GNC seals deal with Alipay to drive China e-commerce sales
Alipay’s 500 million users can now use the payment platform to buy GNC’s rage of supplements and sports nutrition products at GNC.com.
The partnership is part of GNC’s drive to target Chinese consumers who are keen to buy health and nutrition products from the US.
“Chinese consumers value health and wellness nutritional products from the US because they trust the authenticity and quality of the product,” said Souheil Badran, president, of Alipay, North America. “We are thrilled to partner with GNC to make purchasing health and nutrition products easier and more accessible than ever for the Chinese consumer.”
China’s vitamin and dietary supplement market is expected to increase to $28.7 billion by 2021, according to Euromonitor.
International sales
GNC’s latest Q2 results showed that revenue hit $641.0 million, compared with consolidated revenue of $673.2 million for the second quarter of 2016.
Same-store sales decreased 0.9% in domestic company-owned stores (including GNC.com sales) for the quarter.
However, transaction growth was up 12.3% and growth was also reported internationally, with revenues from China growing $3.6 million compared with the prior year quarter. Overall, revenues in the international segment increased $0.5 million, or 1.3%, to $43.6 million in the current quarter.
“For the second quarter in a row, we saw meaningful transaction growth, improvement in our dot.com business and increased enrolment in our loyalty programmes. We believe this business is headed in the right direction, and we remain focused on execution and sales growth,” said CEO Bob Moran.
