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What Alibaba’s 1m UK members are buying

Understandably proud of achieving one million users in the UK, Alibaba have released some data on how those users are spending their money.

There’s a pretty wide range of goods, but top of the heap is machinery (10.7% of UK purchases), followed by minerals (5.8%), construction (5.6%) and then clothing (5.1%). I would have expected computer products (3.2%) and electrical products (3.0%) to have a larger share which goes to demonstrate the variety of goods on offer.

1 out of 3 Alibaba members in the EU are from the UK, which means there are another 2 million Alibaba customers spread across Europe. China is where the lions share of UK Alibaba purchases are made, but there’s a growing number of UK suppliers on Alibaba which now account for 4% of purchases – Domestic UK purchases are now ahead of those from Hong Kong (3%).

I have to admit I didn’t know that there were UK suppliers on Alibaba, but if you’re a UK wholesaler or manufacturer then it’s well worth considering offering your products through the site to sellers in the UK and overseas.

8 Responses

  1. Good shout Chris. I uploaded some products this morning as an exercise, very simple.

    Does seem though that most buyers only use Gold Suppliers, that’s a couple of thousand $ upfront per year so a weighty investment required.

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