Australian ASX-listed retailer AuMake International is planning to open its first New Zealand store with the acquisition of Mount Eden Souvenir in Auckland’s Grafton.
AuMake is a crossborder retailer in Australia specifically focused on servicing the daigou and Chinese tourist markets with high quality Australian and New Zealand products.
China is New Zealand’s second largest tourism market, behind Australia, with more than 450,000 visitors in 2018, a number projected to increase to 800,000 annual visitors by 2024. In addition, there are an estimated 100,000 daigou living in New Zealand and purchasing product locally to send to China.
AuMake connects suppliers directly with daigou and Chinese tourists by offering a one-stop-shop, with bilingual staff, multiple payment options (including WeChat, Alipay and UnionPay) and an instore logistics service for the delivery of products to anywhere in the world, including China.
Working with small to medium suppliers and well-known national brands, AuMake offers products across four main categories including: healthcare (supplements and food); skin, body care and cosmetics; dairy products and baby food (including infant formula); and wool and leather products.
The acquisition of the 400 square metre store will be finalised by the end of March, with the refurbishment and rebranding to take approximately four to six weeks.
Commenting on the announcement AuMake Executive Chairman, Keong Chan said:
“The opening of AuMake’s first New Zealand store is a milestone step for the company and we look forward to growing our portfolio of locally sourced New Zealand products to profile to our expanding customer base not only instore but online and in China.
“Chinese tourists and daigou feel very comfortable shopping in stores like AuMake where the staff are bilingual and trained in product knowledge, as well as having the flexibility to send their parcels directly back to China through our instore logistics facilities.
“We anticipate this will be the first of a number of stores the Company will open in strategically relevant locations across New Zealand in line with our plans to increase our share of the estimated local NZ$500 million daigou market and multi-billion dollar Chinese tourist market which is expected to grow to $3.1 billion annually by 2024.
“AuMake has been testing and refining its business model through its 13 store network in Australia over the past 12 months. During that time we have demonstrated our ability to build brand awareness and popularity, particularly of less known products, with the influential daigou and Chinese tourists markets that result in repeat purchasing through our online stores, which now have a database of 110,00 members and growing.
Our experience over the past 12 months has made us confident in AuMake’s ability to create a store that becomes a destination for daigou and Chinese tourists, knowing the right product mix for each location, what supply chain is most efficient to get the products to market quickly and how to tailor store marketing campaigns to deliver the greatest impact.
This is the first step in what we plan will be a long term commitment to New Zealand.”
