Apple Launches Store On Chinese E-Commerce Site Tmall

By Anna Rose Welch, Editorial & Community Director, Advancing RNA

Company hopes to expand its Chinese customer base via e-commerce and bricks-and-mortar expansions

Apple took a significant step into the Chinese market earlier this week when it set up an official store on the Chinese e-commerce site Tmall. This site, operated by e-commerce goliath Alibaba, is currently the second largest online retailer, and according to analysis firm Euromonitor International, is Amazon’s premier source of competition. In fact, the firm predicts that Tmall will overtake Amazon’s reign by 2015. This new move in Apple’s expansion plan will surely serve as an important step to help the company gain even more ground abroad and in the realms of e-commerce.

According to an article by the Wall Street Journal, shopping website Tmall was launched in 2008 and is the home of more than 70,000 merchants, including Microsoft, Nike, and Gap. By joining Tmall, Apple will not only be boosting its place in the market, but will also be just a click away from Chinese consumers who have not ventured as far into Apple territory as they have into other smartphone markets. Apple ranked fifth in China’s smartphone market during the 2013 third quarter, holding a mere 6 percent of the market share, coming up behind Samsung and other Chinese companies that provide Chinese customers with less expensive Android phones. However, this could stand to change considering China Mobile — the world’s largest mobile carrier — will begin giving its more than 700 million subscribers the option of purchasing the iPhone starting mid-January.

Meanwhile, the company has been pulling out its own stops to reach out to consumers and garner more sales in the new market. Today, the company will offer various Red Friday promotions just a few days before the Lunar New Year celebrations begin. While Apple isn’t saying much about the specific discounts available during this “special one-day shopping event,” it’s clearly seeking out ways to connect and build relationships with the Chinese consumer.  

By joining with Tmall, the company also looks to gain some important social networking tools that will help it connect further with customers.  Just this week, Alibaba, in partnership with the popular blogging platform Sina Weibo launched Weibo Payment, which enables Sina Weibo users to have a more “social shopping experience”— a rising trend these days among many retailers, both locally and abroad. Now, users can immediately purchase an item that someone shares using Alibaba’s payment platform, Alipay. Weibo Payments will also provide Apple with new CRM capabilities to help with its Chinese marketing efforts, like its Red Friday Sale.

Today also marks the opening of Apple’s 10th retail store in mainland China (or 13th, when taking into account Hong Kong). Though former head of retail operations Ron Johnson expected Apple to have 25 stores in China by February 2012, the company has been slower to expand and has pared down the number of stores it expects to open. CEO Tim Cook is planning for another 22 outlets in the densely populated Greater China. The company currently has retail spaces in Shanghai, Chengdu, Shenzhen, in addition to operating its own e-commerce site in China. This newest store will be the fourth Apple store Beijing has seen since the company expanded there in 2008.

Read “Getting A Piece Of The Global Retail Pie.”

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