Photo/Shetuwang

Jan. 10 (NBD) -- WonderFull, a Chinese online marketplace which focuses on Japanese imports, has raised approximately JPY5.3 billion (48.7 million U.S. dollars) from investors - Japanese corporate titan SBI Holdings and operator of drug stores Sugi Holdings Co. Ltd., and Chinese cross-border investment firm XJ Holding under CITIC Group.

The e-commerce platform on Friday said in a statement that it has forged partnership with these investors in addition to the capital infusion. The cooperation with Sugi Holdings will provide Chinese consumers with more quality Japanese products, and the tie-up with CITIC Group will help the marketplace acquire more users both online and offline, said Weng Yongbiao, founder and CEO of WonderFull.

China's cross-border e-commerce retail import market, now led by Alibaba's Tmall Global, NetEase Kaola, and JD Worldwide, is surging in recent years. Data compiled by market research firm Statista shows that the market size of the segment has grown from 46.01 billion yuan in 2012 to 620.26 billion yuan in 2019.

Furthermore, Japanese imports have become one of the most popular among Chinese customers. Japan's Ministry of Economy, Industry and Technology in 2018 estimated the market size of China's cross-border e-commerce imports from Japan to grow by 25.9 percent year on year to JPY1.6339 trillion for the year, and would maintain an annual growth rate of about 20 percent until 2021.

Email: lansuying@nbd.com.cn