Alibaba’s Cross-Border Plan to Spur Global eCommerce

For its next sales push, Tmall is taking things worldwide.

It was announced yesterday (May 25) that Alibaba’s online marketplace will make its upcoming mid-year promotion a global affair, as 300,000 products from 25 countries are going to be available to its Chinese consumers. The move, Alizila notes, is in line with Alibaba’s goal to strengthen eCommerce between its home country and other regions.

“Tmall will continue to enhance the global supply chain to offer a variety of products at the same prices they sell for in overseas markets,” Jeff Zhang, head of Tmall.com (as well as online retail marketplace Taobao Marketplace and group buying website Juhuasuan), remarked in a statement. According to Alizila, Zhang shared that Tmall is working with government agencies outside China to build so-called “pavilions” specific to each country on the site.

The company’s annual mid-year sales promotion starts later this month and will run for 30 days. Among the participating retailers will be eight multinational supermarkets and hypermarkets, notes Alizila, including Costco, Inferno from Germany, and Thailand’s King Power.

The report goes on to state that the most popular products for Chinese consumers who are traveling abroad — such as baby products, cosmetics and health foods — will be featured in the global Tmall promotion. Other available items mentioned in the Alizila story include: wine from Bordeaux, cherries from America, tea from Taiwan, lobsters from Canada, and ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s.

Some vendors will be participating in the promotion via Tmall Global, which provides merchants lacking a presence on the ground in China a way to reach the country’s consumers via online channels.

According to Alizila, the more than 20,000 merchants that will be taking part in the event were selected by Tmall by an application field exceeding 30,000.

 

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