Alibaba are launching Tmall world with the aim of attracting Chinese overseas customer to purchase from retailers on the platform. They tapping into a market of the estimated 100 million Chinese speakers with a focus on countries in the East such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia.
Chinese customers will be able to purchase 1.2 billion products from brands and merchants already selling through its Mobile Taobao app and other online platforms, including world.taobao.com. Tmall World will offer, end-to-end solutions, including logistics, payment and localization support catering to each local market’s needs.
It may seem strange to specifically target Chinese customers overseas, but in reality it makes sense as predominately listings already on their marketplace are in Mandarin. It’s also a marketplace tailored for Chinese consumers and doubtless many overseas expats are already familar with Alibaba.
Alibaba have already announced the launch of Alipay in Hong Kong as well as a pact with the Malasian governement to simplify cross-border ecommerce trading between Malaysia and China. They also took a majoirty stake in the Lazada marketplace which serves consumers in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Alibaba aim to hit $1tn serving 2 billion customers by 2020, of which 1.2 billion customers are targeted to be shoppers outside of China.
One Response
It may be just me
But Alibaba is now retail not trade?