Success Story – NewBlack

Background

NewBlack is a retail technology company delivering EVA, a powerful contextual commerce SaaS platform designed to centralise and streamline operations across physical retail. EVA connects retail functions, including POS, payments, order management, and customer relationship management (CRM) into a single iOS-based solution, enabling seamless in-store operations for global premium retail brands such as Dyson, Rituals and KIKO Milano. 

Built specifically for offline retail, EVA supports fashion, lifestyle, and consumer electronics sectors. Its customer-facing functionality empowers retail sales teams with detailed buyer profiles and behavioural insights, while integrations with Apple Business Manager ensure smooth deployment across in-house devices.

NewBlack found that they couldn’t support the stores of their clients and potential clients in China and wanted to find a solution to this as China is one of the biggest markets for their clients globally. NewBlack was introduced to AppInChina through Microsoft Azure. The challenge: to localise, deploy, and integrate the platform into China’s complex mobile and regulatory ecosystem, including payments, invoicing, and app distribution, while maintaining the high standards their global clients expect.

Challenges

NewBlack’s deployment of EVA in China posed a number of regulatory, technical, and infrastructural challenges. NewBlack needed to legally operate within China’s digital infrastructure. This required:

• ICP Filing and MLPS Level 3 compliance.
• Trademark registration for NewBlack under our entity. 
• Hosting the EVA platform and NewBlack’s China website on servers physically located within Mainland China. ICP Filings for all 6 of their apps and their China website, along with a PSB Filing for the website. 

NewBlack’s six mobile apps, exclusively available on iOS, needed to be distributed privately for in-house usage by retail clients. This required:

• Setup and management under Apple’s Unlisted App Distribution.
• Private listing of apps not visible to the public, with direct links for access.

NewBlack’s EVA needed to be integrated with China’s major payment systems. This required:

• Integration with UnionPay, WeChat Pay, and Alipay
• On-site POS and payment machine testing to ensure local compatibility.
• Coordination with vendors such as 收钱吧 (Shouqianba) for broader coverage.
  

UnionPay presented significant hurdles due to its technical and certification requirements, which needed to be addressed through rigorous testing and documentation. To issue official tax invoices, EVA had to integrate with China’s fapiao system, which meant API integration with 百望云 (Baiwang Cloud) for direct tax bureau invoice issuance, allowing a seamless invoicing experience for end customers and retail staff.

Solution

AppInChina partnered with NewBlack to deliver a fully compliant, locally optimised EVA deployment in China. We addressed every key challenge in coordination with their global and China-based teams.

“By partnering with AppInChina and leveraging their proven expertise in compliance, technical localisation, and distribution, we are driving a seamless, compliant, and impactful expansion of our SaaS product into the China market. Their team navigated everything from trademark registration and MLPS certification to payment integration and tax invoicing, enabling us to serve our global retail clients with full functionality and compliance in China.” — NewBlack Team

We initiated and completed:

• ICP Filing and MLPS Level 3 registration
• Full trademark registration for NewBlack in China
• Mainland China cloud hosting of the EVA platform and NewBlack’s China website. This also includes their ICP Filing and PSB Filing.

This ensured EVA’s full legal operation in the Chinese market, aligned with all cybersecurity and data localisation laws. AppInChina enabled private deployment of NewBlack’s six iOS apps via Apple’s Unlisted App Distribution function. NewBlack’s six iOS apps were unlisted on the App Store and distributed securely to internal retail users via direct download links, with compliance safeguards in place.

To solve the issue of payment integration, we supported NewBlack by fully integrating with key payment platforms in China, including UnionPay, WeChat Pay and AliPay. Integration with UnionPay is difficult to achieve and takes extensive industry knowledge to achieve. We also tested local POS machines and configured them in our China office to ensure full compatibility across both hardware and software. We also invited three members of their technical team to our office in China to test the functionality and compatibility of the solution we deployed. 

AppInChina worked with NewBlack to implement full fapiao (Chinese invoice) issuance capabilities through 百望云 (Baiwang Cloud)’s tax API. This allowed EVA to generate electronic invoices in compliance with China’s tax regulations directly from the tax bureau system upon clients’ requests.

Conclusion

NewBlack’s successful launch of EVA in China highlights the platform’s flexibility and AppInChina’s capability to deploy complex SaaS platforms in a regulated environment. EVA is now set to serve major international clients in China’s dynamic retail sector with full legal compliance, seamless functionality, and localised infrastructure support.

If your business is ready to expand into the world’s largest digital ecosystem, contact us today to learn how we can support your market entry.