Mondelez and Alibaba team up for FMCG ecommerce in China
Mondelez has inked a deal with Alibaba’s Tmall to start selling its products to Chinese consumers online.
The deal means Mondelez brands such as Oreo, Chips Ahoy!, belVita,Toblerone, Cadbury and Trident will now be available via Tmall.
It will also start selling products created specifically for the partnership, starting with a new Oreo Colorfilled product in May. According to Mondelez, it was initially piloted in the United States in November 2015 and will now launch in China, allowing people to design their own Oreo packaging.
The partnership fits with both businesses strategic priorities. Mondelez has been increasingly vocal about the importance of ecommerce to its brands in the future. Last year Mondelez said it expected online sales to hit $1bn by 2020.
"This partnership with Alibaba is a significant step toward our goal of generating e-commerce revenues of at least $1 billion by 2020," said Tim Cofer, chief growth officer, Mondelēz International, "Snacking is a fast-growing sector for the e-commerce market in China and Alibaba is a powerful partner to help us capture our share of that growth by expanding our distribution channels and improving our brands' accessibility in both rural and urban Chinese markets."
Simultaneously, Alibaba has been boosting the number of international brands on its Tmall platform for some time as it comes up against increasing competition in the Chinese ecommerce space. Walmart recently launched Walmart Global Shop, which will sell foreign brands to Chinese consumers.
Jet Jing, vice president of Alibaba Group, said: "We look forward to helping Mondelēz International fully utilize our e-commerce ecosystem and technology infrastructure to successfully build their brands and effectively reach the 407 million annual active buyers on our China retail marketplaces who are looking for quality international products that Mondelēz International provides."