News story

E-exporting match-making event helps UK brands sell into China

UKTI and Bank of China host e-commerce event to help British mother and baby goods brands meet buyers from Chinese e-marketplace platforms.

Chinese buyers at match-making event (c) Bank of China

Chinese buyers at match-making event (c) Bank of China

Around 80 British specialist mother and baby goods companies met with 14 Chinese Cross-border platform businesses on 23 March 2016 at Bank of China UK’s London office. More than 120 business meetings took place during the match-making event.

China is a potentially lucrative market for UK businesses catering to mothers and children due to:

  • growing affluent middle class
  • the ending of its one child policy
  • strong demand for safe, high-quality baby supplies

The UK-China retail and e-commerce seminar and match-making event followed the launch of the Bank of China and UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) White Paper on Cross-border E-commerce Service.

Benefits of businesses trading via the cross-border e-commerce platform are:

  • significant drop in final sales price
  • reduction in branding and promotion costs
  • increased market penetration

Find out more about UKTI’s E-exporting Programme.

White Paper on Cross-border E-commerce Service

The White Paper on Cross-border E-commerce Service was jointly prepared by the Bank of China and UKTI.

It outlines the benefits that can be gained by adopting a structured approach to e-commerce market entry. The White Paper aims to provide an informative background to assist British enterprises who intend to cooperate in cross-border e-commerce ventures with China.

This includes:

  • an overview of Chinese national policies and guidelines
  • information on relevant Bank of China products and services
  • an explanation of the importance of Chinese pilot cities project in cross border e-commerce

The White Paper was launched in the presence of:

  • Baroness Anelay of St Johns DBE, Interim Minister of State for Trade and Investment
  • Mr. Xu Luode, Executive Vice President of Bank of China Group
  • Weimin Guo, General Manager of E-finance of Bank of China
  • Mr. Yu Sun, CEO of Bank of China (UK) Ltd
  • Minister Jian Ni, Minister-Counsellor, Chinese Embassy to the UK

Background

The Bank of China partnered UKTI in hosting the first ever China-UK cross-border e-commerce cooperation roundtable in Shanghai in September 2015. This was followed by an inaugural cross-border e-commerce exchange event in New Zealand during November 2015.

Bank of China and UKTI successfully held the first China-UK Small and Medium Enteroruse (SME) match making event in Manchester during President Xi Jinping’s state visit to the UK in October 2015.

Contacts

Contact e-exporting@ukti.gsi.gov.uk to find out more about UKTI’s E-Exporting Programme.

Updates to this page

Published 24 March 2016