Alibaba and Unilever in Targeting and Innovation Deal

Alibaba Group and Unilever China have announced a comprehensive strategic partnership giving the global consumer goods giant access to Alibaba's data-driven ecosystem to target customers across China.

Unilever's whose food, home and personal care products are said to reach 2 billion consumers in over 190 countries on any given day, has 174,000 employees; while Alibaba Group is the largest online and mobile commerce company in the world in terms of gross merchandise volume. The partners say their relationship has 'grown steadily' in the five years since its started with a single Tmall store. Tmall (www.tmall.com) is now China's largest third-party platform for brands and retailers.

The new deal will see the firms working together to expand distribution channels, especially for consumers in rural areas; further develop cross-border ecommerce co-operation to enhance Tmall; and help Unilever promote its business - including online-off-line retail integration - via big data from the Alimama online marketing business.

The partners will also innovate in supply chain and distribution methods, including an increased focus on building Alibaba's Blue Star program where each product is tagged with a unique QR code that allows the consumer to verify its authenticity and origin - Unilever says this will help its efforts to combat counterfeit goods.

Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang comments: 'We look forward to building on our success in sales over the years and taking the collaboration to the next level'. Marijn Van Tiggelen, Unilever North Asia President, says Alibaba is 'the leading Internet company in China, with the most innovative thinking... not only an online store, but also a solution platform for online payment, e-finance, and e-commerce logistics' and that the deal will mean more convenient services for consumers in China.

Web sites: www.unilever.com and www.alibaba.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.