A trip to Downing Street

Nov 02, 2015

On the 19^th October I was honoured to visit number 10 Downing Street and attend a reception to celebrate 'British Technology Entrepreneurs'. The Prime Minister David Cameron and his newly appointed business advisor - Alibaba founder Jack Ma - were both in attendance, as were a number of other high profile industry figures who all have a shared interest in helping British businesses boost their exports and access Chinese markets.

The event came at the same time as news emerged that Alibaba, the world's biggest eCommerce company, has appointed a UK MD to lead its regional hub office in London as part of plans to expand its business empire into Europe and facilitate sales to China.

China presents a huge opportunity - it has 1.4 billion consumers and it is estimated that eCommerce sales in China will reach $1 trillion by 2019. Close ties with China are vital to cementing Britain's economic growth in decades to come and we welcome support from the government to help British businesses tap into this lucrative market.

At wnDirect we are also more than aware of the opportunities that exist in China having launched our wnOnline solution, in partnership with TMall and Web2Asia, last year. wnOnline is a unique eCommerce offering which has enabled us to help a number of the world's leading retailers from the UK, Europe and the US access the region and other key marketplaces around the world. It enables them to be 'online' in a short lead time (60-90 days), with low risk and low cost. Retail brands can take advantage of our investment and research which means they can bring their products to a potential market of over 1.4bn Chinese consumers now for relatively little investment. So if you thought trading in the Chinese virtual marketplace was too difficult then think again!

China is currently in the forefront of our minds as we countdown to 'Singles Day' on the 11^th November - the world's biggest online retail event which last year resulted in Chinese consumers spending $9.3bn online in just 24 hours, significantly surpassing the value of Cyber Monday sales in the US. This year Singles Day is expected to be even more of a success with Singles Day Gross Merchandise Value estimated to reach a whopping $12.6bn.

The figures speak for themselves...can you afford to overlook the huge opportunity that China presents?