Britain's Royal Mail to launch shopfront on China's Tmall global marketplace

By

Cajsa Lykke Carlson

Published
Mar 4, 2015

Royal Mail, the UK's postal service, is expanding its reach outside the UK with a new shopfront on Alibaba's Tmall Global e-marketplace. This will give British retailers and exporters a new opportunity to access the Chinese market.

The shopfront, which will reach 302 million Chinese customers, will sell typically British products, such as Brompton bicycles, and go live at the end of March. For retailers, it takes away many of the problems associated with launching in the Chinese market, such as promotion on Chinese e-commerce sites, local customer support service, customs duties, documentation, shipping and logistics, the Royal Mail said.

China is both the largest economy by purchasing power parity and the biggest internet user base in the world, and almost half of the country's internet users shop online.

The news of the Royal Mail and Tmall tie-up were announced at the GREAT Festival of Creativity in Shanghai, a UK Government-led initiative to showcase British businesses.

Royal Mail Chief Executive Officer Moya Greene said: “Royal Mail’s new shop front will help support British retailers and exporters expanding into the China market, fulfilling the strong demand of Chinese consumers for authentic, high quality British goods.  
 
“Online shopping, and the connection it facilitates between retailers and consumers is a key channel to develop sustainable trade between China and Britain and we are excited at the prospect of offering UK companies a new and streamlined way to increase the accessibility of their products to Chinese consumers.”