Sigma Pharmaceuticals has today launched a Mandarin version of its Amcal online store, which will ship orders from Australia to China.

The pharmacy wholesaler is working with Chinese company, Azoya, an e-commerce platform, to manage the expansion. Amcal is the first of Sigma’s brands to go live with a Chinese e-commerce site.

Mark Hooper, CEO of Sigma Pharmaceuticals, said the expansion will meet the growing demand from Chinese consumers for high quality and ethical products from Australia.

“Given the language and cultural barriers, we wouldn’t have been able to fulfill our Chinese expansion plans without a local partner,” Hooper said.

“Azoya’s innovative e-commerce platform and expertise dispels our concerns over business expansion into a market we barely know,” he added.

Don Zhao, co-founder and executive director at Azoya, said Chinese consumers are increasingly looking to Australia to buy directly through cross-border e-commerce after being deterred by safety and quality issues with domestic products.

“We are excited to be able to offer leading Australian e-commerce businesses like Sigma with a cost-effective and risk-free approach to break into the Chinese market to meet growing demand from consumers,” he said.

Sigma will also sell its products through Azoya’s proprietary cross-border online shopping platform Haituncun.com.

The pharmaceutical company’s network in Australia has over 1200 branded and independent stores, including retail brands: Amcal, Guardian, PharmaSave, Chemist King and Discount Drug Stores.

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