British Museum targets Chinese consumers with new online and offline retail partnership

The British Museum has announced a new partnership with Alibaba Group, the world’s largest retail commerce company in terms of gross merchandise volume.

Alifish, Alibaba’s online licensing platform, has been named as the British Museum’s e-retailing and merchandise licensing partner in China.

The partnership will see a range of British Museum licensed products made available to consumers in China in a British Museum-branded online store on Alibaba’s online marketplace Tmall.com.

Alifish will also provide e-retailing and data mining support to British Museum so its licensed product mix can be tailored for the Chinese market.

In addition, the deal will see a range of physical retail outlets launched by Alfilo Brands – a licensee partner of British Museum in China.

The British Museum attracts millions of visitors every year, and is particularly popular among Chinese visitors to London.

Craig Bendle, manager of merchandise licensing, British Museum, said: “It is an exciting prospect for the British Museum to be working with a company of Alibaba’s stature as part of the Museum’s product licensing campaign.

“The British Museum is a museum of the world, for the world and this programme provides a unique opportunity to share the Museum through both online and physical store activities.

“We are very excited to be showcasing details from the British Museum’s collection exclusively in China on the Alifish licensing platform and to see the establishment of a range of British Museum stores across China, filled with attractive, quality products inspired by objects from the Museum’s collection.”

Hong Ying, general manager of Alifish, Alibaba Group’s licensing and entertainment business unit, commented: “Alibaba are proud to be a partner of the British Museum with an online platform to directly engage new audiences and bring history cared for by the British Museum to the homes of the Chinese consumer.

“We will leverage our sophisticated data insights to connect manufacturers with the British Museum’s IP portfolio to develop authorised, branded products.

“The British Museum is the most visited attraction in the UK and our collaboration with the Museum allows hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers to experience and enjoy some of the most important milestones in human history.”