Jessica Rudd appeared on a Brisbane morning TV show for the Kiss Goodbye to MS campaign on May 28. (Photo : Multiple Sclerosis Research Australia Facebook Page)
Chinese mothers are now able to buy imported baby products personally chosen by the daughter of a former Australian prime minister.
Jessica Rudd, daughter of former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, has just opened an e-commerce store on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
The store, Jessica's Suitcase, is located on Tmall Global, an online avenue that helps foreign vendors sell to China.
The online shop mainly sells organic baby food, fruit purees and women's goods.
The Paw Paw & Honey lip balm is currently the best-selling product, with at least 856 items sold as of Friday.
Jessica, who has a 3-year-old child, opened her store by announcing it in her micro blog on Weibo.
"I hope you will like Jessica's Suitcase and find what you need in it!" she wrote.
To show support, her father posted a comment on her Weibo message: "Good to see my daughter open an online store in Tmall and sell Australian specialties."
The news has caught the attention of many Chinese Weibo users.
"Competition in the daigou business is getting more intense," one user said. Daigou means hiring someone overseas to shop for certain products.
"It seems the rule of daddy-is-the-key also works in the business of daigou," said another user.
Rudd stated that her daughter is bent on making her business the best online.
"It doesn't matter whose daughter you are, every Tmall Global flagship store has a responsibility to their loyal customers and that is a role I take very seriously. I am honored that Jessica's Suitcase has been supported by over 19,000 shoppers already in three days, but I know I have to earn their trust. I am an online shopper too," she wrote to China Daily.
The Australian Organic appointed Jessica Rudd as "trade ambassador" last year to help promote trade between China and Australia.
Rudd is married to a Hong Kong immigrant and has lived in Beijing for five years.
It seems Rudd is now a part of the growing number of high-profile overseas sellers seeking access to the big and increasing middle-class online consumers.
Late last year, David Beckham, a British soccer sensation, launched a Tmall flagship store for his whiskey brand, Haig Club.
Assistant marketing professor at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business Li Yun said that Chinese consumers now want more customized products from all over the globe.
Li added that the global procurement is no longer confined to traditional stores but to online stores as well.
Accenture China is marked to become the world's biggest cross-border business-to-consumer market by 2020, according to a recent cross-border e-commerce report.
Alibaba has been on an active campaign to promote the growth of cross-border online shopping with government officials and business leaders around the world.
Alibaba executive chairman Jack Ma recently visited the U.S to discuss international strategies to help small businesses use the Web to directly sell to Chinese consumers who are always on the look-out for high-quality, imported products.
