Alibaba Gateway ’17 is the largest event Alibaba has hosted outside of China. More than 3,000 participated in the event that concluded on June 22, 2017 in Michigan. Fung Global Retail & Technology also attended the event. The two day programme covered many success stories of merchants selling on Alibaba’s platforms in different categories, with sessions detailing how Alibaba can help more American businesses sell on its platform
Speakers at the conference discussed about the significant demand for American goods in China. Overall, US goods are ranked as the third-most-popular items on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms after goods from Japan and South Korea, according to Alibaba’s data analytics. On Alibaba’s branded platform Tmall, US brands rank number two.
At the conference, it was highlighted that the market potential for the fashion category is expected to be driven by rising demand from the lower-tier cities of China. The market size for fashion in China is projected to reach $195 billion in next five years. There are currently 102 cities in China with a population of over 1 million. The combined spending power of the lower-tier cities is estimated to equate to roughly the same as the four tier-one cities—Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Alibaba’s data indicates that consumers in the lower-tier cities demand the same fashion goods as those in tier-one cities. The fashion category is the number-one category that aspirational shoppers in lower-tier cities plan to trade up when their income increases. (RR)
Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India