Ali expands cross-border e-commerce business, and Amazon does not forget to follow the sense of existence.

In order to expand the cross-border e-commerce business, Ma Yun, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alibaba (hereinafter referred to as "Ali"), really put up a fight.

In the past two weeks, he has gone to the United States and Russia. He said that Ali will speed up the pace of globalization, so he has been running a lot recently, and there are still many countries to go to next. Under the influence of Ma Yun, even the daughter of former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd went to Tmall to open a shop and engage in overseas purchasing.

In addition to Ma Yun, Alibaba CEO Zhang Yong also arrived in the United States this week to implement the group’s globalization strategy, visit brands and give a speech in Washington.

Following the launch of the first national pavilion "Korea Pavilion" in May, the "national pavilions" of 11 countries including the United States, Britain and France were also launched at Tmall International on June 24th. At the same time, its cost-effective platform cooperates with embassies of 20 countries including the United States, Britain and France to sell imported goods from various countries.

When interviewed by media groups including Titanium Media, Zhang Jianfeng, president of Ali China Retail Group, said that Ali itself is a big data company. Today, it is not doing cross-border trade from scratch, but bringing these overseas goods to China through platforms or purchasing methods.

"Overseas flagship stores do not need to register enterprises in China, so they can open stores in Tmall International, operate overseas, and enter China through bonded means to minimize the operating costs of enterprises."

After the launch of Tmall International, let the purchasing merchants on Taobao "wash white"

At the beginning of last year, seeing the promotion of opening-up strategies such as Shanghai Free Trade Zone, and the huge business opportunities of Haitao business, Alibaba Group launched Tmall International to carry out cross-border e-commerce business, so that overseas imported goods can be directly supplied to the China market.

Zhang Jianfeng said that Ali’s previous activities with overseas proved that China consumers had a strong demand for imported goods, and many import activities even changed the production plans of some local factories.

"For example, if we do activities in Thailand, Thai latex pillows and mattresses sell very well. Therefore, the demand for imported goods in the China market is very strong. "

Prior to this, the existing "global purchase" business on Taobao has been wandering in the gray area. After Tmall International went online, the purchasing merchants on Taobao were "washed white". In fact, the cross-border trade of direct sales of imported goods is also the focus of the reform experiment of Shanghai Free Trade Zone, so as to standardize the private Haitao transactions.

Tmall International operates independently as a subsidiary of Ali Group and is registered in Hong Kong. It belongs to Ali International B2C Division, which also includes AliExpress platform for overseas consumers and Taobao Overseas for Chinese consumers in Southeast Asia such as Taiwan Province and Hongkong. It is not in the same department as Juhua, but it will cooperate with some marketing activities.

For imported goods, price is not the main determinant.

According to Zhang Jianfeng, food, mother and baby, and beauty are all commodities that China consumers particularly like. In his view, for imported goods, price is not the main determinant.

"Many people who pursue the quality of life will definitely not care about the price, especially the rise of a large number of middle classes in China. The demand for overseas imported goods is huge, not to pursue luxury goods. Today’s cross-border is completely different from our previous understanding of cross-border. Many of them are necessities of life. Many consumer goods that families may use, from cooking pots, cooking oil and towels to instant noodles, like to use imported goods."

Most consumers really don’t know what very good goods are available in many foreign countries. How to gather considerable sales in a short time requires a platform to operate successfully.

Zhang Jianfeng took Bulgarian roses as an example. After an activity with them, the effect was very good. Gather sales through Ali’s platform, and then transport it from Bulgaria to the bonded warehouse after the sales volume is confirmed. Because the sales volume is locked, it is pre-sale, which will be very low for the merchants.

This is the characteristic of the internet, that is, there is a very long user group, which leads to the accumulation of a relatively large amount of personalized needs. The platform of e-commerce allows very small products to operate online; If we operate offline, this product will enter China through traditional channels, and the cost will be very huge, even impossible. E-commerce is a better channel than traditional channels.

Competitors are also doing cross-border e-commerce, but they are not a threat to Ali.

Coincidentally, competitor Amazon also launched cross-border e-commerce activities on the same day, and the Commercial Office of the US Embassy in China signed a strategic partnership with Amazon China. Amazon also recently signed a global framework agreement with the Bureau of International Trade (ITA) of the US Department of Commerce, and China was the first country to implement the agreement.

Amazon first signed an agreement with the Shanghai Free Trade Zone in August 2014. At that time, the press release said that the platform had both "direct mail" and "free trade" modes. However, the free trade model has not yet landed. Similarly, in May 2015, Amazon signed an agreement with Xiamen Free Trade Zone. The focus of cooperation with Xiamen is to promote selected products from Taiwan, China and Southeast Asian countries and regions to enter the mainland, but there is still no free trade model.

As a big international company, Amazon has been in China for ten years, but faced with the pressure from business and supervision, it has only won a small part of the total e-commerce market share in China, and it is still a relatively small participant.

Although Amazon has set up shop in Shanghai Free Trade Zone, it can compete with larger local rivals in China, such as Ali and JD.COM, by using preferential trade policies in the Free Trade Zone, such as preferential import tariffs, to sell products purchased from global supply chains.

However, Amazon still has a long way to go to challenge the status of Alibaba and JD.COM Mall, but at least this will help China consumers distinguish it from other e-commerce companies.

In addition to big platforms like Alibaba and Amazon, Suning, Jumeiyou, Netease and Dangdang have also accelerated their layout. At the same time, there are also startups such as Ocean Terminal and Honey Bud Baby.

Competition exists, but Zhang Jianfeng feels that these enterprises pose no threat to Ali. The whole Alibaba platform is the largest e-commerce platform in China at present, and the competitors are one order of magnitude behind. Many competitors may not be in the normal business model, so they use a platform to attract traffic.

"For us, it is the basic bottom line for all businesses to make money. We will not do something at a loss, because we are a platform, and we must ensure that businesses can make money in a suitable business model.

"So far, Alibaba has done quite well in this regard. We have invested a lot of resources in cross-border support, including our cooperation with bonded warehouses and providing efficient distribution through rookie logistics."