Hong Kong plans e-commerce shopping festival to help city’s brands get leg up in mainland China market, commerce minister says

Secretary for Commerce Algernon Yau says it is crucial to explore ways for Hong Kong brands to be prominently featured on mainland platforms

He adds city’s businesses need to think of sales strategies, including how to reduce costs to enable competitive pricing

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China was the largest market for e-commerce in 2021, generating US$1.5 trillion in revenue and placing it ahead of the United States, according to research firm eMarketer. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 4:32pm, 6 Mar 2024Updated: 5:11pm, 6 Mar 2024

Hong Kong plans to host an e-commerce shopping festival before the third quarter of this year to boost the city’s brands on mainland China’s online platforms, the commerce minister has said.

Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Algernon Yau Ying-wah said on Wednesday that local brands also needed to think of sales strategies if they wanted to target the mainland market, including ways to reduce costs to make their pricing more competitive.

“It is crucial to explore ways to ensure that Hong Kong brands are prominently featured on mainland platforms so that users come across them as soon as they enter [the sites],” Yau told a radio programme.

Secretary for Commerce Algernon Yau says Hong Kong businesses need to explore ways to get their products prominently featured on mainland web platforms. Photo: Jonathan Wong

“Hong Kong brands are of high quality, and people on the mainland have great confidence in them. But it is essential to consider how to promote brand recognition in another market, which involves sales strategies,” he said.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said in his policy address last year that Hong Kong shopping festivals would be organised on mainland e-commerce platforms to promote awareness of the city’s brands and tap into the nation’s domestic consumer market.

In his budget last week, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po also proposed injecting an extra HK$500 million (US$63.9 million) into the Dedicated Fund on Branding, Upgrading and Domestic Sales to help small and medium-sized enterprises bolster their competitiveness and tap into mainland and overseas markets.

One programme under the fund, “e-commerce Easy”, allows companies to receive HK$1 million to launch new e-commerce projects, capped at HK$7 million per enterprise.