To meet growing demand from Chinese consumers for high-quality and ethical products from Australia, Sigma has announced it is expanding its footprint to capitalise on the booming cross-border online shopping market in China.

Rather than selling through China’s major e-commerce marketplaces, Sigma has chosen to establish a direct market presence and expand its own brand.

“Given the language and cultural barriers, we wouldn’t have been able to fulfill our Chinese expansion plans without a local partner,” said Mark Hooper, chief executive officer of Sigma Pharmaceuticals.

Hooper says Sigma is leveraging a fully managed e-commerce platform built and tailored by Azoya.

The Chinese version of the Amcal online store launched today enables Chinese customers to choose from its range of products and place orders, which will be shipped from Australia.

Don Zhao, co-founder and executive director at Azoya, said that, in addition, Azoya is providing a wide range of turnkey solutions and services to connect Amcal directly with the Chinese market, as well as with the global cross-border e-commerce ecosystem.

Zhao said the services include marketing campaigns, customer relationship management (CRM) and customer service, among other operational work. “With Azoya taking charge of the operational groundwork in China, Sigma avoids all the nuisances arising from traditional international expansion, such as setting up a local business entity, confusion over government policies and market adaptation.

“Deterred by safety and quality issues with domestic products, particularly for healthcare and food supplements, Chinese consumers are increasingly looking to Australia to buy directly through cross-border e-commerce.

“We are excited to be able to offer leading Australian e-commerce businesses like Sigma a cost-effective and risk-free approach to break into the Chinese market to meet growing demand from consumers.”

Sigma will also sell its products through Azoya’s proprietary cross-border online shopping platform Haituncun.com, which provides another channel to sell to Chinese consumers.