Souvenirs and trinkets from the British Museum are sold online in China. (WWW.TMALL.COM)
The British Museum, in London's Bloomsbury area, attracts millions of visitors each year and is hugely popular with Chinese tourists. The merchandising partnership between the British Museum and Alibaba was announced in 2016.
"It is an exciting prospect for the British Museum to be working with a company of Alibaba's stature as part of the museum's product licensing campaign," said Craig Bendle, the museum's manager of merchandising and licensing.
"The British Museum is a museum of the world, for the world, and this program provides a unique opportunity to share the museum through both online and physical store activities," he added.
Industry experts pointed out that the British Museum's foray into Tmall aims to tap the burgeoning demand from the Chinese market, where similar cultural and creative products from Chinese museums have already gone viral.
More than 10 Chinese museums, including the Palace Museum in Beijing and the Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, have developed similar products, and many of the museums have opened shops online.
