Rise in Kiwi businesses using Alibaba as an 'open sesame' to China
Friday, 5 February 2016
Countdown, Healtheries and Comvita are among the New Zealand businesses using Chinese e-commerce website Alibaba to open the door to the enormous Chinese consumer market.
New Zealand food and neutraceutical products like Manuka honey and infant formula are in high demand in China,
And Alibaba Group said a rising number of Kiwi companies were choosing to sell their wares through its Tmall Global website.
It was designed to allow overseas businesses to sell into China without having to open a physical presence there.
Tmall was the largest business to consumer sales website serving Chinese consumers, Alibaba said.
The online retailer has been strong in China's cities, but said it had shortened delivery times to rural China. 'Where once it would have taken three months for food shipped from New Zealand to a consumer's door in China, Tmall has shortened the delivery time to less than a week,' Alibaba said.
Within Tmall there is a 'New Zealand Pavilion' where the country's retailers who want to sell into China are able to get some profile without worrying about competitors from places like Australia and the UK, which have their own pavilions on the site.
China has become this country's largest export market, with seafood exports alone totalling just under half a billion dollars last year.
New Zealand Ambassador to China, John McKinnon said: 'New Zealand prides itself on the high quality food we produce and export around the world – this is an integral part of our economy and our reputation as a trusted food supplier.'
He said: 'E-commerce is an excellent platform that enables consumers to enjoy New Zealand's high quality safe food without any geographical limits.'
Glen Murphy, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise China regional director said: 'With the rising demand of high quality and fresh produce from New Zealand we would like to supply to more areas in China other than just first and second-tier cities. With Alibaba's enormous network, our products are now able to access some harder to reach parts of China, and we are so glad that people in those areas can have almost the same experience as those in the first-tier cities, of New Zealand's pure, natural and premium fresh food products.'
Alibaba claims to have over 400 million customers across its retail marketplaces in China, and has become known worldwide thanks to its creation of 'Global Shopping Festival' which started life as Singles Day. It's on 11 November (the date 11.11 represents a groups of four single people strolling along), and it started life as an attempt to generate sales to singletons in a similar way retailers use Valentine's Day to sell to couples.