PARIS — Following tie-ins with JD.com and Alibaba, Beiersdorf AG said on Monday that it has entered into a strategic partnership with NetEase Kaola, the leading online retail platform for imports in China.Thanks to the boom of imported goods to China, Kaola has registered high-double-digit growth since it began three years ago.E-commerce is a key motor for Beiersdorf’s development. This year, the channel — considered by the group as a country — will rank as one of the top five revenue-wise.“The partnership gives Beiersdorf, with its Nivea brand access to this market, which grew by 80.6 percent in 2017 compared to the previous year,” the Hamburg-based company said in a statement.The partnership was sealed between NetEase Kaola chief executive officer Zhang Lei and Beiersdorf member of the board for Asia and brands Ralph Gusko, who met in Hamburg’s town hall in the presence of its Mayor Peter Tschentscher.“Through the cooperation with NetEase Kaola, we can further expand our online presence in the important Chinese market and move closer to local consumers,” Gusko said.“ Kaola alliance opens access to more than 900 million users for Beiersdorf with Nivea,” the company stated.Already over the past year, in Chinese cross-border e-commerce, Nivea’s sales grew significantly faster than the market.The partnership with Kaola is expected to include other Beiersdorf-owned brands ultimately.Kaola.com sells more than 3,000 brands from 80-plus countries. Kaola counts 12 subsidiaries in China, Germany, the U.S., Italy, Japan, South Korea and Australia. The group’s parent company is NetEase, among the largest Internet companies in China.Publicly quoted Beiersdorf registered sales of 7.1 billion euros in 2017. Its portfolio counts skin- and body-care brands such as Nivea, billed to be the world’s largest skin-care label, Eucerin, Hansaplast/Elastoplast and La Prairie.
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