UAE e-commerce platform aims to serve as bridge connecting Chinese, UAE products
CHINA — CitrussTV, based in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), was founded in 2005 and is the Arab world’s first dedicated home shopping TV channel. To take part in the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) on Nov. 5 in Shanghai, citrussTV aims to introduce Middle East specialty products to China, including world-renowned top products such as saffron, dates and camel milk, Jason Kong, President and CEO of citrussTV said.
Highly focusing on technology, citrussTV has created multi-platform channels and social media to offer seamless shopping of a wide range of quality products including home and kitchen, beauty, fashion and jewellery.
On September. 20, 2017, SHARK SHOPPING, one of the top home shopping platforms in China, signed a strategic agreement with citrussTV, marking the very first overseas acquisition in the Chinese TV shopping industry.
Meanwhile, as a comprehensive e-commerce platform for China-Arab trade, citrussTV also introduces a number of Chinese goods and achieves good sales.
In the future, citrussTV will be committed to vigorously developing bilateral trade, serving as a bridge for trade between China and the Arab world, and introducing more special commodities, Kong said.
According to statistics, citrussTV has already served more than 1 million customers in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and many other countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
The UAE is China’s second largest trade partner and the largest export market for Chinese goods among Arab countries, while China has been the largest trade partner of the UAE for several consecutive years.
In 2017, bilateral trade stood at 41 billion U.S. dollars, a 1.06-percent increase year-on-year. At the end of 2015, China’s foreign direct investment in the UAE reached 4.6 billion dollars. In 2016, the UAE invested over 2.1 billion dollars in China, the top among Arab countries.
CitrussTV can make full use of the advantages from both markets to provide Chinese and MENA customers the best products and services at a competitive price.
As China has a large number of suppliers, brands and quality products in various categories, citrussTV can better meet the fast-growing consumption demand in MENA countries by importing high-value products from China.
In addition, citrussTV can work with multiple local suppliers from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt and other countries to bring more Middle East style products to Chinese customers through the Chinese platform SHARK SHOPPING.
Supported by the Belt and Road Initiative, China and MENA markets are expected to see an even faster growth of mutual trade and retail business, which enables citrussTV to grow into a leading omni-channel retail platform in the world and continue to provide the best products and services for Chinese and MENA customers, Kong said.
Through the end-to-end services by citrussTV, a number of Middle East suppliers have opened up the Chinese market and started getting positive feedback from the market.