We are expanding to China - with immediate effect
Act globally, think locally: The new Digitec Galaxus branch in Shenzhen primarily serves the needs of our Swiss customers. But the Chinese also benefit: At galaxus.cn they get genuine Swiss quality made in China.
Update 3 April 2018: To correctly assess the truthfulness of this article, we strongly recommend that you take a closer look at the publication date above ;-)
.
At the moment, we are still preparing for our launch in Germany, which we announced last year. However, we have already initiated the next step in our expansion: In a few days, the two online shops digitec.cn and galaxus.cn will go online in China. These will focus on typically Swiss products, as these are particularly popular with Chinese customers.
Local branch office
But that's not all. Digitec Galaxus will also open a branch with its own offices in Shenzhen, the Chinese mega metropolis for high-tech, in April 2018. The aim is to strengthen contacts with local manufacturers and distributors by engaging in dialogue directly on site. "In this way, we want to improve our offering for Swiss customers," explains Florian Teuteberg, CEO and co-founder of Digitec Galaxus. "We will expand our range and offer many more products exclusively in Switzerland in the future."
Better logistics, better prices
At the same time, we are building a warehouse directly on site. This is also being done primarily with our customers in Switzerland in mind. Having our own warehouse in China simplifies logistics and transport. We are less affected by supply bottlenecks to Switzerland and can also deliver when our Swiss competitors cannot. We also benefit from WTO subsidies: Shipping from Shenzhen to Switzerland costs less than shipping within Switzerland. We can therefore offer a particularly favourable price to all customers who are prepared to wait a few weeks longer.
Most importantly, our own warehouse allows us to supply the Chinese with their own products via an additional export loop via Switzerland.
Swiss quality - appreciated all over the world
Of course, we will use our own warehouse to tap into the huge local sales market.
"Growth is important in order to hold our own against the international shop giants," says Teuteberg. But do we even stand a chance against Alibaba? We are convinced that we do, because there is now a wealthy middle class in China that values high quality standards just as much as we Swiss do. Migros has shown the way with orangegarten.cn: Swiss products are sold in their original packaging in China. The fact that the food is not labelled in Chinese doesn't seem to bother anyone. What is more important is that the quality is right.
We were inspired by this: Products exported from China to Switzerland are given Swiss packaging in this country and then sent back to China, where they end up on the Chinese market. Thanks to the original packaging, Chinese customers can be sure that they are dealing with genuine Swiss products and not Chinese counterfeits.
The fact that our products made in China really are of Swiss quality is achieved through improved relationships with local manufacturers. Defects such as those recently reported in the media can be avoided.
We are looking for you! 我們正在尋找你!
Building a subsidiary in China does not mean that we are relocating jobs to a low-wage country. Not only will the warehouses in Switzerland be retained, we will even expand them further due to the rapid growth. What's more, we are looking for staff from Switzerland to coordinate with China. For these jobs, it is essential that employees are at home in both Chinese and Swiss culture. If you speak both German and Chinese fluently, get in touch!
At Digitec and Galaxus, I’m in charge of communication with journalists and bloggers. Good stories are my passion – I am always up to date.