More than 5,100 buyers and sellers congregated in Melbourne over the weekend to attend the Alibaba eCommerce Expo, one of the largest events for Australian SMEs seeking to do business in China.
Held at The Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre from October 13 to 14, the Expo saw over 500 brands engage in workshops and information sessions.
The event aimed to explore the cross-border export opportunities provided by Alibaba and its third-party partners.
Alibaba’s ‘Five Globals’ strategy was outlined at the event, featuring the five areas deemed crucial to building and developing the international infrastructure that will enable SMEs to succeed in China; global buy, global sell, global logistics, global pay and global travel.
A distinguishing feature of the event was the strong digital and new media component that leveraged popular social influencers and live streaming events to reach tens of thousands of buyers in China.
Eight Taobao Merchandisers engaged in livestreaming events throughout the day to help launch 12 brands into the Chinese market for the first time. These brands reached an audience of more than 200,000 consumers.
Popular Australian Weibo influencer David Gulasi was also among the keynote speakers at the event and he spoke passionately about the need for brands to engage the right influencers.
“If there’s one thing I know from the decade I have spent working in China, it’s that entering the Chinese market can be a difficult task. To succeed, brands need the right marketing strategies and an influencer that reflects the brand personality. Chinese buyers want a brand experience, not just the product.”
Today, Alibaba has more than 529 million mobile monthly active users and there are more than 1,300 Australian brands on Alibaba’s Tmall and Tmall Global platforms with another 400 brands from New Zealand.