Northwest Cherry Growers
In conjunction with ATO Beijing and ATO Shanghai, Northwest Cherry Growers launched two successful Northwest Cherry promotion events in July. One is with Tmall. The other one is with Sam¡¯s Club. These two events achieved a great push for the sales of Northwest Cherries in China. Please see the details below:
Tmall Event:
Northwest Cherry Growers invited the head of Tmall to the U.S. Embassy to discuss how to make full use of the China's most popular online B2C shopping platform in order to promote Northwest Cherries. Well received by Ambassador Locke and Tmall¡¯s head, the meeting turned out to be very successful. Afterwards, Northwest Cherry Growers planned rounds of Northwest Cherry pre-sale promotions. Please see the details below.
1) The 1st pre-sale Northwest Cherry promotion was June 26 - July 11 and Tmall.com sold 110 tons of Northwest Cherries.
2) Tmall.com hosted a 2nd Northwest Cherry pre-sale last week and set the limit to 30,000 cherry orders¡ªabout 60 tons. It sold out in three days.
3) The 3rd pre-sale Northwest Cherry promotion will begin at this week till August 10. We believe it will set a record as well.
4) Chinese consumers were able to get the Northwest Cherry even faster than the majority of U.S. consumers. It takes just 48 to 72 hours for the cherries to leave American trees and get into the hands of Chinese consumers.
5) During the 1st promotion, Tmall.com sold 11% of all NW cherries exported to China from June 26 to July 11. Furthermore, the combined sales of Tmall.com¡¯s 1stand 2nd promotions exceeded the total cherry import volume to Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand combined.
The on-going NorthWest cherry promotion is part of Tmall¡¯s pre-sale experiment, which aims to help U.S. businesses gauge Chinese consumer interests before the products are shipped. In the pre-order system, users pay a small deposit on a selected item for later delivery. The Northwest Cherry case demonstrates how consumers are eager to buy fresh U.S. agricultural products online. U.S. food products are red hot in China where consumers are increasingly turning to ecommerce to access foods from the U.S. In fact, Tmall has reported a 500% surge in sales of imported food in the 1st half of 2013. Furthermore, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, agricultural exports from the U.S. to China reached US$26 billion in 2012, up 38% from 2011.
Sam¡¯s Club Event:
To further raise fame and popularity of Cherries in China, ATO Beijing and Northwest Cherries planned a PR event with Sam¡¯s Club in China. They have invited U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke to attend and promote Northwest Cherries in one of Sam¡¯s Club¡¯s outlets in Beijing, attracting over 100 media reporters to cover the event. At the same time, Northwest Cherry promotions are being carried out in all of Sam¡¯s Club¡¯s locations and 50 Wal-Mart stores in China. Results are expected to set new records.
