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Category: E-Tailing

Retail News Asia is committed to providing both local and global retailers with the latest E-Commerce & Etail news throughout the Asian market. This on a daily base.

  • Amazon set to launch luxury stores

    Amazon set to launch luxury stores

    Amazon has launched an invitation-only luxury fashion and beauty brand portal called Luxury Stores, with Oscar de la Renta as its first partner.

    The company said more brands will launch at Luxury Stores in the coming weeks and seasons. For now, the platform is available only to US Prime members.

    Accessible via the Amazon app, the store features interactive technology allowing customers to have a 360-degree view of products. Featuring a “store-in-store” concept, Luxury Stores allows brands to set their own pricing, selection, inventory, and content.

    “We are always listening to and learning from our customers, and we are inspired by feedback from Prime members who want the ability to shop their favorite luxury brands in Amazon’s store,” said Christine Beauchamp, president of Amazon Fashion.

    “It’s still Day One, and we look forward to growing Luxury Stores, innovating on behalf of our customers, and opening a new door for designers all over the world to access existing and new luxury customers.”

    As the first brand to open a store in Luxury Stores, American fashion house Oscar de la Renta offers a range of ready-to-wear, accessories, and jewelry, including its Fall/Winter 2020  Collection. The brand and Amazon have also launched a video starring Cara Delevingne to promote the campaign.

    “We admire Amazon’s customer-centric focus and look forward to telling our brand’s story in compelling and engaging ways to even more customers through the Luxury Stores experience,” said Alex Bolen, CEO of Oscar de la Renta.

  • Online platform ready to recover lost Malaysia Airports retail earnings

    Online platform ready to recover lost Malaysia Airports retail earnings

    Malaysia Airports Holdings has launched a travel retail e-commerce platform shopMYairports, aiming to recover some US$67 million from sales lost through its airport network due to passenger volumes plummeting.

    Still smarting from the loss of $671 million in revenues from retail in the year prior to the advent of Covid-19, the airport operator is hoping for significant potential growth from the initiative, which is part of a broader Airports 4.0 plan for digital transformation to enhance passenger retail experiences and support the recovery of its airport retail tenants.

    The move serves to allow consumers to buy travel-exclusive and duty-absorbed products online, having purchases delivered directly to their homes.

    “The launch of shopMYairports is an important step in our journey to make our airports future-ready,” said group CEO Datuk Mohd Shukrie Mohd Salleh.

    “As Malaysia’s main airport operator, we have to ensure that we remain agile and relevant while navigating within a fast-changing consumer landscape.”

    Future services available on the platform are expected to include click-and-collect services, allowing travelers to pick up purchases at designated airport counters, and concierge services to deliver products to passengers’ boarding gate or aircraft seat.

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  • Singapore startup helps companies pivot to online marketplaces during virus outbreak

    Singapore startup helps companies pivot to online marketplaces during virus outbreak

    Techsembly, a Singapore technology startup, is securing clients worldwide after developing a Software-as-a-Service platform allowing businesses to replicate a curated and customized in-store shopping experience online.

    The three entrepreneurs who founded Techsembly have a background in e-commerce and online retailing and built their own Gifts Less Ordinary marketplace into a million-dollar business. They recognized a need among companies forced to pivot their business due to the Covid-19 pandemic to maintain sales at a time it may be impossible for customers to interact in person.

    “The retail industry is at an inflection point and we are increasingly seeing the emergence of new players who are changing the rules of the game,” explains Techsembly co-founder and CEO Amy Read.

    “Businesses, whether they are retailers, media or hotels, are all impacted by the Covid-19 crisis, and marketplaces have become the new normal – already accounting for more than 56 percent of all online sales. Some industry experts are predicting that will increase to 80 percent in the future.”

    But many businesses who know they have to move online are daunted by the cost and logistics of building their own marketplace and concerned how it might integrate with their existing online experience.

    That’s where Techsembly comes in – and the company has recently signed three significant clients as customer partners: Boutique Fairs Singapore (BFS), Anglo-American fashion platform Not Just a Label, and luxury accommodation provider The Peninsula Hotel Group.

