Alibaba Gateway ’17 Day 2 Takeaways

Executive Summary

• The Fung Global Retail & Technology team is attending the Alibaba Gateway ’17 event in Detroit, Michigan. This inaugural conference, which attracted over 3,000 attendees, is the largest event Alibaba has hosted outside of China. Alibaba Gateway aims to help small- to medium-sized businesses in the US to better understand the China opportunity and enable them to sell into China via Alibaba’s various platforms.
• There is significant demand for American goods in China, driven by the increasing spending power of consumers in the lower-tier cities of the country. Chinese consumers generally prefer American brands, as they believe they represent premium quality and better design. In some categories such as fresh produce and outdoor apparel, rising middle-class Chinese consumers aspire to experience the American lifestyle by purchasing US goods.
• For US businesses interested in tapping into the Chinese market, Alibaba provides well-rounded solutions, which include e-commerce platforms (Taobao.com and Tmall/Tmall Global), payment solutions (AliPay), a logistics network (Cainiao) and sourcing (Alibaba.com).