Pandora in Chinese e-tail debut on Tmall

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Oct 12, 2016

Danish jewellery maker and retailer Pandora has become the latest European firm to launch on Alibaba Group’s business to consumer platform, Tmall.com, as it seeks to take a slice of the fast-growing Chinese jewellery market.

The launch is Pandora’s first move into Chinese e-commerce and will be followed up the brand’s own transactional website in December.

Company president Kenneth Madsen said there was a clear logic to launching on Tmall given its leadership in Chinese e-tail and its ability to offer “the broadest approach to the Chinese consumer.”

The eight-year-old online mall was China’s largest platform for brands and retailers in terms of monthly active users in 2015, according to iResearch. It currently hosts a large number of storefronts for international and local brands and retailers.

E-commerce is becoming ever more popular among Chinese consumers as internet connections get faster and payment security increases. In 2015, the country saw online retail sales of CNY1,795bn (£217.8bn), a rise of 53% year-on-year, Pandora said.

The company added that the Chinese market is a key one for its expansion as it is the world’s biggest jewellery market, Last year it had a value of CNY607bn (£73.7m), up 7% on 2014 with Euromonitor predicting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6% from 2016 to 2021.