Royal Mail expands range of British brands on its Tmall Global shop front
Royal Mail is expanding the range of authentic British products that it is making available to Chinese consumers through its Tmall Global shop front. From mid-July, Royal Mail will be including a range of products from The Cambridge Satchel Company, healthcare brand Linwoods and natural skincare specialist Works with Water.
Royal Mail said that its Tmall Global shop front, launched in March, provides British retailers and exporters with “an accelerated opportunity to access the China market, removing the challenges that many companies would otherwise face in getting their products into the hands of Chinese consumers”.
According to iResearch, Tmall.com was the largest brand and retail platform in China in terms of gross merchandise volume in 2013. Part of the Alibaba Group, Tmall.com has hundreds of millions of visitors to its platform every day. Launched in 2014, Tmall Global, an extension to Tmall.com, is a business-to-consumer open retail platform enabling brands based outside of China to sell directly to millions of Chinese consumers.
Royal Mail’s Director of Sales and Marketing for Parcelforce Worldwide, Helen Wylde, said: “We’re delighted to expand the range of quintessentially British products and brands available on Royal Mail’s Tmall Global shop front, offering the likes of The Cambridge Satchel Company a streamlined way to increase the accessibility of their iconic products to Chinese consumers.”
Tmall Head of Europe Janet Wang added: “Alibaba Group is focused on increasing access to the Chinese consumer for businesses of all sizes in the UK and around the world. We recently launched 11 country pavilions on Tmall Global to allow merchants from countries such as the UK, France and the USA to sell specialty items directly to Chinese consumers and Royal Mail was a key participant, helping to make the British Pavilion one of the top three most visited during the promotion.”
“Authenticity” has become a key factor for Chinese consumers – hence the importance of the “country pavilions” and tie-ins with partners like Royal Mail.
