Chinese e-commerce Tmall Global has revealed Australia emerged into the third spot on the list of importer countries into China.
Tmall Global said its latest 2017 Tmall Global Annual Consumers Report showed the country made it to the third spot on Alibaba’s business-to-consumer (B2C) platform. This is up from fourth spot in 2016.
It is led by strong demand from Chinese consumers for Australia’s health and nutrition supplements, baby products and milk powder. The country ranked behind Japan and the US, and ahead of Germany and South Korea.
“Since opening our ANZ headquarters in Melbourne last year, we have worked harder than ever to support the success of Australian businesses in China. These incredible results for Australian merchants demonstrate that we are succeeding in our mission to make it easier for local businesses to do business anywhere. With 515 million annual active consumers now using our China retail marketplaces the opportunity for Australian businesses remains enormous, and we are excited to be part of the China journey for even more local brands in 2018,” said managing director of Alibaba Group, Australia and New Zealand Maggie Zhou.
The 2017 Tmall Global Annual Consumers Report was jointly published by Tmall Global and CBNData, a big data-based business research and integrated marketing communications strategy platform. Elsewhere, it found that Chinese post-millennials have become the main purchasing power for imported products, with content and emotional interaction becoming a major factor in driving consumers’ decisions when buying imported products.
E-commerce giant said in a statement the report highlighted that people born in the 1990s have now become the biggest spenders on imported products, which come from a more diverse range of countries and are consumed more frequently throughout the year.
Tmall Global sustained its position as the largest B2C e-commerce platform for imported products in China, with a market share of 27.6% in the fourth quarter of 2017. There is still significant untapped potential in this sector, with the report estimating annual growth of 20% in transaction volume and a market scale of RMB620 billion by 2019.
Other highlights of the report include:
- Tmall Global hosted more than 16,400 brands (a 13% increase from 2016) from 68 countries on its platform in 2017. Its penetration rate, calculated as a ratio of Tmall Global users to Alibaba’s total number of users, increased across the country, showing that more people can now afford imported products.
- Between 2015 and 2017, the total number of Tmall Global customers has tripled, with more than 30% of them spending more on the platform. Consumption upgrade will continue to be key for the growth of Tmall Global and cross-border e-commerce in China.
- In 2017, the top five importers on Tmall Global were Japan, the U.S., Australia, Germany, and Korea. Beauty products remained the most popular category on the platform, followed by Food and Supplements, and Mother & Baby products.
- The favourite product categories of top 5 countries selling cross-border to China in 2017 on Tmall Global are:
1. Japan
- Diapers and baby products
- Beauty and personal care products
2. US
- Health foods and supplements
- Baby products
- Bags
3. Australia
- Health and nutrition supplements
- Baby products
- Milk powder for adults
4. Germany
- Milk powder
- Dietary and nutrition supplements
- Cups/kettles
5. Korea
- Beauty and personal care products
- Cosmetics
- In 2017, sales of products from countries other than the top three seller countries rose above 50% for the first time, reflecting more diverse product origins and showing that consumers were more willing to explore products from less conventional import countries.
- An interactive shopping experience has proven to be a key driver of sales conversion. Tmall Global offered product search, official recommendations, community recommendations and merchant-initiated communication to enhance the customer experience. Mobile live broadcast and celebrity recommendations have risen to become the newest and most effective ways of engaging customers and generating sales.
- In 2017, consumers aged between 18-27 (those who were born in the 1990s) accounted for nearly 50% of the total number of Tmall Global users and contributed nearly 40% of total sales. The three major motivations for this group to buy imported products are trying new things, aspiring to own luxury items and aging anxiety.
