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Tmall: imported products account for almost 50 percent of all products

By Simone Preuss

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Retail

Tmall, global e-commerce platform of Chinese internet giant Alibaba, was able to increase the number of imported product categories to nearly 50 percent or 3,700 in 2016. The online platform enables international brands to sell online directly to Chinese consumers.

According to the company, more than 14,500 international brands from 63 countries and regions currently sell their products on Tmall Global. For more than 80 percent of them, their Tmall Global virtual store is their first foray into the Chinese market.

“With this flow of information … all manufacturers and brands, regardless of size, as long as their products are good and they have good service, have the same opportunity to enter the consumer market,” said Alibaba Group CEO Daniel Zhang at a summit promoting cross-border e-commerce in Hangzhou last week.

Tmall is Alibaba's electronic world trade platform

A future of frictionless, borderless e-commerce is the vision of Alibaba Group founder and executive chairman Jack Ma. He also envisions the establishment of an “Electronic World Trade Platform” (eWTP), which would “leverage the internet to knock down trade barriers and allow small-and-medium-sized enterprises everywhere to more easily participate in global commerce”.

In view of a high national savings rate and a new generation with more disposable income than ever before, China is eager to see consumption rise to keep propelling its economy forward. Chinese consumers are already demanding foreign goods and will continue to do so.

According to China’s ministry of commerce, 120 million citizens traveled abroad in 2016, spending a total of 1.5 trillion yen (216 billion US dollars). By making it possible for Chinese consumers to more easily purchase foreign goods online, Tmall Global is essentially driving this overseas consumption back to China, hopes Alibaba.

For international brands and retailers, Tmalls customer profile is very attractive: more than 70 percent are between 24 and 32 years old, middle class, and dispose over an annual income of over 100,000 yuan (around 14,400 US dollars). Most of them live in top- or second-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Their spending habits are reflected in Tmall's bestselling product: Victoria’s Secret lingerie, Swisse cranberry capsule (health supplements) from Australia, Manuka honey from New Zealand, skincare products by Japanese brand Matsumoto Kiyoshi, milk sold by German supermarket chain Metro and olive oil sold by British retailer Sainsbury’s.

Photo: Tmall Website

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