Tmall Global, extension of the Chinese Group's Tmall B2C platform Alibaba, with Intesa Sanpaolo e UniCredit launch "E-Marco Polo", a joint initiative aimed at facilitating the entry of Italian companies into the Chinese market through Tmall Global and promoting "Made in Italy" products.
The project follows up on the "Memorandum of Understanding" (MOU) signed last June between the Italian Government and the Alibaba Group. "E-Marco Polo", entering the path opened by the Italian Government, aims to industrialize the process of iEntrance of the excellences of “Made in Italy” offers through Tmall Global, the reference platform for foreign brands and operators, who will thus be able to make themselves known to millions of Chinese consumers even if not physically present in the country.
It is a significant effort to create easy end-to-end access between Italy and China and to support Italian small and medium-sized enterprises in promoting "Made in Italy" products in the fashion, food & beverage, beauty and kids sectors. Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit, with the aim of promoting Italian SMEs and their quality products to the Chinese public, will create a virtual showcase on Tmall Global, which will allow access to a selection of Italian brands that can be purchased online.
“We are thrilled to be able to offer our users the best Italian products on our B2C platform” – said Maggie We, General Manager of Tmall Global. “Tmall Global provides foreign brands with an international solution and is pleased to be able to work with Intesa Sanpaolo and Unicredit. Through this collaboration, TMall Global believes it can help Italian companies penetrate (reach) the Chinese market and, by expanding the variety of products, be able to directly reach hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers".
“The Chinese market has overtaken the United States in terms of total online retail sales* – he said Paolo Fiorentino, Chief Operating Officer of UniCredit – and the online purchase of foreign goods has shown double-digit growth over the last year. It is an extremely important market for our companies and this initiative intends to support them in landing or in expanding their market share if they are already present. After all, our companies - added Fiorentino - dominate as best-in-class in the fashion, beauty, food & beverage sectors and with a partner like Alibaba we will be able to offer our client companies support and a platform capable of helping them in their internationalization".
"This agreement is particularly relevant in the medium and long term for the commercial outlet it will be able to offer to Italian SMEs in an institutional and synergy framework with the main banking realities of the country - he declared Stephen Barrese, Sales and Marketing Area Manager of Intesa Sanpaolo. We believe it is essential to be able to dialogue with a solid partner such as Alibaba to operate effectively and safely in markets with great potential such as the Chinese one". “The initiative – underlined Barrese – finally strengthens Intesa Sanpaolo's positioning in e-commerce, a sector in which the bank has been investing with conviction for some time”.
