AliExpress opens its third offline store in Spain in Barcelona

On the morning of July 3rd local time , AliExpress opened its third overseas store in Spain at the Gran Vía 2 shopping center in Barcelona. This is another major move by AliExpress to localize its operations in Spain after opening offline stores in Madrid and Barcelona in 2019.

(Spanish consumers queue up at the entrance of a newly opened offline store of AliExpress to enter the store.)

This offline store covers an area of ​​280 square meters and is adjacent to the Mobile World Congress venue . It mainly displays popular products in the online market, including more than 800 products from international brands such as Xiaomi, Lenovo, Apple, Samsung, and Microsoft, and local Spanish brands such as Cecotec, Mr. Wonderful, MP, Engel, and InnovaGoods, covering categories such as consumer electronics, mobile phones, televisions, computers, and household goods. With an AliExpress account, consumers can shop in the store and enjoy the same after-sales benefits as online. Non-AliExpress members can also shop directly in the store.

Although the number of consumers visiting the store on the opening day was limited due to the epidemic, Spanish consumers' enthusiasm for AliExpress offline stores has not diminished. When the first offline store in Madrid opened, five to six thousand people rushed into the store at the same time, which was an unprecedented event. When the first store in Barcelona opened, Suarez, a famous football star who played for Barcelona Football Club at the time, came to congratulate and cut the ribbon, attracting thousands of people.

AliExpress is the largest cross-border retail e-commerce platform in China under Alibaba, and Spain is one of AliExpress's important markets. In the last fiscal year, AliExpress's total sales (GMV) in the Spanish market increased by nearly three digits year-on-year. In the first quarter of 2021, AliExpress APP surpassed Amazon with 62.5% of downloads, becoming the most popular shopping APP in Spain. It is also the APP with the largest increase in downloads, with a year-on-year increase of 7.8%. The latest statistics from mobile data analysis platform AppAnnie also show that AliExpress ranks second in MAU (monthly active users) in Spain, and the gap with the first place Amazon is gradually narrowing.

"In the past two years, we have developed rapidly in the Spanish market. With the support of local partners, we have opened physical stores to provide users with a unique shopping experience that combines online and offline. The opening of the third offline store in Spain fully demonstrates the importance of Spain to AliExpress and the positive results AliExpress has achieved in the Spanish market. " said Wang Changhui, General Manager of AliExpress's Spanish, French and Italian markets . He also said that he would further invest resources to better meet the needs of local users.

"The opening of physical stores in Spain by AliExpress can accelerate the digitalization process of Spanish merchants and brands and help them grow faster," said Ye Ping, head of merchant operations in the Spanish, French and Italian markets of AliExpress. "In the global post-epidemic era, we will continue to be committed to promoting the localized operations of merchants and brands," she added.

(Spanish consumers shop at a newly opened offline store on AliExpress.)

In addition to opening physical stores, AliExpress has further integrated into the lives of local consumers through social media, cooperation with entertainment programs and sports events, etc. In Spain, AliExpress cooperated with La Liga powerhouse Sevilla FC and co-created content with the local popular TV show The Masked Singer.

AliExpress has also conducted offline pop-up store practices in Europe many times. As early as the Double 11 period in 2018 , AliExpress cooperated with El Corte Inglés, the largest retailer in Spain , to open a pop-up store. In September 2020 , AliExpress opened an offline pop-up store in Paris, France for the first time. While displaying a wide range of Chinese products, the unique social interaction methods of Chinese e-commerce, such as live broadcasting and image search, also attracted many local consumers to queue up to experience it.

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