Alibaba Has a New Target Market: Russia

Russia is probably not most people’s first choice for target markets, but there are new reports out to suggest that the Chinese Web titan Alibaba has some clear plans for the Russian e-commerce market, and means to pursue that market with a renewed vigor in the coming months.

More specifically, the company’s AliExpress service—a service that allows consumers to buy direct from Chinese retailers—is looking to ramp up its position, having brought out several new initiatives geared toward giving the company more room to work in the field.

Recently AliExpress joined forces with Tinkoff Bank in Russia to bring out that increasingly popular mobile payments add-on: a co-branded loyalty program.

It’s said to be the first of its kind on Earth, unusually enough, and under the terms of the program, Russian customers will get bonus points for purchases made involving MasterCard credit and debit cards, which are associated in turn with the program.

The bonuses in question amount to five percent of purchase value for AliExpress, and one percent of purchases made with any other merchant. The bonus points, in turn, can be spent through AliExpress, and there are even potential options for deeper discounts including discounts from three to nine percent on Tinkoff Bank’s online travel service.

That’s not where the efforts stop, though; as part of new Russian legislation, AliExpress will be opening a representative office in Russia in a bid to store Russian citizens’ personal data on Russian soil, and recently offered up an educational cartoon that explains how the site works.

AliExpress also inked partnership arrangements with SPSR Express to help drive delivery capabilities throughout the country, and these are developments that seem to be working; AliExpress is actually the number one e-commerce site in Russia as measured by total traffic and total number of orders.

It would be easy to write Russia off in terms of mobile commerce, but it’s clear that AliExpress is doing quite a bit of business there, sufficient numbers to perhaps make other firms think twice about how much business they’re currently doing in the country. Admittedly, the political climate isn’t exactly conducive to American involvement these days, but considering the levels of business going on, as evidenced by the expansion, it may be worth checking into if only on a limited basis.

Regardless of whether this prompts one into checking into Russia for new potential market sources, it’s important to remember that even in places one might consider unlikely as a whole, there are potential opportunities waiting. AliExpress has proven that point quite handily, and in the future, there will likely be more to come.