Freshippo opens site in Waigaoqiao bonded area

Alibaba’s Freshippo has become the latest retailer to embrace cross-border shopping trends to cash in on growing demands.

Freshippo, the grocery retail chain of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, opened its latest site last Friday in the Sunland Mall in the Waigaoqiao bonded area in the Pudong New Area.

Not a traditional supermarket outlet, it offers cross-border retailing service.

It displays more than 1,500 products in eight categories, including alcohol, nutritional products, and mother and child care. Customers need to place orders online. Products will be sent to designated address in 30 minutes at the soonest.

Hou Yi, chairman of Freshippo, said it is a new attempt of Freshippo to combine cross-border e-commerce with its “new retail” initiative which aims to offer the best of online and offline shopping experience.

Pudong plays an important role in Shanghai in developing cross-border e-commerce. In Pudong, seven places including the Pudong International Airport have been assigned by the city as demonstration zones for cross-border e-commerce, according to Wu Jun, deputy director of Pudong Commerce Commission.

It also supports the district to become a global consumption center, he added.

Pudong’s total retail sales of consumer goods has increased from 10 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) in 1995 to over 30 billion yuan in 2019. Pudong witnessed a year-on-year increase of 77 percent in online retail sales in 2019. 

Of the world’s top 100 retailers, 30 have established themselves in Pudong. In three years, the district has introduced 300 debut stores, statistics show.