Macy’s to launch own Chinese e-commerce site in 2017

By

Benjamin Fitzgerald

Published
Oct 12, 2016

Department store giant Macy's will launch its first official online shopping portal in China -- the world's largest e-commerce market -- in 2017, a spokesperson told reporters in Shanghai last week.

The American chain entered the Chinese online shopping sphere last November, with a storefront on Tmall Global -- a web shopping site for imported products operated by Alibaba Group.

Macy’s has never disclosed specific revenue figures from its Tmall Global efforts but has 300,000 consumers taking advantage of the social media-like features of Tmall Global to follow Macy’s, keeping up with 1500 fashion products available from such brands as Klein, Fossil, Kipling and Tommy Hilfiger. Alibaba also confirmed that Macy’s has become one of the most popular sellers on Tmall Global.

Outside of the product arena, Macy’s held an online show during New York Fashion Week, in a bid to connect with young Chinese shoppers, which attracted 100,000 Chinese viewers and netted about 150 million posts to Chinese social network Weibo.

While Macy’s is a popular shopping destination for Chinese tourists in the United States, Dustin Jones, Macy’s managing director for China, noted the customers in the two nations are very different and have rather distinct needs.

“Chinese consumers want to know many details, while U.S consumers only want to check out quickly,” said Jones. “We are still learning in China, and we will speed up our expansion next year.”

Macy’s has released no plans to open a physical store in China.