Macy’s invests in Chinese web retailer

GlobalPost

Macy’s Inc. announced today that it has invested $15 million in VIPStore Co. Ltd., which operates Chinese online retailer Omei.com and Chinese flash-sale site Jiapin.com, the Associated Press reported.

Macy’s said it will have its own section on Omei.com, where it will start selling apparel from I.N.C., its private label clothing brand, in spring 2013, Reuters reported.

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Currently, Chinese shoppers can only buy Macy’s merchandise through US-based Macys.com, according to the AP.

Orders placed on the Omei website will be filled locally in Chinese factories, the Los Angeles Times reported. Chinese customers will also be able to click through to Macys.com to buy additional items sold by the department store and have them shipped to China from the US.

Chinese shoppers know the Macy’s name from trips to the US and broadcasts of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, Chief Executive Terry J. Lundgren said in a statement, the LA Times reported.

Lundgren said this deal would help his company assess its potential market in China, according to Reuters. “We still have a great deal to learn about the shopping patterns and merchandise preferences of consumers in China's very diverse and rapidly emerging consumer marketplace,” he said, according to the LA Times.

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