Australian retailers with a compelling online offering could become part of Australia’s export economy, said a federal MP.
“Online retail, I would argue, could increasingly be an export story for Australia,” said Paul Fletcher, parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Communications, during a keynote address on the opening morning of the Online Retailer Conference & eCommerce Expo at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion.
“In a world with millions of consumers online many Australian businesses are now able to serve markets that would have been impossible to reach 20 years ago,” Fletcher said, while discussing the future of Australian online retail.
“Austrade recently issued a very useful guide, eCommerce in China, a guide for Australian business, which is packed with practical advice about how to use eCommerce marketplaces such as Tmall, JD.com and VIP.com to access the Chinese market.”
The Austrade guide provides an overview of the different online platforms; profiles China’s online consumers; and gives practical advice on how to build and manage an online business, ship goods to China, protect intellectual property; and navigate local regulations. These online marketplaces promote themselves as relatively easy, low-cost and low-risk pathway for Australian exporters to sell their goods in the world’s second largest economy.
“We’ve been working to create new opportunities through the free trade agreements with China, Japan and Korea and I certainly hope there will be Australian online businesses seizing those opportunities,” Fletcher said.
So far Australian companies dipping their toes into the Chinese market via Alibaba’s Tmall Global marketplace include, Blackmores, PharmaCare, Bellamy’s Organic, Jessica’s Suitcase, Australia Post, A2, Foodworks, Gaia, JeansWest and Jurlique.
The size and value of this market makes it attractive to any exporter who can carve out a slice for themselves. Susan Corbisiero, Austrade Trade Commissioner, Beijing, said recently, “China’s online retail sector is bigger than the US and generated more than half a trillion Australian dollars in 2014. Now is the time for Australian companies to develop an online strategy and tap into a channel that’s becoming the preferred way to shop for China’s middle class.”
For more coverage of the Online Retailer Conference & eCommerce Expo don’t miss this week’s issue of Inside Retail PREMIUM.