    BFS is regarded as one of the leading calendar events in Singapore, taking place bi-annually at the F1 Pit Building, attracting more than 300 local designers and artisans and 37,000 visitors per event. With social-distancing requirements due to Covid-19 forcing the cancellation of the latest edition of the fair, the company recognized the need to pivot online quickly to serve both vendors and visitors.

    In a matter of weeks, BFS was able to launch an online marketplace featuring 200 local brands and 4000 products by partnering with Techsembly.

    Charlotte Cain, Founder of Boutique Fairs Singapore, said the company needed a solution that combined offline experiences with online shopping through the launch of an e-commerce marketplace immediately.

    Not Just A Label (NJAL), another Techsembly client, is a design platform based in California and a UK-based designer showcasing and nurturing today’s pioneers in contemporary fashion. NJAL needed to pivot its business from a B2B to B2C model at the height of the pandemic. Not Just A Label operates the largest global network of contemporary fashion designers, having access to 4 million styles designed by more than 40,000 independent and emerging creative designers.

    NJAL, like BFS, reacted quickly to the global crisis by adopting a new strategy to provide a capital-light and highly profitable sales channel, thus saving a generation of emerging designers and brands that were impacted by the downfall of the brick-and-mortar retail sector during the pandemic. Many designers on the NJAL platform are also now moving to ‘Made to Order’ to increase sustainability, with more than 60 percent of items on the marketplace now carrying a made to order label.

    NJAL founder Stefan Siegel said using Techsembly’s solution allows NJAL to have multiple localized storefronts through one centralized platform, ensuring each regional storefront can be tailored to the needs of the local audience.

    Amy Read says the experiences of these companies underline the importance of moving quickly to embrace online trends and implement solutions to stay competitive.

    “This shift is not just limited to the fashion and retail industry, but many other businesses, including hotels and media outlets, are also looking to pivot and find new innovative ways to support their customers and generate additional revenue streams and value, without investing in inventory or new builds.”

    The Peninsula Hotels, like many other hospitality providers, has suffered significant a decline in turnover as a result of the global pandemic closing borders and social-distancing requirements limiting events and dining out. The firm launched a marketplace solution that allows for global sales of gift cards and experiences. As a result, despite their hotels having to remain closed, they were able to generate supplementary revenue for those customers wishing to give and purchase ‘experiences’ they could look forward to.

    “Marketplaces allow businesses to innovate and grow without the risk of holding stock, to support their local suppliers and replicate the mall experience online. This omnichannel approach is the future of modern retailing,” explains Read.

  • Alibaba.com initiative helps Vietnamese SMEs venture abroad

    Alibaba.com initiative helps Vietnamese SMEs venture abroad

    Alibaba.com, the global B2B e-commerce platform of Alibaba Group, launched a landmark initiative Monday to help companies in Vietnam go online and reach an enormous pool of qualified global buyers.

    As an international extension of the 2020 Spring Thunder program initiated by Alibaba Group, Alibaba.com’s ‘Project Sprout Up’ is a timely and tailored digital solution aimed at helping local SMEs compete through digitization amid the re-surfacing Covid-19 epidemic in Vietnam.

    The initiative will support Vietnamese SMEs in three key areas – faster onboarding onto the Alibaba.com platform for establishing a global reach, access to solutions designed to accelerate business growth, and tailored services to help SMEs deepen their online trade capabilities. These tailor-made services and a specially developed local program are bespoke to Vietnamese sellers on the Alibaba.com platform.

    “Vietnam has been gaining a strong reputation amongst global buyers with its manufacturing capabilities, high-quality products, competitive pricing and focus on exports. While the B2C segment has adopted e-commerce more instinctively, some entrepreneurs have also established global B2B trading using digital channels,” said Zhang Kuo, general manager of Alibaba.com.

    “This year even more businesses have felt the need for sustainable business models. We believe that global trade through B2B e-commerce can provide that opportunity and enable more SMEs to recover and even generate sustained growth,” Kuo added.

    A survey by Alibaba.com shows 65 percent of global buyers are now using online platforms to source products in place of on-site visits. There are now more than 20 million active buyers from over 190 countries and regions and an average of 300,000 inquiries made daily for goods ranging from raw materials to finished products on the platform. Over 600,000 products from Vietnamese sellers are currently listed on the Alibaba.com platform, including items from key local industries like food & beverage, furniture, home & garden, agriculture, and apparel.

