Dive Brief:
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Royal Mail Group, the UK postal service, is planning a Tmall storefront to help UK retailers get their goods to China.
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Royal Mail will sell British goods and take care of customer support in China, customs issues, shipping, and e-commerce promotion.
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UK goods are connecting with Chinese consumers, something that has received several boosts from Prince William and Kate Middleton, who have promoted British products in China.
Dive Insight:
Royal Mail is helping UK retailers get busy on Alibaba’s Tmall marketplace (some 130 UK companies already do) by providing an important set of logistics in a fast growing market. Royal Mail will also help retailers with the cultural shift by advertising on Chinese e-commerce sites and handling customer support.
“Online shopping and the connection it facilitates between retailers and consumers is a key channel to develop sustainable trade between China and Britain and we are excited at the prospect of offering U.K. companies a new and streamlined way to increase the accessibility of their products to Chinese consumers,” Royal Mail CEO Moya Greene said in a statement.