Tmall Global, China’s leading cross-border e-commerce platform,
announced today the launch of a new “World Duty Free” service that
allows Chinese tourists to prepay for their duty-free purchases before
going on vacation.
Tmall Global, a platform under Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:
BABA), also announced that Thailand’s largest duty-free retail group,
King Power, will open a duty-free storefront on the platform (http://kingpowerdutyfree.tmall.hk/)
and become the first company to offer this service to Chinese consumers.
By launching the “World Duty Free” service, Tmall Global hopes to
enhance cross-border e-commerce opportunities for global companies
looking to reach Chinese shoppers when they travel.
“We are excited that Thailand’s King Power is launching its duty-free
store on Tmall Global. Cross-border e-commerce has great potential in
China and Tmall Global will continue to help brands and retailers sell
into China through innovative solutions, at the same time providing
Chinese consumers a wide variety of product choice,” said Maggie WU,
head of Tmall Global.
The King Power Duty Free store on Tmall Global allows consumers to
purchase stored-value cards online before their vacation and when they
visit Thailand, users can then spend the value on those cards in five
King Power shops in the country, including the stores in Bangkok’s Don
Mueang International Airport and the Suvarnabhumi Airport. King Power’s
duty-free stores host over 600 global brands.
In the future, the “World Duty Free” service on Tmall Global will
support online purchase of specific duty-free items and delivery of
those items to the airport for customers to pick up. Tmall Global is
also working with duty-free companies in South Korea, Japan and Europe
to open stores on the platform.
Through Tmall Global’s “World Duty Free” service, companies like King
Power are able to tailor special promotional discounts for Chinese
tourists and help them minimize the hassle of carrying cash and dealing
with exchange rates. Although the King Power Duty Free store has been
online for less than a month, the total order value from consumers has
topped RMB 1 million (US$161,000), with an average order size of RMB
7135 ($1150).
According to tax rebate company, Global Blue, Chinese global shoppers
accounted for nearly 30 percent of all tax-free shopping spending in the
world last year.
About Alibaba Group
Alibaba Group’s mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. The
company is the largest online and mobile commerce company in the world
in terms of gross merchandise volume. Founded in 1999, the company
provides the fundamental technology infrastructure and marketing reach
to help businesses leverage the power of the Internet to establish an
online presence and conduct commerce with hundreds of millions of
consumers and other businesses.
Alibaba Group’s major businesses include:
-
Taobao Marketplace (www.taobao.com),
China’s largest online shopping destination
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Tmall.com (www.tmall.com),
China’s largest third-party platform for brands and retailers
-
Juhuasuan (www.juhuasuan.com),
China’s most popular online group buying marketplace
-
Alitrip (www.alitrip.com),
a leading online travel booking platform
-
AliExpress (www.aliexpress.com),
a global online marketplace for consumers to buy directly from China
-
Alibaba.com (www.alibaba.com),
China’s largest global online wholesale platform for small businesses
-
1688.com (www.1688.com),
a leading online wholesale marketplace in China
-
Alibaba Cloud Computing (www.aliyun.com),
a provider of cloud computing services to businesses and entrepreneurs
Copyright Business Wire 2015