Big U.S. retailers are hoping affluent Chinese shoppers will join the Black Friday frenzy next week — with a lot of help from Alibaba.
Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, iHerb, Gilt, Ashford, Ann Taylor, American Apparel and Aeropostale are partnering with the Chinese ecommerce giant to promote Black Friday sales, accept payments in Chinese currency and deliver packages from the U.S. to the world’s most populous country, International Business Times reported.
The ePass service from Alibaba’s Alipay payments subsidiary will let customers pay in yuan. Borderfree and Shoprunner will handle delivery from the U.S. to Chinese addresses.
The retailers admit that the Black Friday promotion is an experiment, and no one knows how Chinese shoppers will react to another big, Alibaba-promoted shopping holiday less than three weeks after Singles Day on Nov. 11, when Alibaba raked in $9.3 billion in sales. But retail analyst Walter Loeb said many European countries have accepted the Black Friday concept. “The Chinese would like to have American-made, American-developed products. I think it will have great appeal in China,” Loeb told International Business Times.
Chinese demand for U.S. brands has steadily increased for four to five years, Loeb said, pointing to Gap Inc. as a U.S. retailer that has benefited from Chinese demand. Gap sells through Alibaba, which takes a cut of sales.
