Alibaba inks pact with Unilever to boost cross-border retails biz: report

BEIJING, July 20 (Xinhua) — Chinese E-commerce giant – Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA.NYSE) has signed a strategic agreement with consumer goods giant – Unilever to cooperate in sectors including cross-border retails, reported Xinhua-run cnstock.com Monday.

As www.ce.cn reported, its partner – Unilever targeted a gross merchandize volume (GMV) of one billion yuan via Alibaba Group’s online and offline platforms in the fiscal year 2015 and making these Alibaba platforms its largest online retailer.

Meanwhile, over 40 percent of Unilever’s new products would make debut on Tmall.com in the fiscal year 2015 and no less than 300 million yuan worth of media resources of Unilever were committed to be provided to present advertisements with Tmall logo built in.

For cross-border retails, Alibaba would be Unilever’s primary partner as it was set to take charge of 70 percent of the latter’s cross-border retails.

Besides, Unilever will cooperate with Alimama.com in precision advertising, expanding rural market, and innovating logistics for fast moving consumer goods (FMCG). Enditem

Alibaba to sell U.S.-based 11 Main for 37.6 pct stake in OpenSky: report

BEIJING, June 23 (Xinhua) — Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA.NYSE) planned to sell its US-based E-commerce business unit – 11 Main to exchange for a 37.6 percent stake in online marketplace – OpenSky, reported Xinhua-run cnstock.com Tuesday.

According to the Chinese E-commerce giant, 11 Main’s management staff will join OpenSky but the former will still keep its own website after the deal, whose financial terms are not disclosed yet.

Alibaba launched 11 Main in June 2014. However, the website failed to attract wide attention and attain sufficient support from Alibaba Group, said the report citing a source saying 11 Main might only be Alibaba’s one attempt to test the US market.

Alibaba finished its initial public offering (IPO) in the US in 2014. Currently, most of its revenue comes from domestic B2C E-commerce platforms – Taobao.com and Tmall.com.

Previously, an executive of Alibaba said the company’s overseas strategies would focus on helping foreign merchants and brand operators to sell their goods to Chinese consumers.

Apart from 11 Main, Alibaba invested a lot in the United States. In March, it invested 200 million US dollars in US photo messaging application – Snapchat. Enditem