Taobao Partners With UNIQLO to Grow China’s Online Fashion Market

SHANGHAI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Taobao, China’s largest consumer e-commerce company, and UNIQLO, a new-style casual wear brand under Japan’s leading apparel retail group Fast Retailing Co., Ltd, today announced a strategic partnership to launch the online sales business of UNIQLO’s casual wear products in China. The partnership will serve as an important step for the Japanese retailer, which had 21 offline stores in China by mid-2008 but limited online presence locally, to make inroads into the growing online Chinese consumer market.

Under the partnership, UNIQLO will set up a virtual flagship store on Taobao’s online marketplace (taobao.com), which had almost 100 million registered users as of December 31, 2008. To further facilitate UNIQLO’s online sales push in China, Taobao will also draw on its Internet technologies, resources and experience to help UNIQLO construct a separate retail website – the first time for Taobao to power an external website for a partner company. This website and UNIQLO’s Taobao store will share the same product database, and members of Taobao can shop on the UNIQLO website without having to register a new user ID. Through Taobao, UNIQLO will be able to obtain accurate, first-hand data about the consumption pattern of China’s young consumers, and design products that would better cater to the local market.

“We are excited about the prospect of growing China’s online fashion market through a partnership with world-leading casual wear brand UNIQLO. UNIQLO’s decision to join the lineup of global companies already operating an online store on Taobao underscores the continued and growing strength of online retailing in China, as nearly 100 million people have elected to purchase goods, such as apparel, via the Internet rather than through traditional brick-and-mortar retail,” said Jonathan Lu, president of Taobao.

“UNIQLO’s decision to foray into China’s e-commerce market was based on the huge potential of the Chinese online consumer base. With over RMB100 billion (approximately USD14.6 billion) of annual transaction volume and more than 100 million registered users, Taobao is a clear leader in Asia’s Internet retail market and a partner of choice for our China market push. In the coming future, we will focus on raising our brand awareness in China by leveraging Taobao’s huge consumer community,” said Tadashi Yanai, chairman, president and CEO of Fast Retailing, who is also founder of UNIQLO.

According to “Chinese Apparel Brands and Online Apparel Shopping Study 2009” conducted by China IntelliConsulting, apparel is the most popular online shopping category in China and was the highest transaction amount in 2008. Almost 60% of the online shoppers studied had experience in purchasing apparel items online, and apparel contributes to about one fourth of the total online shopping transaction volume in China. iResearch data show that about half of the online shoppers in China are aged 23 to 32, and they are the most fashion-conscious section of the population. The joint online retail initiative by UNIQLO and Taobao fills the market need by making low-cost, high-quality and fashionable casual wear more accessible to these young online shoppers.

About Taobao

Taobao (taobao.com) is the largest online shopping marketplace for consumers in China. With a registered user base of nearly 100 million, Taobao reaches an overwhelming majority of online shoppers in China. In 2008, Taobao's transaction volume, or gross merchandise volume (GMV), was RMB99.96 billion, up 131 percent year-on-year. Since its launch in 2003, Taobao has grown into an ecosystem where over 1 million online merchants reach a growing online consumer population in China.

Alimama (alimama.com), China's largest online advertising exchange platform, was combined with Taobao in September 2008. Alimama helps China's more than 1 million small and medium-size websites, which generate an estimated 80 percent of China's Internet traffic, to sell online advertising inventory and monetize their traffic. It currently serves 3 billion ad impressions that reach 80 million consumers every day. Launched in November 2007, Alimama's network currently includes 400,000 web publishers and advertisers.

About Alibaba Group

Alibaba Group is a global e-commerce leader and the largest e-commerce company in China. Since it was founded in 1999, Alibaba Group has grown to include the following core businesses: Alibaba.com, Alibaba Group's flagship company and the world’s leading B2B e-commerce company; Taobao.com, China’s largest consumer e-commerce company; Alipay.com, China's leading online payment service; Yahoo! Koubei, a company providing online classified listings for local services and search; and Alisoft.com, an Internet-based business management software company targeting SMEs in China.

About Fast Retailing Co., Ltd and UNIQLO

Fast Retailing Co., Ltd is a leading apparel retailer based in Japan with a presence throughout the world. Founded in 1963, it currently operates 1,974 specialty stores in Asia, Europe and North America. Among the best known global brands within the Fast Retailing Group are UNIQLO, Theory, Comptoir des Cotonniers, and Princesse tam.tam. The UNIQLO brand of casual clothes is Japan’s largest apparel retail chain with more than 800 stores throughout Japan, as well as stores in the US, UK, China, France, Singapore and South Korea. The company's most recent addition is the 'g.u.' chain, which opened in 2006 and sells low-priced casual clothing and accessories.