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Alibaba’s Tmall Global Disappointing to Some, a Boon to Others

January 7, 2024         By: Steven Anderson

Recently, we had a look at Alibaba’s Tmall Global, and reports that some of its users were unhappy with Tmall’s overall package and offerings.

While even the Wall Street Journal went so far as to call Tmall a potential “black eye” for Alibaba, the story was not universally so dark across the entire user base. Indeed, an Alibaba representative tipped us to Alibaba’s Alizila news website that shows how Tmall is having a more positive impact for at least some of its vendors.

The Alizila report noted sales increasing “…more than tenfold” in its first 10 months of operation alone, and total gross merchandise volume for Tmall Global was up over 1,000 percent as compared to results from the previous February.

So far, Tmall Global accounts for 5,400 brands across 25 countries, and more are reportedly set to arrive, and over half of all Tmall Global merchants report sales of over one million renminbi (about $160,681 U.S as of this writing) in goods for 2014.

With five out of the top 10 supermarket chains in Europe planning a Tmall Global presence, it’s clear that the concerns are far from universal.

Indeed, several stores have seen some particularly impressive gains, especially during Alibaba’s 11.11 Shopping Festival, an event that coincides with the November 11 commemoration of Singles Day, a major event in China.

During that event alone, Costco—a fairly major United States retailer—reportedly sold 22 million renminbi (about $3.54 million U.S) in goods that day.

That’s a move that prompted Costco to reconsider its entire annual business plan, with plans to offer more goods in the Chinese market that so clearly is inclined to buy. Costco wasn’t alone here, as Nature’s Bounty, a nutritional supplement maker from the United States, noted sales of $700,000 in goods in November alone, and that was after just opening in August.

There’s no reason to dispute a word of this, and indeed, no one ever noted that Tmall Global was some kind of business death trap in which businesses went in, saw no success, and planned to leave.

But the earlier numbers do still stand, and remain a point that must give Alibaba concern: Tmall Global is still far behind other properties like Tmall—the fifth most popular site in China by Alexa rankings—and Taobao, which holds the number two slot. There are still some problems here, like that New Zealand healthcare product firm—so much like Nature’s Bounty—that reportedly doing only a tenth of the business it expected.

So what’s the key point here? It’s fairly simple at its root; Tmall Global, like a lot of mobile and e-commerce ventures, isn’t a magic bullet solution to sales woes. It’s another potential market, and for some, it will do well, and for others, not near so well. We have two sets of numbers here, and we have causes for alarm alongside causes for celebration.

Obviously Alibaba can only do so much about the lack of traffic, especially given that it’s got two other sites that are absolutely killing it in terms of traffic. But Tmall Global hasn’t exactly been around a long time either, and that means some serious potential for growth from here, especially given what’s already been seen.

Only time will tell if Tmall Global can be the kind of powerhouse operation that Tmall proper and Taobao represent, but there’s certainly a surfeit of possibility afoot.