Arsenal Football Club is proud to have opened a new official e-commerce store for supporters in China on the TMALL platform located at https://arsenal.tmall.com.
The store, which is in simplified Chinese, will be Arsenal’s official e-commerce store in the country. Supporters in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan will now have the opportunity to buy official Arsenal replica kit, training wear, fan wear and accessories, locally.
Following the club’s first Asian tour in 2011 and yearly official visits to China since, our fanbase has grown significantly with more than four million fans engaging on Arsenal’s Chinese digital platforms, including Sina Weibo, Tencent Weibo and Wechat.
The club is committed to increasing engagement with its loyal fanbase in the region and making Arsenal more accessible to everyone. Building on this, the club’s retail focus and future investments are now more heavily concentrated on e-commerce and regionalising its outlets in order to bring global supporters closer to Arsenal.
Simon Lilley, Arsenal’s director of retail, said: “We are delighted to be launching the Arsenal e-commerce store for China on the popular TMALL platform with Venue Retail International as our partners. China continues to be a very important market for Arsenal. The fanbase has grown dramatically as a result of the summer tours and sustained digital fan engagement through the likes of Weibo and Wechat. The new store will give our fans in China the chance to buy a wide range of official products locally.”
Arsenal will be the first English football club to have their own TMALL store in China. TMALL is a business-to-consumer market place owned by the Alibaba Group and is currently the seventh most visited site in China.
To launch the site, Arsenal have partnered with Venue Retail International who have experience of delivering at large scale events including the London Olympics and the recent Commonwealth Games.
Peter Palmer, chief operating officer of Venue Retail International said: “The Premier League has become one of the most popular sports in China and Arsenal are arguably the most widely followed. We are proud to be able to offer these knowledgeable fans official Arsenal product through the Arsenal TMALL store to enable them to connect with the club they love.”
The new China store adds to the ecommerce store that the Club already operates in the US through their local partner Sports Endeavors (www.arsenalstoreusa.com).
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