Sigma Launches Australian Pharmacy Brands into China’s E-commerce Market with Azoya

Sydney, 6 June 2016 – Azoya, a leading turnkey e-commerce solutions provider, today announced that it has been selected by Sigma Pharmaceuticals to provide a fully managed e-commerce platform that will enable it to expand its leading Australian retail pharmacy brands into China’s e-commerce market. Amcal is the first of Sigma’s leading Australian brands to go live with a Chinese e-commerce site today.

Founded in Melbourne in 1912, Sigma has grown into one of Australia’s leading full line pharmacy wholesale and distribution businesses. It has the largest pharmacy network in Australia with over 1,200 branded and independent stores, including some of Australia’s best known pharmacy retail brands: Amcal, Guardian, PharmaSave, Chemist King and Discount Drug Stores.

To meet growing demand from Chinese consumers for high quality and ethical products from Australia, Sigma 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 chose 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, CEO of Sigma Pharmaceuticals. “Azoya’s innovative ecommerce platform and expertise dispels our concerns over business expansion into a market we barely know. 

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.

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. These 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 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,” said Don Zhao, co-founder and executive director at Azoya. “We are excited to be able to offer leading Australian e-commerce businesses like Sigma with 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.

About Azoya

Azoya is a leading turnkey e-commerce solutions provider, which endeavors to help overseas retailers break into China via cross-border e-commerce. The company prides itself as being the e-commerce leader that has signed exclusive agreements with the largest number of overseas retailers in China. With its all-encompassing services and dedicated specialist team, the company has won trust from more than 35 overseas retailers in 11 countries, such as La Redoute, the largest online retailer of women's apparel in France; and Feelunique, the largest online premium beauty retailer in Europe. For more details, visit http://www.azoyagroup.com/