British online fashion and beauty retailer Asos will open an e-commerce business in China.

Asos has tapped commerce platform provider hybris to launch its online venture for the Chinese market.

“There are many complexities involved in China e-commerce implementations, some of which are quite unique to consumers, and many are unknown to retailers outside of local markets,” said hybris VP for Asia Burghardt Groeber.

“Asos was willing to take a completely different look at the requirements for penetrating the market and we are delighted to be working with them to make their new venture a success.”

Providing a true omni-channel experience for the 420 million potential Chinese customers, the site will include a fully-integrated, feature-rich mobile version as part of the launch.

In its report, researcher eMarketer said Asia Pacific will become the world’s number 1 market for B2C e-commerce this year, surpassing North America.

“Within the APAC region, China is recognised as being the primary driver of growth and, as such, it’s a market in which we want to be a major player,” said Asos CIO Pete Marsden.

“However, it is also a market with unique characteristics and requirements. To address these, we needed a proven and robust omni-channel platform that can support our new e-commerce business and the rapid growth and high traffic numbers that we’re expecting due to the size of the Chinese market.”

Asos sells more than 60,000 branded and own-label products and boasts 6 million active customers.