Alibaba-backed Shopline helps thousands of Hong Kong entrepreneurs set up online as pandemic spurs e-commerce

Shopline, said to be Asia’s largest e-commerce enabler, has so far helped more than 200,000 merchants, mostly in Hong Kong and Taiwan, start new online stores

Omni-channel market presence, which includes physical stores, is here to stay, says Hong Kong general manager

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The share of online shopping as part of Hong Kong’s overall retail sales has risen to 5.2 per cent from 3.2 per cent in the five years to 2019. Photo: SCMP

Published: 10:00am, 26 Jul 2020Updated: 2:14pm, 20 Oct 2020

The coronavirus pandemic has helped to create thousands of small online businesses in Hong Kong in the past few months as consumers spend more time online than in shopping malls, but this does not mean the end of physical stores, according to an e-commerce enabler.

A fifth of online merchants served by Shopline considered setting up a physical presence – such as pop-up stores – as a key plank of their marketing strategy, said Plato Wai, Hong Kong general manager of Alibaba-backed Shopline, citing interviews with over 100 Hong Kong merchants conducted recently.

“Omni-channel market presence – whether online-to-offline or offline-to-online – will be mainstream,” said Wai, a former Lehman Brothers investment banker. “In the future, even with the passing of the pandemic, offline will still be a key part of some companies’ marketing strategy, especially for products where experience and trial use are important for purchase decisions.”

The seven-year-old start-up claims to be Asia’s largest platform that allows merchants to build their own online shops. It has so far helped more than 200,000 merchants, mostly in Hong Kong and Taiwan, start new ventures.

Plato Wai, Hong Kong general manager of online commerce enabler Shopline. Photo: Handout

Its customers include Lemon King, a third-generation preserved fruit snacks retailer, and condom brand Durex that set up its own online shop in 2017 to obtain consumer behaviour data not captured by convenience stores and supermarkets.