Liu Minxia

    mllmx@msn.com

    WAL-MART Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, yesterday launched its cross-border e-commerce business in China in an effort to grab a slice of a market that has been growing rapidly on the back of the middle class’s rising income and increasing appetite for imported goods.

    A relatively latecomer in China’s cross-border shopping market, the retailer is offering Chinese customers on its app more than 200 items ranging from snacks and facial masks to diapers shipped from 27 countries where the retailer operates. It said the number of the items it offers is expected to rise to 500 by the end of this year.

    Taking advantage of its sophisticated network of stores in the world’s second-largest economy, the retailer, in addition to offering express delivery services, allows customers to pick up their orders at around 80 of its physical stores in Guangdong and return unwanted products at any of its 420 stores across the country.

    It also promised to refund the price difference if a customer finds item cheaper at another shop on another shopping platform.

    “All these products are sourced from their country of origin such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and Australia, leveraging Walmart’s supply chain around the globe,” said Marybeth Hays, chief merchandising, marketing and supply chain officer of Walmart China, at the launching ceremony of Walmart Global Shop. “Customers can buy popular famous brands as well as private brand products from our business in the United Kingdom and Japan.”

    China’s cross-border shopping market has been evolving rapidly as a slew of food safety scandals have pushed Chinese consumers to opt for overseas brands. The government also encourages Chinese companies to tap into the overseas online shopping market amid a slowing economy. China’s Ministry of Commerce expects the country’s cross border e-commerce trade to reach US$1 trillion in value this year.

    Shenzhen, a pilot city for the cross-border e-commerce business, saw an 88 percent surge in cross-border e-commerce transactions last year to US$32 billion, the city’s first cross-border e-commerce seminar was told Monday. The lucrative market has spawned 20,000 cross-border e-commerce firms in Shenzhen, roughly a half of the country’s total.

    Embracing e-commerce to profit from China’s changing retail landscape, traditional retailers also set up cross-border e-commerce branches. China Resources Vanguard opened a real store of its Ewj Shop brand, which mainly sells goods from Hong Kong, in July in Qianhai.

    Walmart launched its O2O (online-to-offline) services in Shenzhen in May, and later expand to Guangzhou and Dongguan, and will expand to more Chinese cities later this year.

    The retailer revealed yesterday that more than 500,000 Chinese customers, including 300,000 in Shenzhen, have downloaded the app and the O2O businesses in Shenzhen have skyrocketed by 700 percent within the first four months after it was launched.

    The cross-border e-commerce services will be on the same app platform the retailer is operating and target Chinese nationwide as it can mail the products from Shenzhen’s free trade zone to anywhere in China.

    “We saw that 50 percent of Walmart app users in Shenzhen place their orders during lunchtime or at midnight after stores are closed,” said Hays. “This shows that the Walmart app is a great complimentary extension to our physical stores. Customers have the choice and liberty to shop anytime anywhere with Walmart.”