Alibaba launches an online fashion shopping APP, targeting SHEIN!

Recently, there was news that Alibaba, the domestic e-commerce giant, has also tried to get a piece of the pie and launched a fashion shopping app overseas , targeting the European and American female market.

Alibaba launches fashion shopping app "allyLikes"

Recently, foreign media discovered that Alibaba has launched an APP called " allyLikes " and also has a corresponding website, which is deployed in the North American and European markets and focuses on the purchase of women's clothing.

Open the allyLikes website and app to find that it sells everything from skirts to earrings, with prices ranging from a few dollars for a T- shirt to more than 30 dollars for a leather jacket . Currently, it ships to countries such as France, Italy, Spain, Canada and the United States.

Its product categories include new series, clothing, dresses, tops, bottoms, underwear, accessories and other options. Users can choose style, size and other information according to their preferences to match relevant products. After selecting the products and paying, allyLikes will deliver them to users within two weeks.

To entice users to make transactions, users can enjoy a 3 euro discount on their first order on allyLikes , and free delivery for orders over 19 euros.

Similar to other fast fashion players, allyLikes' page on the Apple app store states that allyLikes is able to release new styles at an extremely fast pace, with more than 500 new products launched every week .

allyLikes is still in the early stages of its business development. Its website domain is only eight months old , and its app was downloaded less than 10,000 times from the iOS App Store and Google Play worldwide last month . ( Shein 's app was downloaded 5 million times from the iOS store and 9 million times from Google last month. )

However, allyLikes has opened accounts on FaceBook and Instagram, and has accumulated more than 30,000 fans. On these social media platforms, allyLikes will also cooperate with Internet celebrities (influential people) to sponsor products and provide them with additional benefits such as 50% commission to promote the brand and increase sales.

Big players are making plans one after another, and the competition in the fast fashion market is intensifying

The success of SHEIN has allowed the market to see another feasible and potential model for cross-border trade. It is not difficult to see from Alibaba 's layout of allLikes that its target is SHEIN, which can also be said to be the field of fast fashion e-commerce. In fact, not only Alibaba, but also the cross-border e-commerce project Fommos recently launched by Antarctic E-commerce is also in this field.

"We want to build a B-side data platform, including raw material procurement, fabric procurement, cloth procurement, etc., mainly to allow more factories to share our platform, including packaging, raw materials and accessories, and design." A detailed analysis of Zhang Yuxiang, chairman of Antarctic E-Commerce, on Fommos reveals that it is targeting SHEIN.

( The Fommos website was launched in October)

In fact, since the rise of SHEIN in 2020, the fast fashion cross-border e-commerce track has become more and more lively. For example, "Full Speed ​​Full Volume" launched by Zhang Xiaopei, the co-founder and CTO of the original Chehaoduo Group in May last year, and Cider, which was also established in May last year and has received four rounds of financing, are all outstanding. In addition to these "newcomers", there are also many "senior veterans" who have been deeply involved in this track for many years, such as Xike, which was established in 2014 and completed a US$50 million Series B financing in April this year.

It can be seen that there are not only more and more projects on the track now, but also they are not simple. Some of them are backed by top venture capital, some have rich supply chain resources, and some have many years of mature overseas experience. The competition is fierce.

It is easy to imagine the challenges that Alibaba will face if it enters this field. As Kenndy Li, a clothing supplier for SHEIN , said: "There are hundreds of 'independent sites ' in this field. Although Alibaba has advantages in terms of funds and resources, this will not be the decisive factor in its victory in this war, because other competitors ' deep knowledge and experience in supply chain and design will not be easily challenged. "

Women hold up half the sky, and the “her economy” should not be underestimated

According to an April report by the Center for China & Globalization , the most popular category for global cross-border purchases in 2018 was clothing, followed by electronics and toys.

