United Biscuits has opened its flagship e-commerce store in China on Alibaba Group's Tmall Global platform.
Announcing the launch, the UK group said China is a "strategic market" because it is the fourth-largest biscuit market in the world, although biscuit consumption per capita stands at half the world average.
The company said the launch was timed to coincide with Alibaba’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, a Chinese annual shopping event on 11 November.
United Biscuits first rolled out its McVitie’s Digestives in China in 2012 via traditional retailers. The company said it is now putting increasing emphasis on e-commerce channels in China to augment its traditional retail business.
"China is a very important market for United Biscuits, and we have high expectations of our flagship store on Tmall Global. McVitie's is an iconic British brand, and via our Tmall Global store, we are making the brand accessible to another 386m potential consumers across China, who all now have the opportunity to buy the Original McVitie’s Digestives in British packaging, directly from the source,” Marcel Willems, United Biscuits regional general manager for Greater China said.
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United Biscuits said the group's e-commerce models in core markets – The so-called McVitie's Sweeet Shop in the UK and the Delacre Mailbox in northern Europe – could form a template for future developments of its online capabilities in China. Both sites offer personalisation of products at point of sale.
