Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba today launched the first English-language entry portal for its cross-border marketplace Tmall Global, making it easier for overseas merchants to sell their products in China.
Tmall Global, which currently hosts more than 20,000 international brands from 77 countries and regions, dominates China’s cross-border commerce market with 48.5% market share in the first quarter of 2019, according to research firm Analysys.
The platform now wishes to double the number of brands in three years, its deputy general manager Yi Qian said according to Bloomberg.
The new English-language merchant entry portal will make it easier for smaller merchants to sign up to Tmall Global and sell to Chinese customers, and it offers them some assistance during the onboarding process. In the past, Tmall Global tended to invite the more established brands to sell on their platform.
“We believe the launch of this English-language website will expedite the process for brands and merchants to introduce their products to Chinese consumers. The website will widen our reach to merchants, especially to those medium and small sized businesses around the world,” said Yi Qian.
Tmall Global also plans to launch other language entry portals for global merchants, including Spanish, Japanese, and Korean.
China’s cross-border ecommerce industry grew rapidly in the past few years as the country’s middle class’ demand for high quality imported products boomed. The market volume for China’s cross-border e-commerce is set to reach RMB 409 billion this year, according to Analysys.