An ad on Tmall.com promots overseas fruits.
The tentacles of China's online retailers grow longer and more pervasive every day, reaching around the world to grab everything from Boston lobster to Norwegian salmon and dragging it home to grace dinner tables of China.
Online retailers JD.com and Alibaba's Tmall.com are locked in battle to sign up overseas merchants and department stores for their newest marketplaces selling nothing but imported products. The competition between Alibaba and JD.com to ship goods directly from overseas to the customer's doorstep in China has expanded from luxury clothing to baby formula and cosmetics. The latest catches are fresh meat and seafood.
These new offerings require sophisticated logistics. Meat and seafood have to be shipped and delivered at low temperature. Any delay can compromise freshness or even cause these posh delicacies to spoil.
In April, JD.com set up a site exclusively selling products from countries like France, Republic of Korea, New Zealand and the United States. On Thursday, the company signed a deal to sell Canadian fresh food and beverages.
JD's arch-rival Alibaba embarked on a global campaign more than a year ago to lure international brands into opening stores on Tmall to sell directly to Chinese consumers, with meat and seafood riding the crest of a wave of fresh, imported produce.
Walmart-backed online grocery store yihaodian.com sells everything from Thai durian and Mexican avocadoes to red shrimp from Argentina.
A VERY BIG PIE
Overseas retailers also want a piece of China's vast e-commerce pie. Amazon has warehouses in the Shanghai free trade zone (FTZ) and a store on Tmall in addition to a Chinese site of its own.
American wholesaler Costco has a shop on Tmall, while eBay has teamed up with JD.com to sell imported products. Japan's Rakuten online store has a Chinese-language version and offers payment options with Chinese bank cards and Alibaba's Alipay, China's most widely used online payment service.
"Foreign companies now understand the habits of Chinese consumers are different. Working with a local online retailer lets them sell their products more rapidly, cheaper and, without having to establish a large presence in China, they save a lot of costs," said Canadian Ambassador to China Guy Saint-Jacques, who was there to see the deal with JD.com signed on Thursday.
"We see the future in China's e-commerce," said Arden Schneckenburger of Canada Beef. Canadian beef exported to China is currently sold to restaurants, food services, and stores. "But," said Schneckenburger, "I would say e-commerce will, in the future, take more sales in China."
