Alibaba reaches for global sales on Singles' Day

China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is moving forward with its goal of "buy global, sell global" strategy by helping overseas merchants sell to consumers outside the Chinese mainland during its upcoming Nov 11 shopping festival.

For the first time, hundreds of overseas suppliers on Alibaba's Tmall platform will be able to sell directly to online shoppers in Hong Kong and Taiwan, a move that is seen by the company as testing the waters as it strives to achieve its ambitious goal of serving 2 billion consumers in 20 years.

Daniel Zhang, chief executive officer of Alibaba Group, said at an event in Hong Kong on Oct 20 that globalization is one of the top priorities of the company.

"During the Nov 11 shopping festival last year, we brought overseas brands to online shoppers on the mainland. This year, we hope to help more brands enter new markets and access consumers beyond the mainland," he said, adding that the company's next step will be to help overseas brands access shoppers in Southeast Asia.

Created on Nov 11, 2009, by Alibaba, 11.11 - or "Singles' Day" - has become China's largest online shopping event. During the 24-hour sales event in 2015, Alibaba reported transactions of goods sold online of 91.2 billion yuan ($13.55 billion; 12.3 billion euros; 11 billion).

By expanding globally, Lu Zhenwang, chief executive officer of Shanghai-based Wanqing Consultancy, says Alibaba is expected to set a record in sales due to a larger shopper base.

"Alibaba's Nov 11 sales are on track to exceed 100 billion yuan. But the continuous sales growth for such an event is not sustainable as the online shopping population in China will peak, and the majority of Alibaba's business still comes from China," Lu says.

His view is echoed by Adam Xu, a partner at multinational consultancy Strategy&. Xu says there is still a promising future for e-commerce in China, but market growth will be increasingly spurred by expanding product offerings and shoppers' willingness to spend more online.

JD.com, Alibaba's biggest rival in e-commerce in China, adopts a similar strategy. The company, which has formed a strategic alliance with Wal-Mart, plans to spur sales by helping Chinese consumers access a wide variety of high-quality products imported by Wal-Mart from around the world.

mengjing@chinadaily.com.cn