Itochu Reveals Shanghai E-Commerce Platform

Shoppers who fly to Japan to stock up on their favorite food or other goods will be savedconsiderable time and money with the launch of an e-commerce platform which will deliver itemswithin days from a warehouse in Shanghai.

Japanese conglomerate Itochu Corporation said it is creating a $483 million joint venture-F2FCayman Islands Holdings Ltd-with four partners, including Beijing-based CITIC GroupCorporation, to supply 250 of the most popular products, including baby formula and diapers.

Located in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, the JV's other partners are Thailand'sleading retailer Charoen Pokphand Co Ltd, China's largest telecommunications carrier ChinaMobile Communications Corporation, and the State-owned investment company ShanghaiInformation Investment Inc.

Buyers on the newly established F2F platform will be able to receive products 30 percentcheaper than in Japan, said officials, and within just days, against what could be a month if theyhad bought them in Japan and chosen to have them sent back to China, or bought them throughoverseas online shopping agents.

The service is the latest e-commerce launch by an organization based in the Shanghai FTZ, afterofficials there encouraged more overseas service companies to set up at the site, followingAmazon.com Inc opened there in September 2014.

Officials said the international retailing giant's operation represented a perfect model for othercross-border services. The Shanghai Customs District said it dealt with 192,200 individualcross-border e-commerce orders in the first eight months of this year, worth 52.6 million yuan($8.28 million), with 98 percent of those made on Amazon.

Bruno Lannes, a partner at consulting firm Bain & Co, said that a growing number of importedproducts, previously blocked from entering China through traditional retailing channels, are nowarriving via online channels as the central government throws its support behind the cross-bordere-commerce sector....