"Authentic Taste" — Experience Taiwan’s Top 100 Local Specialties, Enabling a Closed-loop Cross-border Mobile Shopping Experience for Outbound Tourists
Shanghai and Taipei, April 29, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- SF Express's cross-border e-commerce arm SFHT (www.sfht.com) announced on April 29 the launch of its overseas O2O (Online to Offline) cross-border shopping channel "Authentic Taste." The first wave introduces top Taiwanese gourmet shops such as Gute, Sugar House, Yuzhenxin, and Jiuzhennan, with plans to quickly expand to popular Asian tourist destinations including Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea. This move taps into the rapidly growing outbound tourism market of hundreds of millions of Chinese tourists, providing“a new e-commerce service that offers an overseas shopping experience with foreign retail civilization, allowing orders to be delivered directly to China without the need for pickup, and supporting continued consumption even after returning home.”'s new e-commerce service.
In May, the SFHT "Authentic Taste" channel collaborated with online travel platform Ctrip, Taiwan Star — the Taiwanese telecom operator backed by Ting Hsin International Group (the largest shareholder of Master Kong) — and Taiwan’s top 100 specialty stores such as Sugar House. Together, they held a cross-strait media launch event at the iconic Taipei 101 building. SFHT announced that based on the strong demand among Chinese citizens for overseas travel shopping, it has created a closed-loop cross-border mobile shopping scenario. Prior to their trips, Chinese travelers receive targeted SMS reminders. Through a local prepaid card provided by SFHT and Taiwan Star, travelers are guided via location-based services (LBS) during their trip, precisely attracting them to SFHT’s partner physical stores. There, they can experience real products while traveling, make on-site mobile purchases at local malls and specialty shops in Taiwan, and have their orders delivered directly to their homes in China. With SFHT’s overseas O2O service, Chinese tourists can view the latest Chinese product details on their phones while sightseeing, shop on mobile devices, and have their purchases delivered directly to their Chinese addresses — eliminating the hassle of carrying goods to the airport. Back in China, they can continue to follow and purchase the latest products from overseas merchants through SFHT’s mobile app and Ctrip’s travel shopping channels.
SF Express officially launched its new website SFHT (www.sfht.com) in January this year. Unlike SF Best and Tmall Global, SFHT is a B2C direct-sales e-commerce platform focused on cross-border imports, offering categories such as baby products, personal care, daily necessities, household products, and food. It emphasizes 100% authentic goods sourced directly, with core team members including former Alibaba employees. Three months after its launch, SFHT announced the "Authentic Taste" channel. Instead of joining the thousands of competitors densely investing in the bonded model, SFHT chose to target outbound travelers as a new growth point. Ren Xiaoyu stated that goods are delivered directly to China via SF’s dedicated flights, arriving at customers’ addresses within about a week after their overseas experience. The participating Taiwanese merchants in the overseas O2O initiative offer a diverse range of products including pineapple cakes, Taiwanese tea, nougat, butter cookies, cosmetics, facial masks, and cultural and creative goods. During the promotional period, all these products are priced the same as in physical stores, with free cross-border delivery, and even more competitive bundled deals than online. Ren Xiaoyu said that mainland consumers love the lifestyle and ambiance of Taiwan, but many cannot name more than a few Taiwanese products. By promoting these top 100 Taiwanese specialty stores on the ground, there will no longer be limits on how many great Taiwanese goods one can bring home.
"We understand there are many leading material goods available overseas, and we’re aware that Chinese tourists often face various unfriendly shopping environments when shopping abroad. SFHT has launched an overseas mobile QR-code scanning service combined with cross-border ordering and delivery, solving several major pain points for Chinese people during travel — such as language barriers in overseas shopping environments, issues with overweight baggage claims, and the lack of access to the same products back home, requiring them to seek out overseas shopping agents. These inconveniences can all be resolved through a customized overseas mobile service for Chinese users. That’s why we’ve chosen to enter the massive overseas tourism shopping market, which sees annual transactions worth hundreds of billions of RMB. Although SFHT has only been live for three months, backed by SF’s long-trusted international express resources and integrated ecosystem partners, we are the first cross-border import e-commerce platform to achieve a closed-loop overseas O2O service. We hope to start with the experiential aspect of O2O users, allowing sightseeing-style shopping to extend far beyond the few days of travel, opening the door for users to explore diverse overseas retail products. Personal import choices will no longer be limited to bonded-model items like formula and diapers," said Ren Xiaoyu, Vice President and head of SFHT business.
Targeting the peak of Chinese tourists during the May 1 holiday, SFHT partnered with 4G carrier Taiwan Star and Ctrip. Ctrip helped precisely target mainland travelers visiting Taiwan, while Taiwan Star provided five days of unlimited mobile internet. This allowed travelers to be guided via LBS to merchant stores, where they could sample Taiwan’s top 100 specialties at offline stores such as Gute, Sugar House, and Yuzhenxin. They could then use their mobile phones to purchase directly via SFHT’s mobile mall, with free home delivery by SF. Consumption is not just a one-time act. Even after returning home, these travelers can reminisce about their trips and revisit SFHT’s website to make additional purchases and recommend them to friends and family, creating a win-win for both consumers and overseas merchants. Ren Xiaoyu said this marks the first cross-border, cross-industry O2O new tourism economy model achieved between both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Regarding this groundbreaking cross-border and cross-industry collaboration, Taiwan Star General Manager Lai Xianwu stated that future SMS promotions targeting mainland tourists visiting Taiwan will continue. Ren Xiaoyu explained that this is a new milestone in cross-strait tourism e-commerce cooperation, expected to contribute over NT$50 million in transaction volume for Taiwanese merchants, while also opening doors for Taiwanese travel specialties in the Chinese cross-border e-commerce market. Though mainland tourists may only spend five days vacationing overseas, they face no restrictions on shopping for 365 days after returning home. After May, SFHT will continue to introduce thousands of carefully selected high-quality overseas products using this model.
"Authentic Taste" Explores Taiwan’s Top 100 Specialties