Alibaba boss maps out ‘3 key battlefields’ in 2016

Image credit: Tech in Asia.

Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang today outlined the ecommerce titan’s road-map for the new year. He pointed out “three key battlefields for Alibaba in 2016,” which are:

1. Global imports

Alibaba already encourages overseas brands and small merchants to sell directly to Chinese consumers, and there’s going to be even more of that happening this year, the company said on its corporate blog.

Zhang didn’t give details of how the cross-border shopping scheme would be expanded further.

It’s a renewed chase after top-spending urbanites.

Encouraging more items from overseas – even including fresh foods – has allowed Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall marketplaces to differentiate themselves from online rivals and offer goods that are not available in stores – or not available at decent prices. It’s also given Alibaba a chance to shake off its reputation for fake goods by sourcing directly from overseas suppliers, cutting out the middlemen merchants on Taobao and Tmall that sometimes peddle fakes.

Alibaba last month cemented its cross-border ecommerce plans in Europe by opening two offices – in France and Germany – and earlier in the summer appointing former Goldman Sachs exec Michael Evans to lead its international strategy.

2. Re-focus on China’s biggest cities

Aside from more goodies from overseas, Alibaba is targeting shoppers in first-tier Chinese cities in order to prevent people from defecting to localized, on-demand apps created by an array of startups. They cover everything from meal deliveries to car maintenance mechanics.

Alibaba said last year that it would invest US$1 billion in its local services marketplace, so it’s no surprise that it will continue building that up in 2016.

The upcoming second headquarters in Beijing – complementing Alibaba’s HQ in Hangzhou, about an hour outside Shanghai – will aid with this renewed chase after top-spending urbanites.

3. More ecommerce in rural areas

“In 2016, we are going to ramp up our efforts to bring quality goods to rural buyers […] so the rural market can be connected to the whole country and even the whole world,” said Zhang.

The firm has already built 10,000 village-level service centers across 20 provinces in order to speed up deliveries in more remote areas.

People in rural areas won’t just be shopping – they might become producers as well. Alibaba today outlined plans to invest “in platforms that help farmers in the hinterlands sell and deliver agricultural products to online shoppers in the country’s big cities.”

Alibaba has 386 million active shoppers, according to its latest data from September.