Waitrose says that it is expecting sales in China to quadruple during the competitive Chinese ‘Singles’ Day’ 2017, the world’s largest shopping event.
The British supermarket started exporting to China in 2016, but rising demand has led to significant increases in sales this year. It was the first time the UK supermarket had exported to a country via a website platform only, and the retailer has since doubled its available products to 100.
The UK retailer says that it is doing well in the Chinese market, especially among Chinese women, who make up 70% of its sales. Demand is highest in major cities such a Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.
Waitrose sells several of its private label ranges online in China, including Waitrose Duchy Organic, essential Waitrose and its premium range, Waitrose 1.
The retailer predicts that its muesli and squeezable honey will be this year’s biggest sellers, with sales already up 70% and 150%, respectively. Chocolates, biscuits, teas and coffees are also proving to be very popular.
Chinese Online Retail
The UK retailer runs its Chinese e-commerce operations through a number of Chinese online marketplaces, including Tmall Global, which is run by the Alibaba Group, as well as Netease, VIP and Little Red Book.
According to recent figures, e-commerce in Asia is forecast to grow on average by 34.6% a year between now and 2022, with companies like Alibaba and JD.com occupying the lion’s share of the grocery market.
“It's difficult to ignore the importance of the Chinese market, particularly e-commerce, as demand for high quality, British products continues to grow rapidly," said Daniel Armstrong, Waitrose business manager for international sales.
"Our sales in China are already up almost 75% on last year and we expect Singles Day to provide another huge boost this weekend.”
Singles’ Day
The world’s largest shopping day started two decades ago as an alternative to Valentine’s day. It was meant to celebrate those without partners, as shown by the date that it supposed to look like four single people (11/11).
Last year, Alibaba hosted the event, recording almost £14 billion in sales within 24 hours. This was nearly a 25% increase on the previous year and almost three times the amount generated by Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined in the US.
This year, China's largest online grocer JD.com is joining in the mega-event.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Kevin Duggan. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
