Tmall Global, part of the Alibaba Group B2C Tmall.com business in China is celebrating its relatively new partnership with The Shilla Duty Free and The King Power International Group of Thailand.
As reported last May, the trio are aiming to enhance the duty free shopping experience for Chinese travellers to these two countries with their newly-launched innovative ‘World Duty Free service’ which is described as the first of its kind in China created to offer consumers and travellers ‘a seamless solution for purchase and pickup of duty free goods’
The partnership allows Chinese consumers to enjoy more savings and increased convenience by pre-purchasing products and discount vouchers on Tmall Global before they travel, and then collect their purchases or use their discount vouchers at the duty free stores in South Korea and Thailand through their Alipay receipt or barcode from their mobile phones.
The ‘World Duty Free’ service also allows merchants to target specific consumer groups from China and thereby discover trends and demands of hundreds of millions of Chinese shoppers across Alibaba Group’s China retail marketplaces.
Alvin Liu, general manager of Tmall Global said: “The World Duty Free service is an important strategic initiative of Alibaba Group’s globalization strategy. This project connects Tmall Global, Alipay and various major duty free retail groups from around the world to create an integrated e-commerce model offering a seamless cross-border shopping experience for Chinese travellers.
“We want to make the duty free shopping experience as simple and easy as possible for our customers. The new service will save them time in exchanging foreign currency, queuing, product wrapping and tax refunds. In the future, Tmall Global aims to bring more duty free shops onboard to broaden coverage to other popular destinations around the world.”
Tmall Global claims to be the first and only e-commerce platform in China to partner with a Korean duty-free store chain. To commemorate the launch of this new service, The Shilla Duty Free is offering a promotion of up to 50% off the price of selected items, while King Power is also offering a free RMB500 ($80) coupon for purchases above a certain level.
Tmall Global now claims to be in discussion with dozens of duty-free companies in other countries to offer this service for Chinese travellers travelling to other destinations. Tmall Global also plans to work with other Alibaba Group businesses such as Alipay and Alitrip to provide an integrated and comprehensive travel and shopping experience to Chinese consumers.
Around 5,400 overseas brands from 25 countries and regions have opened stores on Tmall Global, which is used by a growing number of brands from the U.S., Germany, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong as a stepping-stone into China.
