Alibaba Group Holding Limited has announced that it has invested in Mei.com, China’s leading flash sales platform for luxury and fashion products. This cooperation will enhance Mei.com’s supply chain services of the sales of limited time discounted quality products from well-known international luxury and fashion brands to consumers in China, the company said in a statement.
The investment will enable Alibaba Group to integrate resources from its B2C platform Tmall.com, China’s largest third-party platform for brands and retailers, to form a specialised services team to support Mei.com’s development and assist them in growing their user base, brand cooperation base, logistic services and IT infrastructure services. Mei.com’s close cooperation with a wide selection of luxury brands will complement Tmall.com’s existing selection of affordable luxury goods for Chinese consumers.
Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba Group said, “Alibaba Group’s ecosystem and its multi-level cross-platform retail services will be further enhanced with our investment in Mei.com. We hope that Mei.com will exert its advantages to create synergy with Tmall in providing more premium luxury goods to consumers. At the same time, Alibaba will help Mei.com and other brand partners enter our ecosystem to allow more efficiency in helping them locate consumer groups, conduct brand marketing and establish an online supply chain system.”
Thibault Villet, founder and CEO of Mei.com said, “We are very pleased to receive this strategic investment from Alibaba Group. The two parties complement each other and together with Tmall, we will bring premium and trusted genuine brands to consumers. In the future, we see a significant opportunity to provide enhanced shopping experiences for Chinese customers in search of affordable fashion and luxury products.”
Mei.com operates an online flash sales business model with limited time on discounted luxury goods for its online shoppers. Sales events are launched every day at 9 am to promote genuine goods that are offered at significantly reduced prices. Similar to Tmall.com, Mei.com cooperates directly with international brands or official designated brand distributors and has successfully cooperated with more than 2,400 brands across the world. Around 280 well-known international brands including Armani, Zegna and Michael Kors among others have partnered exclusively with Mei.com in China’s e-commerce market.
