Watsons, the health and beauty retail chain under Hutchison Whampoa, announced that the full lines of its own branded products have entered JD.com and Amazon.cn, two leading B2C e-commerce platforms in China.
In March 2013, Watsons formally launched its official online store. In July 2013, the company started selling products via Amazon.cn at prices nearly the same as those on its official online store. Recently, the company further expanded its Internet retail channel by cooperating with JD.com.
Prior to this, Watsons already cooperated with several infant nutrition brands such as Abbott, Wyeth, and Mead Johnson in sales of infant formula in its flagship store on Tmall.com and its official online store.
So far, Watsons has developed 1,500 chain stores in mainland China. It expects to have 3,000 outlets in this marketplace by the end of 2016, which means it needs to open one store each day on average over the next three years. In the future, Watsons will pay more attention to the expansion in second- and third-tier cities, while developing community stores in first-tier cities.