China’s “mass affluent”, or upper-middle class demographic, is expected to reach more than 14 million individuals by the end of this year, according to a new study conducted by Forbes China. The fast growing number of affluent Chinese people, who have more dispensable incomes to pursue a healthier lifestyle, is giving momentum to startups providing premium services and products in China.
MiliOOne is a Sino-Italian e-commerce startup that aims to provide European manufacturers of Fashion, Food and Furniture (3F) products with one-stop shop services for selling their goods online in China. Working as a web agency, the company provides e-business services, like market analysis, website localization, online project management, branding, etc. to European producers that want to enter Chinese market.
In addition, the Milan and Shanghai-headquartered company also plan to sell Italian 3F products on its own online shop in China, meeting the needs of Italian companies, who need new markets in terms of mass sales and that of the Chinese end-users, who want to buy goods and services that remember the “Italian life-style”.
MiliOOne has a collaboration with Chinese online e-commerce giants, such as Alibaba Group and JD. Moreover, it also cooperates with Chinese software providers QiaoLab for the web production and Gridsum for SEO and SEM. MiliOOne relates with Bank of China and Grant Thornton China to support in administrative or financial matter.
The company now provides e-commerce services to both famous brands like Ferrari Automotive SpA, Inter FC, Prada and small and medium-sized companies in China.
Claudio Ferraris, now CEO of MiliOOne, founded the company in 2012 with their business development team based in Milan, Italy and operation team working from Shanghai. Claudio is a globally-minded serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of international managerial experience in Europe, North America and Asia.
Claudio, who entered Chinese e-market more than ten years ago, said one big difference between Chinese and European e-commerce markets is that China has a huge user base, who speak the same language, pay with the same currency and live under the same commercial laws. So it is more easy to produce one site for China and benefit from all these factors.
He added that “Chinese e-commerce market is only getting better for the last 10 years. There are more choices for consumers to find required items, together with easier online payment and more convenient logistics services.
When being asked about future plan for the company, Claudio said MiliOOne is at its initial stage of winning loyal hearts of Chinese consumers and will be focusing on it in the next few years. “We will continue to focus on 3F products that Italy is so proud of. At the meantime, MiliOOne is preparing for the next step of introducing Chinese special goods for overseas online market as China also has got a lot to offer to the world.”
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