Alibaba to launch local versions of its China e-commerce site in Europe

PARIS — Alibaba will expand one of its key China e-commerce sites into Europe, the company’s president said on Thursday, marking a significant step up in the Chinese tech giant’s international push.

The announcement comes just over two months after Alibaba, China’s biggest e-commerce firm, announced plans to split its business into six units, a move designed to give each unit more autonomy and faster decision-making powers.

Michael Evans, president of Alibaba, said the company will bring one of its China e-commerce services Tmall into Europe.

“So you will see something called Tmall which we have in China, become Tmall in Europe, which means we will serve local brands and local consumers in the local market,” Evans said at the Viva Tech conference in Paris, France.

Evans revealed the company is currently doing a pilot project in Spain, which “will expand across Europe.”

In China, Tmall is an Alibaba site and app that has a big focus on selling foreign brands to Chinese consumers.

Launching Tmall in Europe reflects a significant shift in strategy for Alibaba in its international e-commerce operations.

While Alibaba’s international push in online shopping is not new, it has focused on a site called AliExpress in Europe. However, AliExpress has goods shipped from China into Europe. Shipping times are often long though products may be cheaper than rivals.

However, Evans’ suggestion is that Tmall in Europe would focus on selling local brands to local shoppers. It’s unclear if this would be merged in any way with AliExpress.

One of Alibaba’s six independent businesses is called the Taobao Tmall Commerce Group which focuses on its two main e-commerce products in China. But it also has a Global Digital Commerce unit that focuses on Alibaba’s e-commerce push abroad.

“Europe is a top priority for all of the businesses that have an international component. So by that, I mean, the international commerce businesses, the cloud business, the logistics business in particular,” Evans said.