    Alibaba Group’s 2020 Spring Thunder initiative was launched in April 2020 by Daniel Zhang, Chairman, and CEO of Alibaba Group. The program deploys the power of commerce and technology Alibaba Group has harnessed over the past two decades to create new supply chains, stimulate new demand, and promote new trade through a series of key measures.

    As an extension to this initiative, Alibaba.com’s ‘Project Sprout Up’ aims to help SME suppliers in Vietnam create sustainable business models through customized solutions.

    As part of the ‘Project Sprout Up’ initiative, Alibaba.com will offer its suppliers a complete 90-day onboarding service covering a range of features including online store set-up, support on product postings, understanding of keyword advertising, and support on traffic management and inquiries.

    This is backed by the use of AI to match buyers and sellers rapidly and more accurately on the Alibaba.com platform, coupled with the sheer number of inquiries each day from buyers around the world.

    With the aim of facilitating digital transformation awareness across the country, enabling local SMEs, and helping them to recover, the Alibaba.com platform has identified several changes in global consumer trends. The changes include increasing acceptance of e-commerce and the emergence of new e-commerce models, growing focus on health awareness led consumption, the popularity of products suited for in-home consumption while oriented towards value and purpose-driven consumption.

    Understanding these trends can create significant opportunities for Vietnamese sellers in the global arena. To give SMEs more confidence when participating in global trade, Alibaba.com will make it’s Smart Marketing Solution, an intelligent keyword advertising tool, available to suppliers in Vietnam.

    The tool draws on insights from the platform and AI algorithms to help suppliers market their products with intelligent pricing without additional labor or investment required. This solution will also enable businesses to understand the demand for a product category, offer pricing suggestions for their keyword bids to acquire new customer traffic and fine-tune their business strategies via a simple and basic interface, even for businesses new to the Alibaba.com platform.

    Vietnam has weathered the Covid-19 pandemic relatively well recently, however, one of the biggest challenges facing Vietnamese SMEs today is the lack of online trading skills.

    To address the issue, Alibaba.com will offer tailor-made training programs, which will highlight adaptable practices for all kinds of enterprise structures. Through systematic customer training sessions and service support programs, the ‘Project Sprout Up’ initiative will aim to create a successful roadmap for its members.

    Alibaba.com has been enabling the growth of SMEs since 1999 with tools designed specifically for B2B trade. Supplier members on the Alibaba.com platform are entitled to a suite of tools and services including a customized digital storefront, buyer analytics, targeted advertising, and support in the form of online courses as well as live customer support, among others.

    SMEs interested in learning more about ‘Project Sprout Up’ can click here to fill in a survey, after which a representative of Alibaba.com will reach out with further details.

    The first business of Alibaba Group, Alibaba.com was China’s largest integrated international online wholesale marketplace in 2019 by revenue, according to Analysys.

    It connects Chinese and overseas suppliers to international wholesale buyers, who are typically trading agents, wholesalers, retailers, manufacturers, and SMEs engaged in the import and export business. It provides them sourcing, online transaction, digital marketing, digital supply chain fulfillment, and financial services.

    In the 12 months ending March 31, 2020, over 20 million buyers from approximately 190 countries had sourced business opportunities or completed transactions on Alibaba.com.

  • JD teams with brands to launch an organic alliance

    JD teams with brands to launch an organic alliance

    JD’s online supermarket JD Super has formed an organic alliance with brands trading on its platform.

    More than 10 companies, including domestic and international ones, have joined the alliance, including Milk Deluxe, Bellamy’s, Abbott, Anchor, and Gerber.

    Under the alliance, JD Super and other members will work together with government bodies, channel merchants, and inspection institutes to collectively build an “organic traceability” mechanism, which records information about product life cycles, according to JD.

    “JD hopes to establish an organic industry ecosystem through the optimisation of industry standards for organic products as well a wide range of support for organic brands to grow their appeal among Chinese consumers,” the company said in a statement.

    JD Super will also support the organic alliance’s members with organic labeling and to develop the platform.

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  • Tmall seeks to boost engagement with Chinese Gen Z luxury consumers

    Tmall seeks to boost engagement with Chinese Gen Z luxury consumers

    High-end Chinese e-commerce platform Tmall Luxury has implemented new features to boost its brands’ appeal for Gen Z consumers in the region.

