Alibaba CEO Eyes $4 Trillion Offline Market by Being Middleman
- Zhang says cloud unit could help brands react in real time
- Unit’s revenue surged 156 percent with push into U.S., Japan
This article is for subscribers only.
After taking control of China’s online shopping market, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. wants to bring the business of instant feedback to a brick-and-mortar sector that’s 10 times bigger.
The nation’s biggest e-commerce company is building a network that would allow physical stores -- and the brands they sell -- to monitor transactions as they happen, Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang said. That data then would be used to adjust inventories more quickly in response to demand, an undertaking that now requires several layers of reporting between the store and the brand.