- Partnership enables Santander’s SME* clients to launch stores on JD.com Worldwide, the cross-border e-commerce platform
- Agreement signed during visit by Rt. Hon. Dr Liam Fox, Secretary of State for International Trade
Santander UK today announced the official commercial partnership with e-commerce giant, JD.com. This follows the signing of the MOU with Santander back in June 2016, where both parties pledged to work together to provide increased and easier access to the Chinese e-commerce market. The partnership means Santander’s UK based Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise (SME) customers can now launch stores on JD.com Worldwide.1
JD.com is China’s largest retailer and it offers international merchants the ability to tap into the Chinese market without a need to be physically present in China. It offers immediate access to their base of more than 266.3 million active customers and a renowned and comprehensive logistics network, which can adapt to any customisation requirements, while still achieving reliability and timeliness promises. There is further reassurance for SMEs with their zero-tolerance policy towards counterfeit goods.
The scale of the Chinese market is phenomenal. China’s middle class is expected to grow to 600 million people by 2025, with 200 million more online retail shoppers projected, and online retail sales expected to double to USD 1.7 billion by 20202.
Since the signing of MOU last year, a carefully selected group of Santander’s customers have started leading the way in embarking on this exciting new journey. Santander has been facilitating a range of support services to these UK SMEs using JD.com Worldwide’s cross-border e-commerce platform. A few of these SMEs have already started selling on JD.com and many are in advanced discussions and in preparation to list and/or launch their online flagship store in the coming months. We expect to see many more of our customers come aboard in 2018.
John Carroll, Head of International Business at Santander Corporate & Commercial Bank said: “Facilitating these connections between customers and genuine business opportunities (across borders) is the essence of what we’re trying to do with our international business. We are thrilled to announce our official partnership with JD.com, which allows our SME customers to start selling their products in China via JD.com Worldwide’s extensive network that is dedicated to providing Chinese customers with quality products from around the world.”
Kaisi Li, Deputy General Manager of JD.com Worldwide, said: “Through our cross-border ecommerce platform, we are making it easier than ever for international merchants to tap into the potential of the China market. This partnership with Santander opens up many more opportunities to SMEs across the UK. Demand for imported products in China is strong and growing rapidly, and we’re excited to work with Santander to enable more UK-based brands to benefit from the growth of this huge market.”
Santander is passionate about helping businesses make the most of the incredible benefits exporting can deliver. The Santander Group has one of the most extensive international networks and offers an unparalleled range of products and services to help firms realise their global aspirations.
This includes the award-winning Santander Trade Portal, a unique online tool for businesses that can identify where the best importing and exporting opportunities are for their particular products and services, as well as the Santander Trade Club that introduces Santander clients to an online community of importers and exporters in 14 countries to help them conduct business overseas.
In addition, Santander Group operates a dedicated International Desk Network, which covers Santander’s 10 core markets in Europe and the Americas as well China and North Africa, where Santander has alliances, to support UK businesses that are ready to enter new markets. Santander Corporate & Commercial also offers UK businesses the opportunity to go on Trade Missions to key markets. So far this year, Santander has run trade missions to the USA, China, UAE, Mexico, Spain and Chile.
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Notes to Editors
- In order to gain access to this service package with JD.com and benefit from preferential pricing, SMEs will need to hold a Santander UK bank account, have previous international trading experience; and have a minimum recommended turnover of £10 million. Not all referrals by Santander to JD.com Worldwide will be successful, JD.com Worldwide have the discretion in who they contact with and referrals will be subject to JD.com Worldwide review and meeting of their criteria.
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Santander UK is a financial services provider in the UK that offers a wide range of personal and commercial financial products and services. It has brought real competition to the UK, through its innovative products for retail customers and relationship banking model for UK SMEs. At 30 June 2017, the bank serves around 14 million active customers with c19,500 employees and operates through 826 branches (which includes 61 university branches) and 65 regional Corporate Business Centres. Santander UK is subject to the full supervision of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) in the UK. Santander UK plc customers are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) in the UK.
About Us
Banco Santander (SAN SM, STD US, BNC LN) is a leading retail and commercial bank, founded in 1857 and headquartered in Spain. It has a meaningful market share in 10 core countries in Europe and the Americas, and is among the world’s top banks by market capitalization. At the end of June 2017, Banco Santander had EUR 1.65 trillion in managed funds, 131 million customers, 13,800 branches and 200,000 employees. Banco Santander made attributable profit of EUR 3.6 billion in the first half of 2017, an increase of 24% compared to the same period last year.
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