Alibaba’s Online Mall Chief Wants to Double Sales in 3 Years – Bloomberg
What happened: Jiang Fan, president of Alibaba’s business-to-consumer marketplace Tmall, plans to double transaction volumes on the platform over the next three years. As part of its new brand and product-boosting initiative, the platform aims to help launch 100 million new products as well as incubate another 100 new brands with the goal of generating RMB 1 billion ($149 million) in sales each over the same time period. Tmall has drawn more than 100 million new buyers in the past year alone, a pace that will be sustained, Jiang added.
Why it’s important: Formerly founder of Umeng, a Chinese mobile app data analytics provider that was acquired by Alibaba in 2013, the 34-year-old Jiang Fan is a leading figure in Alibaba’s younger generation of senior executives who are playing bigger roles in the day-to-day operations of the e-commerce giant. Jiang, previously president of Alibaba’s customer-to-customer e-commerce platform Taobao, took the helm at Tmall in March this year after an internal reorganization extended his power to oversee operations of both businesses. A close lieutenant of Jack Ma’s, Jiang shares Ma’s aggressiveness in scaling the businesses. Based on Tmall’s currents stats, Jiang’s targets are challenging but achievable. Although Alibaba doesn’t currently disclose total GMV figures, the company revealed in its most recent earnings call that Tmall’s GMV was up 29% year-on-year for the quarter ended Dec. 31. Data from AliResearch shows that Tmall launched an excess of 50 million new products in 2018. Cross-border e-commerce will be an important driver for its growth. The platform’s imports-focused segment, Tmall Global, just unveiled two initiatives to further Alibaba’s plan to bring $20 billion worth of international goods to China over the next five years.