adidas, one of the world’s most recognizable brands and a long-standing leader in sportswear and apparel, is expanding its reach into China’s burgeoning market with a new flagship online store that will run on Taobao.
The store on the Taobao Mall, China’s largest business-to-consumer e-commerce portal, will be adidas’ sole online retail in the country.
“We are proud to be partnering with Taobao for the official launch of our flagship adidas online store,” said Christophe Bezu, managing director of adidas Group in China. “This special initiative addresses our Chinese consumers’ changing lifestyle needs and we will now be able to provide them with an official online shopping channel to purchase authentic and even exclusive products at their own convenience.”
The adidas Group of China will operate the flagship store on Taobao, which will include the full range of adidas brands and product lines. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 different products will be available shortly after the store launches but that number should increase to about 800 different items in the short-term.
While best known for creating some of the world’s finest soccer cleats and accessories, adidas has enjoyed a renaissance of sorts in recent years. Their line of clothing and casual footwear have become a staples for many in the ‘hipster’ crowd around the globe and China certainly has no shortage of potential consumers who love the “three-stripe” brand.
The Taobao Mall launched in April of 2008 and has since become China’s most popular and well-known online shopping destination. adidas joins a pretty impressive list of names, including Proctor and Gamble, Lenovo, Dell, Samsung and countless others, which have gained access to Chinese consumers via the Mall.
Taobao is owned by the Alibaba Group, China’s largest e-commerce company and the proprietor of a number of affiliate sites including China Yahoo.
What are your thoughts on this news that has yet another big-name retailer stepping up operations in China? As always please leave us your thoughts and comments!
