The Chinese e-commerce giant is already present on the continent with its cross-border platform Aliexpress. Now it wants to sell "local brands".

Alibaba wants to accelerate in Europe. On Thursday May 15, the Chinese online retail giant announced the forthcoming launch of its Tmall platform on the continent. "Europe is a priority", assured its president Michael Evans, speaking at the VivaTech trade show.

Tmall is one of Alibaba's two e-commerce sites in China. It enables foreign brands to sell their products in the country via a marketplace. Faced with slowing growth in its domestic market, Alibaba is increasingly focusing on international markets. Chine. Il permet aux marques étrangères de vendre leurs produits dans le pays, par l’intermédiaire d’une marketplace. Face au ralentissement de la croissance sur son marché domestique, Alibaba mise de plus en plus sur les marchés internationaux.

Local brands

Michael Evans provided few details on Tmall's arrival in Europe. He simply indicated that the site will offer "local brands" to "local customers". This represents a change in strategy, as Alibaba is currently only present on the continent through cross-border activities.

Available in Europe, its Aliexpress platform offers products shipped directly from Chinese warehouses. This means extremely low prices, but also longer delivery times. The market is experiencing strong growth, as demonstrated by the immense success of Temu, an Aliexpress rival launched by its Chinese competitor Pinduoduo.

Jérôme Marin