The Alibaba News Roundup is a weekly digest of events and happenings across the company. This week, learn how U.S. shopping malls and outlets are leveraging Tmall Global for the upcoming holiday shopping season, including Black Friday. Also covered is a report on how 1,000 British SMEs view their prospects for exporting and first-half earnings from Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed healthcare business unit, Alibaba Health. And we look at the launch of Ethiopian coffee brands on Tmall Global, backed by Alibaba’s eWTP initiative.
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U.S. Malls and Outlets Tap Tmall Global Ahead of Black Friday
This year’s Black Friday is shaping up to be unlike any other in history. Covid-19 has forced brands and retailers to refocus on e-commerce, it also has meant looking to markets like China, where consumer spending has rebounded to pre-Covid levels. To that end, more than 80 U.S. outlets and department stores have made use of Tmall Global’s Tmall Overseas Fulfillment ahead of the holiday shopping season. The retailers have prepared over 120,000 products that can move from the U.S. to China in as few as 72 hours upon order. Since the campaign kicked off on Monday, Black Friday sales generated through Tmall Global’s new solution has already grown by over 120%, compared to last year’s event. Separately, Tmall Global also launched its first New Retail-powered brick-and-mortar store in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou. The platform said it’s looking to bring a special selection of the beauty, personal care, health, lifestyle and mom-and-baby products on the platform even closer to Chinese consumers who crave high-quality imported goods.
Export Recovery Opportunity for British SMEs
Last month, Alibaba Group conducted an analysis of 1,000 British small and medium-sized enterprises’ attitudes towards export, perceived barriers to doing business internationally, and how overcoming these will be key to boosting growth and resilience in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The survey shows many small businesses are unsure about how to tap into overseas trading opportunities. Over a quarter think they’re too small to export, one-fifth think there’s no demand for their products outside Europe and only 21% said they’re planning to sell products or services overseas in the next 12 months. Looking particularly at China, the world’s largest e-commerce market, only 7% of small British businesses with export plans are eyeing China as their next international market, versus 23% who’d consider Africa, 37% North America and 52% Europe. Click here to read the full report.
Alibaba Health Announces FY H1 Financial Performance
Alibaba Group’s healthcare arm Alibaba Health on Thursday announced a net profit of RMB278.6 million (US$42.4 million) in the six months ended on Sept. 30, as public awareness toward health and wellness increased during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the company, the main driver for the growth was its direct sales business, where revenue surged by 76% to RMB6 billion.
Ethiopian Coffee Brands Enter China Market with the Help of eWTP
The door is now open for Ethiopian roasted coffee brands to enter Chinese market, backed by Alibaba’s Electronic World Trade Platform(eWTP) initiative. The eWTP was created to help SMEs gain equal footing with larger companies in conducting global trade. Gera was the first Ethiopian coffee brand to tap the eWTP to enter the China market on Tmall Global earlier this month. Toga Teshome, Ethiopian Ambassador to China, said the cooperation will have “a huge impact on the lives of Ethiopian farmers and now with the eWTP” by giving them a higher margin and boosting the country’s overall coffee industry. For the occasion, Gera will launch a limited-edition packaging designed by an Ethiopian designer who won a competition hosted by Alibaba, featuring the famous Ethiopian coffee pot, Jebena, and a Chinese tea cup. Ethiopia was the second country in Africa, after Rwanda, to embrace the electronic World Trade Platform, rolling out a hub in November 2019.
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