We’ve started a business expansion programme in China for UK ecommerce fulfilment scaleup Huboo.
Set up in Bristol in 2017, Huboo has a unique approach to providing fulfilment services for online retailers from ‘micro-warehouses’ within its larger facilities. Instead of relying on third-party software and traditional picking processes, its proprietary technology and dedicated teams enable it to deliver products for its clients far faster and at much lower costs.
With fulfilment centres across the UK, Spain, Germany and The Netherlands, Huboo has identified China as a vital market for new ecommerce clients, as the country has thousands of up-and-coming brands wishing to serve European consumers.
The Chinese market was previously dominated by ‘dropshipping,’ whereby Chinese retailers stored products in warehouses in China and sent them from there to consumers worldwide. This relied on the country’s ‘developing nation’ status under the Universal Postal Union, allowing retailers to pay a fraction of normal international shipping rates.
But this status ended in 2019, causing overseas shipping from China to soar in cost and dropshipping to go into steep decline. The practice has now been eclipsed by the storage of Chinese products in warehouses in their destination markets instead – opening big opportunities for Huboo to support Chinese retailers selling to Europe.
Our Shanghai team is getting straight to work on a business development programme for Huboo, targeting brands seeking to offer high-quality, fast delivery to consumers across Europe at competitive prices.
Claire Gates, Huboo’s Chief Commercial Officer, commented: “We have ambitious overseas growth plans, and China is the next big part of that. The country has so many fast-growing online retailers that are keen to get their products to European consumers – and we can transform the way they do that.
“Intralink has assigned us a bilingual sales team with considerable expertise in the country’s ecommerce sector – and that effectively gives us a strong overnight presence in China. We’re excited to be working with the team to discover fresh opportunities in this dynamic ecommerce market.”
For a broader view of the opportunities for western firms in China’s booming ecommerce sector, see this blog by our China specialist, Paul Dupont.
To discuss the prospects for your business in Asia’s ecommerce sector, you can contact Paul at paul.dupont@intralinkgroup.com