRA on its statutory purpose, saying the changes would prevent the law from being used “as a social credit score for banks” or “as a funding mechanism for activist NGO networks under the guise of community development.”



UK PM Burnham to set out economic vision as inflation, Iran war pose challenges




UK PM Burnham to set out economic vision as inflation, Iran war pose challenges

Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card Review (2026.9 Update: 80k Offer)