Deals

Alibaba Prepares a Grand Retail Experiment for This Singles’ Day

More than 600,000 mom-and-pop shops getting a system upgrade
The Chinese e-commerce titan dives deep into physical retail

Cainioa Network President Wan Lin talks about the company gearing up for Alibaba’s singles day.(Source: Bloomberg)

Provide news feedback or report an error

Confidential tip?

Send a tip to our reporters

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

By Lulu Yilun Chen

November 8, 2017 at 10:00 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Jack Ma beat Jeff Bezos into grocery stores. Now China’s richest man is again showing his rival the way by targeting 6 million mom-and-pop shops, the biggest test yet of a vision to reinvent physical retail.

Ma’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is prepping for Singles’ Day -- an annual Nov. 11 online shopping fiesta dwarfing Black Friday and Cyber Monday that Citigroup Inc. estimates could generate a record 158 billion yuan ($24 billion) of sales. This year comes with a twist: the e-commerce titan has enlisted 10 percent of China’s convenience stores, about 600,000 outlets, to hawk goods and get billions of parcels shipped to customers nationwide.