Earlier this month, China’s largest online direct sales company announced a strategic partnership with Lotte Group’s Lotte.com, South Korea’s ‘leading online shopping site’.

 

JD.com customers will be able to purchase products from Lotte through JD Worldwide, the company’s cross-border platform. Products will cover categories including baby and maternity, cosmetics, fashion, everyday household products, home appliances, food and Lotte-branded products. In addition, the two parties will explore additional potential areas of cooperation.

 

According to China Retail News, Lotte.com will integrate Lotte Group’s branches to establish a ‘Lotte hall’ on JD.com, covering Lotte Department Store, Lotte Mart, Hi-Mart, Lotte Duty Free, Lotte Hotel, and Lotte World, as part of this five-year deal.

 

Founded in 1996, LOTTE.com Inc. was the first online shopping mall in Korea and is the primary business unit of Lotte Group, the parent company of Lotte Duty Free. Lotte.com is responsible for the online sales of products and services of all subsidiaries of Lotte Group.

 

 

In February 2014, the company launched Global.lotte.com for worldwide customers and has achieved a growth rate of more than 30%. In August of 2015, Lotte Group launched mobile services for the Chinese market.

 

“The demand for products through Korean Mall has been strong and partnering with Lotte, Korea’s clear industry leader, will help us meet the growing needs of our users,” said JD Mall CEO Haoyu Shen.

 

“We are delighted that as China’s largest e-tailer, our large and growing base of upwardly mobile customers will now have access to a wide range of Lotte’s imported products.”

 

“Lotte prides itself on providing a superior customer experience, which is why we are so excited to be leveraging JD.com’s reputation for product authenticity and its unparalleled logistics network,” said Lotte.com CEO Hyeong Jun Kim. “JD.com’s outstanding users are the ideal audience for us as we look to develop our business in China.”

 

The announcement follows the successful launch in late March of Korean Mall, which sells authentic imported Korean products on JD Worldwide.

 

Since its launch, dozens of Korean brands started to sell their products to Chinese consumers through Korean Mall. The best-selling product categories include personal care products and cosmetics.

 

For the full year of 2014, JD.com reported net revenues of RMB115.0bn (US$18.5bn), representing a 66% increase from the full year of 2013.