Xtep International Holdings Limited, a leading Chinese fashion sporting goods company, recently announced a strategic partnership with Chinese online shopping giant Taobao.com.
Xtep and Taobao signed a cooperation agreement in Shanghai, China on May 14. With this cooperation with Taobao, Xtep will strengthen its e-commerce distribution platform and expand its marketing pipeline, which will help the Group to control and manage its supply and expand its sales network. Online distributors use Taobao's distribution platform to send order orders directly to the company, so they can get the goods more quickly.
The Xtep official online flagship store has been popular with consumers since its opening in December 2009, and its popularity and acceptance have continued to increase. Consumers can break geographical restrictions and purchase Xtep products through the Internet anytime, anywhere. Customers can also purchase online exclusive products to fully meet their shopping needs.
Taobao is the largest online retailer in Asia and has gathered a number of powerful sellers. As of April 2010, Taobao has 190 million registered members. In 2009, it achieved an annual turnover of RMB 200 billion, making it the largest online retailer in Asia. According to the data released by iResearch Consulting, the size of China's online shopping market in 2009 reached RMB 248.35 billion, an increase of 93.7% from the previous year. The study believes that the domestic online shopping market is expected to maintain steady growth in the next few years, and the transaction volume in 2013 is expected to exceed RMB 1 trillion. As an industry-leading fashion sports goods company, Xtep gives high expectations to the e-commerce market.
Mr. Ding Shuibo, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Xtep, stated that Xtep will use this as the strategic focus of the Group for the next three years when domestic sporting goods companies generally take a wait-and-see approach to e-commerce.