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CHINA. Leading Chinese e-commerce platform Tmall Global has announced the launch of a new service that allows Chinese tourists to prepay for their duty free purchases before leaving the country. Its “˜World Duty Free’ service is launching first through King Power Duty Free in Thailand.
Tmall Global, a division of Alibaba Group Holding, will open an online store front at http://kingpowerdutyfree.tmall.hk/ and become the first company to offer this service to Chinese consumers. Tmall Global said it hopes to enhance cross-border e-commerce opportunities for global companies looking to reach Chinese shoppers when they travel.
“We are excited that Thailand’s King Power is launching its duty free store on Tmall Global. Cross-border e-commerce has great potential in China and Tmall Global will continue to help brands and retailers sell into China through innovative solutions, at the same time providing Chinese consumers a wide variety of product choice,” said Maggie Wu, Head of Tmall Global.
The duty free store at Tmall Global allows consumers to purchase stored-value cards online before their trip. When they visit Thailand, users can then spend the value on those cards in five King Power shops in the country, including those at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports.
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Tmall Global: The service could open up new payment methods for Chinese travellers purchasing duty free goods overseas |
In the future, the service on Tmall Global will support online purchase of specific duty free items and delivery of those items to the airport for customers to pick up. Tmall Global also claimed to be working with duty free companies in South Korea, Japan and Europe to open stores on the platform.
The company said that travel retailers will be able to tailor special promotional discounts for Chinese tourists and help them “minimise the hassle of carrying cash and dealing with exchange rates”. Although the King Power Duty Free store has been online for less than a month, it added, the total order value from consumers has topped RMB 1 million (US$161,000), with an average order size of RMB7,135 ($1,150).
Tmall Global (www.tmall.hk) enables companies based beyond China’s borders to directly advertise and sell to Chinese consumers. Overseas companies without China business licenses are eligible to apply to Tmall Global.
Orders can be fulfilled and shipped from outside of China, and customer payments are settled in the native currency, though companies are required to provide a China-based product return arrangement and Chinese language customer service support.
