Alibaba to go beyond China with Tmall World

Alibaba is eyeing the wallets of Chinese communities in Southeast Asia, integrating more domestic brands into its existing sales channels in order to tap into markets beyond the Chinese mainland, in a bid to lure customers with similar shopping needs and tastes, Caixin reports. “Domestic Chinese merchants whose products attain certain quality and certification standards will be able to sell through a single platform to multiple markets,” said Zhang Zhouping, director of cross-border business at the China E-commerce Association. Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia are the core regions where the Chinese e-commerce giant will launch its Tmall World brand, to broaden its scope in these markets with better “logistics, payment and localization support,” the company said in a press release. However, others in the industry believe that Tmall World’s prospects might not be as rosy as the company would like its merchants to believe.