Company opens store on Alibaba's Tmall Global to sell British goods online to Chinese consumers with help of China Post

The UK company whose heritage began with delivering mail on the orders of Henry VIII in 1516 is joining China's e-commerce boom by opening a storefront on Alibaba's Tmall Global marketplace, selling British goods to Chinese consumers online.

With the move, Royal Mail, the UK's designated universal postal service provider - which in 2013 successfully floated on the London Stock Exchange - will have a presence on the largest business-to-consumer retail platform in Asia.

Royal Mail employees sort through mail in Northampton, England. Provided to China Daily

The storefront will avail itself of delivery arrangements quite a bit more sophisticated than its ancestor did, when it commanded 500 years ago that all towns have a fresh horse available for anyone carrying mail from the Tudor Court.

As part of the agreement, China Post, the government-owned postal service of China, will provide Royal Mail with all the infrastructure and logistics needed to make British goods accessible for Chinese consumers, officials say.

"The importance of our alliance with China Post is that it reaches every place in China," says Royal Mail's CEO Moya Greene, who unveiled the new initiative in Shanghai, China, at the Great Festival of Creativity, a UK government-led showcase for British businesses held in early March.

"We in the UK and China Post here in China will make sure that Chinese consumers get what they want and that they get it safely, reliably and without damage," Greene says.

"Of course there are several marketplaces, but the biggest and the most sophisticated global market place is Alibaba."

She traveled to Shanghai with a business delegation accompanying Prince William, Duke of Cambridge.

The storefront will offer British retailers and exporters an accelerated opportunity to access the China market, the company says.

"For small retailers in the UK, it would be difficult and expensive to try to go directly to Chinese consumers. It is not just a direct translation when you go into a new market," Greene says.

The storefront is expected to help retailers with promotion on Chinese e-commerce sites, local customer support services, customs duties, documentation, shipping and logistics.

For China's 302 million online shoppers, Royal Mail's new storefront will offer products from renowned British brands such as Brompton Bicycles, with delivery to the doorstep, officials say. The platform is expected to go live toward the end of March.

Company officials note that Chinese consumers represent almost one-third of the global market for personal luxury goods and spend three times more abroad on high quality, designer goods than they spend locally.

This comes amid concerns in China over authenticity and the safety of goods sold online, due to the ongoing issue of fake items being sold within the country, officials say in a news release.

"Together, these factors have helped boost dramatically the appetite for brands and products sourced from British suppliers. China is now the biggest overseas consumer of British products online, accounting for 25 percent of overseas online shoppers purchasing goods from the UK," according to the news release.

Greene says it was of paramount importance to make the announcement in China.

"I cannot emphasize this sufficiently for other businesspeople in the UK. It is incredibly important to know people personally if you want to forge business relationships with them. I think you have to be here physically to explain what you can bring to your Chinese partner," she says.

Greene, 60, who is Canadian, has been at the front of Royal Mail for five years, and is the first woman and first non-Briton to run the company.

During her visit to Shanghai, the executive noted the key role of Alibaba and China Post in making the shopping portal a success.

She noted that Alibaba's founder and chairman, Jack Ma, also attended the festival, showing his commitment to the project and to the development of trade links with the UK. "I was very thrilled to see him. He really does understand and value the UK market," she says.

Greene declined to provide specific projections for the storefront, but says that the opportunities to develop the shopping platform are huge. While Royal Mail initially listed only one specific company, Brompton Bicycles, using the portal, Greene says she expects many other brands to join.

"As we go live around the end of March, you will see us introduce more and more British brands to Chinese consumers."

Although the current plan is to work on developing trade channels between the UK and China, Royal Mail is looking beyond that, she says. She mentioned that Royal Mail also owns General Logistics Systems, which operates a large, parcel delivery network in Europe.

"We want to increase the logistics network from Europe. We have a very important company in Europe called GLS that operates in 37 different markets throughout Europe. We want to see the linkages between those parts of Europe and China," Greene says.

The executive paid her first visit to China as Royal Mail's CEO in 2012. She says she is impressed by how fast things have changed in only three years.

For the future, Greene says she has great expectations for China and sees very positive prospects ahead. "This is an amazing market, and a fantastic time," she says. "I think we are going to see some really important things coming out of China."

emmagonzalez@chinadaily.com.cn

Moya Greene is the first woman to run Royal Mail. Provided to China Daily

(China Daily European Weekly 03/27/2015 page20)