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Unilever Partners with Alibaba in China

7/20/2015
Unilever China and Alibaba Group recently signed a Strategic Partnership Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The two companies will make joint effort to build the biggest online and offline platform for sales, branding, cross-border e-commerce and innovation.

This partnership is the first time for Alibaba to develop a full channel, whole field group corporation with a FMCG company. It's also a new attempt to achieve resource sharing between the two sides.

The cooperation in following areas would be further strengthened in future:

    -The two companies will cooperate to expand distribution channels, which will give consumers in rural areas more convenient access to Unilever products.
    -Unilever and Alibaba will further develop the cross-border e-commerce business. In China, Unilever store on Tmall Global will become the online platform embedded with the richest variety of Unilever products from around the world.
    -The two companies will further develop the application of big data, with which Unilever China can optimize the online advertising strategy and drive online to offline sales.
    -The two companies will jointly develop the offline business with shared resources, and discover the innovative change to logistics mode in FMCG industry.
    -Special QR code developed by Alibaba will be put on the packages of Unilever products for trial. This will help consumers easily identify counterfeit products with mobile APP and provide a special shopping experience for consumer.

"Alibaba has changed the shopping habit of Chinese consumers. Its mission is to make it easy to do business everywhere, and its vision is to build the future infrastructure of commerce. This meets Unilever's development needs in China." says Marijn Van Tiggelen, Unilever North Asia president. "Alibaba is the leading internet company in China, with the most innovative thinking. It's not only an online store, but also a solution platform for online payment, e-finance, and e-commerce logistics. In cooperation with Alibaba, Unilever can provide more convenient services to consumers in China."

In the last few years, Unilever has made proactive try in the field of e-commerce. It has opened an online flagship store on Tmall, Alibaba's most important B2C platform, since Jun.2011. In September 2014, Unilever started the cross-border e-commerce business on Tmall Global. The cooperation in e-commerce has given Chinese consumer easier access to quality-assured Unilever products made in China and exported from other countries.

The new approach for "Internet plus FMCG" initiative is a win-win for the two companies to drive business growth with shared resources and strong commitment to each other. The upcoming Unilever Week on Tmall, scheduled 22-24 July, will become an initiating event after the MOU. This event will put Unilever products on spotlight online, and help Unilever to drive e-commerce business.
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