Even though the sales in emerging markets have declined, Unilever PLC, a big consumer products company, is still convinced that these markets have great long-term opportunities, especially in India and China. As such, the company announced that they are expanding in China to capitalize the growth of e-commerce businesses.
The company had partnered with JD.com, Inc., and last Monday, Unilever announced the opening of a store on JD Worldwide, the company's cross-border e-commerce platform. The store will feature Unilever's best products, such as Ponds, Dove, Vaseline, as well as Lux shampoo products, which are the best-sellers in Japan, for the first time in China.
The new store will open during the month of big discounts on JD.com because of the e-commerce platform's June 18 anniversary, which is expected to provide Unilever the chance to test new offerings in China.
"If brands sell very well, we will import them in bulk, and then sell them on other e-commerce platforms in China," Andy Li, director of Unilever's China e-commerce business, said.
Mr. Li added that the company's sales on the platform increased more than three times last year, a faster growth rate on Tmall, which makes Unilever's online sales total more than 1 billion yuan ($161 million) yearly in China.
Unilever has sold products through the company since 2013, but they only concentrated on the platform's direct sales e-tail business, which has resulted in them growing their demand from Chinese consumers.
Unilever's China sales had dropped in the second half of last year, partly dure to a declining Chinese economy and a pullback in consumer spending. The company is among the several who had also overestimated the growth in brick-and-mortar sales.
Expanding in emerging markets has been the strategy of Unilever for a long time. Two-thirds of the company's revenue come from the emerging markets.
Even though the company has witnessed the economic uncertainty in China since the past few quarters, they still believe that this is the initiative that will help boost the sales in China.
