BEIJING, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong fashion conglomerate I.T group launched its official shopping website for the Chinese mainland market on Friday, responding to the changing landscape in retailing and consumers' increasingly demanding requirements on delivery speed and services.
ITeShop, as the online store is named, provides consumers a full collection of I.T's brands. Apart from browsing the online shop from personal computers and mobile phones, consumers can also access the website via I.T group's official WeChat account. Popular digital payment means including Alipay, WeChat Pay and UnionPay are all accepted.
According to Giovanni Cirillo, e-commerce director of I.T group, the aim of launching this website is to provide “seamless” experience to consumers. As an attempt of embroidering online and offline shopping, consumers will be able to place an order in the store and have the products delivered to them later, which is a service expected to be rolled out in the first quarter of next year, he said.
I.T group's already existing official store on Tmall – a major online marketplace of the e-commerce giant Alibaba, will keep operating along with ITeShop. The Tmall store will be responsible for the sales of I.T's in-house brands such as Chocoolate and b+ab, while ITeShop will shoulder the sales for the imported brands like Off-White and Comme des Garcon Play.
ITeShop is expected to contribute 10 percent to I.T group's annual sales revenue in the Chinese market within three years' time, according to Cirillo.
It took I.T group seven months to roll out the website. A total of 25 people working in Shanghai and Hong Kong are responsible for the management and operation of the website.
Cirillo joined I.T group at the beginning of this year to take charge in the new online shopping website. Prior to that, he had been working at the online luxury retailer Yoox Net-A-Porter group for seven years.
Established in 1988, the Hong Kong listed I.T group has been a leading distributor of designer brands from Japan and Europe. According to its public information, the group has 435 self-managed stores and 59 franchised stores in Chinese mainland. (chinadaily.com.cn)
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