Alibaba Group announced the opening of the Robert Mondavi Wines exclusive flagship store on Tmall.com, to officially kick off its newly launched “Tmall Vineyard Direct” program on its Tmall.com marketplace, China’s largest third-party platform for brands and retailers.
Robert Mondavi, one of the most historic and esteemed wine brands in California, has chosen Tmall.com as the first and only online destination to reach hundreds of millions of consumers in China. It reflects Tmall’s status as the premiere platform for brands and retailers who wish to establish their online presence and direct engagement with customers.
The opening of the Robert Mondavi Wines flagship store on Tmall.com marks the official launch of the “Tmall Vineyard Direct” program, where Tmall will work directly with wineries globally, to bring the finest and best selection of wines from around the world to the Chinese consumer market. With the opening of the exclusive flagship store on Tmall.com, Chinese consumers will be able to purchase a wide range of authentic, high-quality Robert Mondavi wines bottled and shipped from the wineries in the U.S., including labels such as Robert Mondavi Winery, Robert Mondavi Private Selection, Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi, and Twin Oaks by Robert Mondavi.
“We are honored that Robert Mondavi, one of the most reputed wine brands in the U.S. and in the world, has chosen Tmall as the exclusive online platform to grow their business in China,” said Gary Clubb, head of international business development at Tmall.com, Alibaba Group. “Working directly with the winery itself is key to a robust supply chain and allows us to leverage the power of the Alibaba ecosystem to pioneer innovative sales and marketing campaigns to the 367 million buyers on our platforms.”
“Over the past few years, we have seen a very encouraging uptake in Chinese tourists visiting our wineries in California, as well as wine sales in China,” said Philip Kingston, SVP of International, Constellation Brands. “This exclusive flagship store on Tmall allows us to sell our wines to Chinese consumers in a marketplace which we believe will build our brand. It also strengthens our presence in China as we expect to benefit from Alibaba’s sophisticated data analytics capabilities and extensive customer insights.”
Growing its business internationally is a strategic priority for Alibaba Group because its mission is “to make it easy to do business anywhere”. The increasing number of international agreements and activities over the past several months reflects one element of Alibaba Group’s globalization strategy as outlined by Chairman Jack Ma in June 2015 – to help brands and companies of all sizes sell their goods to the growing Chinese consumer class.