Although the epidemic has dealt a blow to the apparel industry, research firm NPD said that sales in the U.S. apparel market this year are expected to exceed pre-epidemic levels in 2019. Compared with the same period in 2019, sales in the U.S. apparel market in the first eight months of this year increased by US$13.3 million, an increase of 10%.

NPD also pointed out that the increase in sales is because most consumers need to replace their clothes this year. 61% of consumers said they need to buy new clothes, mainly because the original clothes are worn out, the size is changed, and the number of going out is increased.

Other data show that the total global value of clothing, accessories and footwear was US$752.5 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach US$1,164.7 billion in 2025. In other words, the clothing market will further expand in the future.

From the statistical analysis, we can know that in the sub-sectors, women's clothing occupies half of the global clothing market, and Europe and the United States are the two most important markets. Ali's launch of allyLikes is aimed at European and American fashionable women's clothing, probably because it sees the huge potential of the women's clothing market.

Compared with Asians, European and American women are generally more robust. Taking the United States as an example, data shows that in 2019, the market size of plus-size women's clothing and underwear in the United States was US$85 billion, while the market size of full-size women's clothing was US$96 billion in the same period. The compound annual growth rate of the plus-size women's clothing and underwear market is about 3% to 5%, which is more than twice the overall growth rate of the US women's clothing and underwear market.

Specifically speaking of the user portrait of the plus-size women's clothing market, a report released by a US government agency shows that women under 45 and with higher income levels are the fastest growing consumer group in the plus-size women's clothing market. It is understood that SHEIN is also planning to enter the plus-size clothing market.

Alibaba frequently invests in overseas e-commerce platforms to promote its global layout

In fact, Alibaba's global expansion has never stopped. In addition to the international site, Alibaba launched its own B2C platform AliExpress in 2010. Currently, AliExpress has covered 220 countries and regions around the world, with major markets including Russia, the United States, Spain, Brazil, France, etc., and the brand awareness in Russia has reached 98%. In the latest AliExpress Russia semi-annual report, its turnover from April 1 to September 30 reached 133.3 billion rubles (about 1.88 billion US dollars), an increase of more than 36% year-on-year. Moreover, this summer, AliExpress Russia also launched local applications for iOS and Android. Since its launch, the application has been among the top in Russian stores.

In addition to its own platform AliExpress, Alibaba has also continuously added multiple overseas e-commerce platforms to its shopping cart through investment and mergers and acquisitions. In 2016, Alibaba acquired the controlling stake in Lazada, the largest e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia, for US$1 billion. After that, Alibaba invested in it twice, with a total investment of US$4 billion in three times. In the end, Alibaba held about 98% of Lazada's shares and took its absolute controlling stake. It can be said that Lazada is Alibaba's "own son".

And there is more than one "son". In 2018, Alibaba acquired Daraz, the most popular e-commerce platform in South Asia. Daraz's business currently covers Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Myanmar. Data shows that the total population of these five countries exceeds 490 million, the number of Internet users exceeds 210 million, and the overall Internet penetration rate is as high as 42.9%. In addition, Alibaba has also invested in Turkish e-commerce platform Trendyol and Indonesian e-commerce platform Tokopedia.

Alibaba 's second quarter 2021 performance announcement shows that from April to June this year, Alibaba's revenue totaled US$31.865 billion, an increase of 34% compared with the same period in 2020. Among them, cross-border and global retail business revenue was US$1.672 billion, an increase of 54%; cross-border and global wholesale business revenue was US$4.402 billion, an increase of 37%. The report pointed out that the increase in cross-border business revenue was mainly due to the increase in revenue from Lazada, AliExpress, and the International Station.

It has to be said that Alibaba has achieved good results in Russia, Southeast Asia, India and even Latin America. However, Alibaba's development in Europe and the United States has always been affected by Amazon. Now Alibaba's launch of allyLikes seems to be a declaration that it has not given up the big European and American market, and is also working hard to break free from Amazon's restrictions in different ways.

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SHEIN

Fashion