Taobao Marketplace and Juhuasuan, two consumer e-commerce platforms operated by Alibaba Group, have opened a new Juhuasuan Overseas platform in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Juhuasuan Overseas provides Hong Kong and Taiwan consumers with a dedicated comprehensive group shopping platform offering a wide range of merchandise and localised lifestyle services selected from Taobao sellers.
Previously, products offered on Juhuasuan were often only accessible to mainland Chinese consumers.
The Juhuasuan Overseas platform will leverage Taobao marketplace’s database of more than 800 million product listings at any given time to provide Hong Kong and Taiwan consumers with a diverse and comprehensive product selection, while at the same time increasing value for money by offering attractive discounts on premium products and services.
The Juhuasuan Overseas platform will feature between 12 and 20 new group shopping deals each day spanning a number of product categories popular among Hong Kong and Taiwan consumers, including women’s and men’s apparel and accessories, homewares, mother and baby products, consumer electronic accessories and children’s toys.
In a few weeks’ time, a number of localised lifestyle services and travel deals will also be launched and up on offer to Hong Kong consumers such as hotel and travel packages for regions including but not limited to Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Zhuhai.
“In 2012, we continued to improve upon platform infrastructure and introduced new features such as the Alipay Card to make online shopping more convenient for Hong Kong and Taiwan consumers. Users can expect an even more diverse and comprehensive set of new and localised features and services to be rolled out in 2013,” said Daphne Lee, director of Taobao international business.
Prior to the launch of the Juhuasuan Overseas platform, consumers from Hong Kong or Taiwan were often unable to participate in group shopping deals offered by Juhuasuan as cross-border shipping was not supported.
Now, shoppers on the Juhuasuan Overseas platform need only to input their shipping address for their product to be delivered straight to their door in as little as two days after the deal ends.
Once the localised lifestyle services and travel deals are launched in a few weeks’ time, consumers purchasing these deals will receive a QR code or transaction serial number via text message, which can be presented to the merchant to redeem the deal.
As of the end of 2012, there were more than 1.4 million and 600,000 registered Taobao users in Hong Kong and Taiwan, respectively.
According to a survey conducted by Taobao marketplace, more than 60 per cent of users from Hong Kong and Taiwan visit the website at least once a week and approximately one quarter of those surveyed said that they visited the website at least once a day.
Users in Hong Kong and Taiwan can log in to the Juhuasuan Overseas platform using their Taobao username and password and settle payment for purchases through Visa, MasterCard or JCB. Hong Kong users have the additional option of making payments via PPS or the Alipay Card.
