European Partnership Plan
NetEase, a leading Internet technology company in China, launched NetEase Kaola in 2015 to support cross-border e-commerce.
Zhang Lei, CEO of NetEase Kaola, announced the European Partnership Plan launch to encourage European products in China, and invest in an international network with further plans to build additional nine warehouses.
Launched at a recent conference in Frankfurt, Germany, The European Partnership Plan aims to develop stronger relationships with European businesses to help introduce increased numbers of international products in the Chinese marketplace.
Investment for access
With the pledge to purchase €3 billion of European products over the next three years, the investment is set to create access to over 2,000 European brands for Chinese consumers on NetEase Kaola’s e-commerce platform.
“There is a significant and growing demand for high-quality, European products in China and our platform, with its fully integrated supply network, gives international businesses direct access to consumers across China,” said Zhang Lei, CEO of NetEase Kaola.
In a recent press release, NetEase Kaola announced that the e-commerce platform now contains over 200 brands, and is working towards increasing this figure to 500 by the end of 2017.
Supportive infrastructure
As part of the European Partnership Plan and to enable the platform to achieve this goal, the company intends to create six additional international warehouses in the UK, Italy, France and Spain. It also plans to make additional investments in its Frankfurt-based European Operations Center, which opened in 2016.
NetEase Kaola’s key objective is to build an interconnected and secure supply network to safely and conveniently ship seller’s products to China. In turn, the company aims to maintain high-quality and deliver an expedient process to encourage Chinese consumers to invest in European cosmetics and personal care items.
Chinese market awareness
"As China's middle class continues to grow, so too does the demand for high-quality European products. We are proud to export 'Made in Germany' goods to China, and NetEase Kaola offers German businesses access to this market through a platform that guarantees the integrity of their products and provides the credibility and proof of origin that Chinese consumers demand,” said Norbert Noisser, Deputy Head of Division for Foreign Trade, Location Policy at the Ministry of Economics, Energy, Transport and Regional Development of the State of Hessen.
On 11th April 2017, four major German businesses signed agreements to make their products available to Chinese consumers through the e-commerce platform.
EuroComfort Group, P&M, Hape, and Best 1 MED have all signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU), which will provide them with access to NetEase Kaola’s network and infrastructure to present European-inspired and created trends to China.
"Quality does not only refer to product; it means elevation of experience throughout the whole consumption process. Only with this can the real essence of quality of European products be felt by Chinese consumers," added Frank Ganse, Chief Director of Sales of EuroComfort Group.