Taiwanese e-commerce platform Eastern Home Shopping & Leisure (EHS) has announced plans to list its newly acquired cross-border operation Strawberrynet.com in Hong Kong.

The firm plans to list an IPO for the cosmetics e-trading site next year, allowing the firm to finance expansion into further Asian markets. EHS acquired a 76 per cent stake in Strawberry Cosmetics Holdings last year.

Gary Wang, the chairman of Eastern Media Group (the owners of EHS) said: “There is little chance for success in the Chinese market for new entrants who only sell Taiwanese products.”

He aims to build a vertically integrated e-commerce supply chain based on Strawberrynet’s global network to enter the Chinese market.

Wang added that consumers are no longer bound to domestic e-commerce operators, and said Taiwanese companies have felt compelled to match promotional campaigns put on by Chinese rivals, such as the Singles’ Day shopping event. He claims that multinational rivals such as Shopee have eaten into the profitability of Taiwan’s e-commerce sector despite a consistent rise in sales figures.