MILAN, July 31 (Class Editori) - Alibaba promotes the Italian agri-food sector on its platforms and in Freshippo supermarkets. The initiative takes place in collaboration with the ICE Agency. The online and offline campaign will go on until the end of the year in some of the main Chinese cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Canton.
China is accounting for the first market worldwide in terms of agri-food products, thanks to the per-capita income growth and the diversification of food consumption, driven by younger consumers with increasingly more international habits. In the last decade, the export of Italian food products on the Chinese market has constantly grown and also in the first five months of 2020 a +11.5% was recorded, which confirms the resilience of the sector and the e-commerce contribution.
The Alibaba supermarkets chain, renowned in China with the name Hema, combines online and traditional shopping in order to build a new retail sale ecosystem. Freshippo was launched in 2015; thanks to the steady and fast expansion of its stores (on March 31, 2020 they were 207) in dozens of tier 1 and tier 2 cities and to its scope (with more than 200 million active consumers per year) it reached a significant market share in the Chinese large distribution.
“The Chinese consumers habits are continuously changing and the digital channel has become essential not only to sell products, but in particular to build a long-lasting relationship and a brand awareness”, as Rodrigo Cipriani Foresio, general manager of Alibaba Group for South Europe, has explained. “The latest initiative by Freshippo and ICE is a further evidence of how Alibaba would like to support Italian companies and brands in order to explain the history, the tradition and the values of Italian excellences to the wide Chinese audience.”
“The aim”, as underlined by Massimiliano Tremiterra, the director of the ICE Office in Shanghai, “is letting the Chinese audience becoming more familiar with Italian food products”. And in line with what has been affirmed by Cipriani Foresio he added: “consumers pay more and more attention to the agri-food products quality and, also due to the crisis, they have rediscovered the beauty of cooking at home.”
More than 100 Italian companies will take part in the promotion, many new SMEs on the Chinese market, with a diversified offer of the Italian wine and food excellences. The campaign also provides for a program with Italian chefs who will cook and explain to Chinese consumers how to prepare dishes at home using Italian ingredients.
Interactive games and prize competitions will be organized on the online channel, which will allow consumers to win a diversified offer of Italian lifestyle products, thanks to the collaboration with prestigious Italian brands, such as Vespa and Alfa Romeo. There will be also Chinese Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) activities, which will make the audience discover the values of the Italian wine and food excellences in livestreaming.
(Source:Class Editori)
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