Tmall Global woos Korean merchants

Tmall Global, part of Alibaba Group, held a full-day business workshop on Tuesday in partnership with the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) at COEX in Seoul, to introduce ways for Korean manufacturers and retailers to sell their products in China.

Over a thousand representatives from local SMEs across various industry sectors attended the event to understand more about the growing e-commerce market in China and how Tmall Global empowers merchants and brands with the resources in Alibaba Group’s ecosystem, according to South Korean media reports. 

Representatives from renowned Korean brands including LG Care and E-mart also shared their success stories how they utilize the Tmall Global platform at the event.

At the workshop, Alvin Liu, general manager of Tmall Global, discussed the huge potential of China’s e-commerce market, saying: “We have seen strong demand from Chinese consumers for quality Korean products as proven by the success of the Korean Pavilion since its launch in April last year. Tmall Global is well positioned to partner with Korean brands, especially those who do not have operations in China. Our one-stop cross border e-commerce solution will empower Korean brands and retailers to enter China and tap into the strong buying power of a growing number of middle-class Chinese consumers.”

According to iResearch, China is the world’s largest e-commerce market and is expected to generate gross merchandise value (GMV) of more than 7 trillion RMB ($1.05 trillion) by 2018.

Korean products are popular among Chinese consumers, and over 600 Korean brands have opened online stores on Tmall Global’s Korean Pavilion and achieved encouraging sales performance leading up to its first anniversary celebration.

Korean brands and retailers open stores on Tmall not only to gain access to the growing e-commence sector in China but also to leverage the one-stop merchandising and marketing solutions offered by Alibaba’s platforms and tools to achieve better efficiency for their operations. Big data from Alibaba also supports Korean merchants with product planning, sales, distribution and promotion in e-commerce. Merchants are also able to engage Chinese customers in various innovative ways and on multiple media platforms within Alibaba, such as by live event broadcasts.

In recent years, Chinese consumer demand for cosmetic and apparel products has increased rapidly. Xiuyun Liu, general manager of Tmall Apparel, noted that the group accounted for two thirds of online apparel GMV in China, saying: “Consumer demand for apparel and fashion goods is increasing, and Korean brands having storefronts on Tmall, such as Eland and 8 Seconds under Samsung C&T, have recorded strong sales growth.”

Senior executives from Korean brands such as LG Care and E-mart also shared their success stories on how they utilized the tools and resources offered by Tmall Global and Alibaba.

According to data from Tmall Global, LG Care generated over RMB3 million (US$488,000) in sales in its first month on Tmall Global and sold 180,000 Rungao products on Tmall Global in one day during the 11 November 2015 Global Shopping Festival. E-mart, which recorded more than 320,000 orders on November 11, 2015, was also featured in the Chinese version of “Go Fighting,” one of the most popular TV programmes in China.