Unilever teamed up with Alibaba to penetrate e-commerce in China

Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd, the leading Chinese e-commerce corporation has declared a tie-up with Unilever NV, the well-known provider of personal care, home and food products, to grant Chinese consumers the majority of its quality products from around the world.

Unilever NV signed a deal with Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd to offer their products on the ecommerce site, reported on Market Watch.

The global company that manufactures Blue Band, Knorr, Cup a Soup, Rexona and Clear, had signed in for the expansion of their business outlets through Alimama, Alibaba's online marketing unit and the company's cloud service.

Marijn Van Tiggelen, Unilever North Asia president said, "Alibaba is the leading internet company in China, with the most innovative thinking. It's not only an online store, but also a solution platform for online payment, e-finance, and e-commerce logistics".

Unilever aims to provide more convenient services to consumers in China through its partnership with Alibaba.

Consumer Goods Technology noted that this is a first in which Alibaba made an agreement with an FMCG (Fast-Moving Consumer Goods) company.

The two companies dealt under a Strategic Partnership Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The agreement includes making the products available in rural areas.

Unilever will provide the vast array of its products from all over the world. The two companies will also work out on a huge application data that the Unilever's office in China can utilize for online and offline sale purposes.

The report recounted that Unilever had made several attempts beforehand to gain access on the e-commerce industry when they launched a store in TMall, Alibaba's online third-party website for retailers four years ago.

Just in September last year, they started venturing on TMall Global and it became the doorstep for Chinese online consumers to purchase China-made Unilever brands that were also exported to neighboring countries.

The Unilever Week on TMall, set on July 22 to 24 will be the initial step introducing Unilever in the e-commerce website highlighting Unilever's best-selling products.

Unilever saw big improvements in sales in top markets such as United States, India and China. And so far, this has been an assertive tactic for them to penetrate China's rural areas.