Alibaba Group’s Taobao, a major e-commerce platform, will be introducing free overseas shipping to several countries next month. The initiative will be limited to apparel orders, with Nikkei Asia reporting that it is an attempt to challenge its rivals in the cross-border e-commerce space such as Temu and Shein.
The free shipping programme will start from 3 August 2024 and will initially be available for customers in Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao. However, it will apparently be expanded to other Asian markets by the end of the year. The company is in the midst of persuading more merchants to take part in the programme, with eligible items to be features in a dedicated section on its site.
According to a senior manager at the firm, Taobao will bear the cost of returns under the new programme, with returned items being directed to one of its overseas warehouses instead of the vendor to make overseas sales less risky for sellers. Moreover, the shipping costs will also be subsidised by the platform, with sellers only needing to ship items to in warehouse in China.
Clothing that is eligible for free shipping will also be made available on the group’s other e-commerce sites such as Lazada and AliExpress. The new initiative is expected to only target Chinese living overseas at the moment as the site is only available in Chinese, with no localisation for other markets.
(Source: Nikkei Asia)
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