Merck Launches First Flagship Store on Alibaba’s 1688.com to Improve the Customer Experience

News Release

Hangzhou, China, September 19, 2019 — Merck, a leading science and technology company, has launched its official flagship store (merckls.1688.com) on Alibaba’s 1688.com. The store provides convenient online sales services to Chinese customers purchasing biochemical reagents and laboratory analytical reagents. The launch marks an important step for Merck, as the company seeks to enhance the customer experience in China through its e-commerce capabilities.

“The launch of Merck’s 1688 flagship store marks an important step forward in advancing our Life Science business in China,” said Udit Batra, member of the Merck Executive Board and CEO, Life Science. “This collaboration — the first of its kind with a life science company — will help us develop deeper customer relationships, encourage collaboration and foster innovation” in China and accelerate our digital transformation in this important market.”

The first batch of products from Merck's 1688 official store — the only flagship store opened by a Life Science brand on 1688 — includes laboratory analytical reagents and consumables, which can be used for testing in pharmaceutical, food, environmental, research and other analytical laboratories. It also offers high-performance material reagents, which can be used in research and industry, as well as a wide range of basic experimental reagents for research, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, industry and many other applications. More products will be available in the store soon. Merck will have access to Alibaba's leading technology in big data, cloud services and artificial intelligence.

"The B2B industry must be closer to the market and customers in the future,” said Wang Hai, vice president of Alibaba Group. “I believe that fully digitalized business covering service, sales, marketing, supply chains, product design, procurement, etc., will bring great synergy across the entire industry. We want to build the infrastructure for B2B businesses who are looking to upgrade, to empower them with our strong capabilities in data, product, technology and infrastructure.”

Merck is committed to driving scientific research and breakthroughs by providing the broadest spectrum of high-quality product portfolios and solutions. With the launch of its new store, Merck will further expand its businesses to more parts of China, leveraging Alibaba’s leading technology in big data, cloud services and artificial intelligence as well as its digitalized operations and offline channels capabilities.

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