With 485 million internet users and growing, China is fast
becoming a hot spot for online retailers.
In March, luxury-apparel etailer Net-a-Porter announced it was
entering the Chinese market with the acquisition of Shouke.com, a
Hong Kong-based fashion website. The site relaunched as a
Chinese-language of Net-a-Porter’s outlet arm The Outnet, trading
as TheOutnet.cn.
Part of its phased launch into Asia throughout 2012 and 2013, the
acquisition of Shouke sees founders Paul Teague, Adrienne Ma, and
Richard Chen join the core Net-a-Porter team in the region. The
next step in the strategy will be the opening of a Hong Kong
distribution centre to better serve customers in the region. On
opening the distribution centre-the company’s third
site-Net-a-Porter will facilitate same-day delivery for customers
in Hong Kong; as it does for London and New York-based
shoppers.
Commenting, chief executive Mark Sebba said in a statement,
“Asia-Pacific is a core market for the Net-a-Porter Group.
As a global business, we have been retailing to customers in the
region and have built a strong customer base since launch in
2000. Our service offering remains key and the opening of our
third distribution centre brings us one step closer to achieving
our goal to deliver the best fashion overnight to our customer
wherever she or he may be in the world.”
For the time being, Net-a-Porter will continue to fulfil from the
UK. Ultimately, it plans to ship products to mainland China from
the Hong Kong distribution centre and offer a simplified
Chinese-language website in due course.
China is also the next destination for QVC. The TV shopping
channel and online retailer is entering the Chinese market via a
joint venture with Beijing-based China National Radio (CNR). The
partnership will see QVC jointly operate a multimedia retailing
business in China through the CNR Mall TV shopping channel and
eCommerce website.
The joint venture, named CNR Home Shopping Co Ltd (CNRS), will be
headquartered in Beijing and sees QVC own a 49 per cent stake.
CNRS will provide merchandise development, logistics, delivery,
call centre and other related services to CNR Mall. The latter
will continue to be wholly owned by CNR. As at February 2012, CNR
Mall TV reached approximately 35 million homes in China across 71
cities and 13 provinces.
Meanwhile, UK-based homewares and apparel retailer Next is
gearing up for the launch of its Chinese website later this year.
The company had announced in September that it would go live in
China within six months. However, the launch date has been pushed
back after getting the site operational proved “harder than
initially anticipated,” says Next’s chief executive Lord
Wolfson. Overseas sales at Next generated £33 million in the
year ending January 2012, compared to £10 million in the
previous year.
Online retail around the world:
- Marks & Spencer is launching an Irish website enabling
customers in the Republic of Ireland to shop the full M&S
clothing range and a selection of homewares. The site, set to
launch later this spring, will offer customers local delivery,
with prices starting at €4.95 for standard delivery. For
the project, Marks & Spencer retained change management
specialist Athito, which supported its launch into France last
year. - Footwear retailer Schuh is set to launch a French version of
its website this summer. The Livingstone-based retailer’s new
website will be localised for the French market with language and
euro payment options. A spokesperson for Schuh wouldn’t comment
any further, but it is understood more international developments
are in the pipeline.
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