- [Narrator] Singles' Day in China
is the world's biggest shopping event.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Narrator] Think of Black Friday,
Cyber Monday and Amazon Prime Day on loop for days.
(lively music)
And now Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant
that created Singles' Day
wants to use its international platform, AliExpress,
to help the event go global, from Poland.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Narrator] To France.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Narrator] And Brazil.
Alibaba is competing with other e-commerce platforms,
like Amazon to capture a larger share
of the global market,
which is expected to grow by $1.4 trillion by 2025.
So to promote Singles' Day,
Alibaba has hired an army of influencers
around the world.
- I love this color.
- [Narrator] And beefed up its logistics.
But it has to tackle some challenges
if it wants to take a bite off a bigger piece
of the global e-commerce pie.
One of the first things Alibaba is doing
to win over new Singles' Day consumers abroad?
Massive sales.
- Discounts of up to 50 or even 70% are being offered.
So it's a very big event.
- [Narrator] Vinci Zhang is an e-commerce analysts based
in Shanghai who's been watching Alibaba
for the past seven years.
- So the way it is doing that right now
is basically competing on pricing,
by offering cheaper prices,
as well as charging less fees for the merchants.
- [Narrator] When foreign customers use AliExpress,
they get direct access
to Chinese factories and merchants.
The company's also speeding up global delivery
during the international two-day shopping event this year.
It said it's increasing charter flights
from China to cities like Seoul and Paris
to 100 a week up from 80 flights.
AliExpress said it's also installed
5,000 automated self-pickup lockers
across Russia, Poland, Spain and France
to help cut delivery costs
that would go to hiring fleets
of delivery trucks and drivers.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Narrator] Daniela Sena is one
of the 400 influencers Alibaba has hired
to promote Singles' Day abroad.
In China, live streaming is one
of the most popular ways to shop.
And Sena is doing the same
but for a Brazilian audience.
She says the Chinese company
is offering something better
than other shopping platforms.
- I think the fact that people can see us,
we touch the product, we have the feedback
of other people that already purchased the products as well.
It gives the audience a very personal communication.
- [Narrator] But attracting buyers won't be enough.
- If it wants to compete with Amazon,
then I think fundamentally,
it needs to own more inventory.
- [Narrator] And the bigger bulk items
could become an issue.
Right now the company lacks the infrastructure outside China
to support those kinds of sales.
- If we're talking about big air conditioner
or refrigerator purchase shipped from China,
I imagine it will be very challenging
for big home appliance manufacturers.
They are not going to sell directly in Europe
and build a warehouse.
So it's up to Alibaba if they want
to kinda undertake that initiative.
- [Narrator] Alibaba said it has opened up its platform
to merchants in several markets already outside
of China, and will continue to expand
while also developing warehouses overseas
to improve capacity.
It said AliExpress is at the forefront
of it global strategy.
And according to brokerage China Merchant Securities,
China's outbound e-commerce market
is expected to grow around 26% every year until 2025.
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.
So Zhang says Alibaba should stick
to what they're good at:
using automated warehouses,
innovative ways to live stream
and delivery packages to keep prices low.
- I think that's where Alibaba's strength lies.
It's in its technology and logistics management.
If they are able to replicate that success to Europe,
then maybe they can compete against Amazon
from a different angle,
and attract more people to ultimately switch
to using Alibaba.