    The three new features include a daily live streaming service on luxury topics, a content-rich magazine channel featuring fashion news, and an upgraded membership program offering personalized services. The features are a response to the strong spending power for luxury items exhibited by consumers within the Gen Z age group, spending on average US$3600 annually on high-end goods.

    Data collected by Tmall Luxury shows that four-fifths of its user base are below the age of 35, with the number of luxury consumers aged 18–25 age group more than doubling between July 2018 and June last year. The emerging consumer dynamic has attracted top brands in the category such as Valentino and Balenciaga to collaborate with the platform.

    “By providing Tmall’s unparalleled analytics and insights on luxury consumption in China, we empower luxury brands with a deeper and more accurate understanding of local consumer preferences,” said Alibaba VP and GM of Tmall luxury, fashion and FMCG Mike Hu. “These insights allow luxury brands to precisely tailor their communications to Chinese young audiences while staying true to their brand identities.”

    Almost 200 brands have opened flagship stores on the Tmall Luxury platform.

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  • Zalora selects regional chief people officer

    Zalora selects regional chief people officer

    Online fashion platform Zalora has appointed Louise Pender as chief people officer, essentially a head of HR role.

    With the new role, Pender will oversee “the people and culture teams” across all markets, the online retailer said in a statement. She will also be responsible for human resources functions, including talent acquisition, talent development, workforce planning and strategic business partnering.

    “Louise is a leader with a record of building and empowering high performing teams,” said Gunjan Soni, CEO of Zalora. “Her career has centered around her passion for helping organizations and individuals reach their full potential. Since joining Zalora in March 2016, Louise has championed a number of People initiatives, including diversity and inclusion.”

    She will concurrently head the Legal and Sustainability team, in her existing role as Zalora’s General Counsel, according to the company.

    Prior to Zalora, Louise worked in senior roles at United Group Services and Siemens in Australia, Gate Group Holdings in Switzerland, and Gate Gourmet Inc in the USA. She has more than 20 years of experience in legal and business advice after graduating with a law degree in her native New Zealand.

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  • Tmall seeks to boost engagement with Chinese Gen Z luxury consumers

    Tmall seeks to boost engagement with Chinese Gen Z luxury consumers

    High-end Chinese e-commerce platform Tmall Luxury has implemented new features to boost its brands’ appeal for Gen Z consumers in the region.

    The three new features include a daily live streaming service on luxury topics, a content-rich magazine channel featuring fashion news, and an upgraded membership program offering personalized services. The features are a response to the strong spending power for luxury items exhibited by consumers within the Gen Z age group, spending on average US$3600 annually on high-end goods.

    Data collected by Tmall Luxury shows that four-fifths of its user base are below the age of 35, with the number of luxury consumers aged 18–25 age group more than doubling between July 2018 and June last year. The emerging consumer dynamic has attracted top brands in the category such as Valentino and Balenciaga to collaborate with the platform.

    “By providing Tmall’s unparalleled analytics and insights on luxury consumption in China, we empower luxury brands with a deeper and more accurate understanding of local consumer preferences,” said Alibaba VP and GM of Tmall luxury, fashion, and FMCG Mike Hu. “These insights allow luxury brands to precisely tailor their communications to Chinese young audiences while staying true to their brand identities.”

    Almost 200 brands have opened flagship stores on the Tmall Luxury platform.

  • Alibaba thrives after emerging from virus challenges

    Alibaba thrives after emerging from virus challenges

    Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group’s revenue soared 34 percent to US$21.762 billion in the June quarter as the company emerged strongly from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in its home market.

    “Our domestic core commerce business has fully recovered to pre-Covid-19 levels across the board, while cloud computing revenue grew 59 percent year-on-year,” CFO Maggie Wu said in a statement.

    “We delivered a very strong start to our new fiscal year.”

    Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders was $6.736 billion, exceeding analysts’ estimates and justifying the 23-per-cent rise in the group’s stock value so far this year.

    Chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang said the company is well placed to take advantage of the ongoing digital transformation which has been sped up by the pandemic.

    “We mobilized our entire digital infrastructure to support the economic recovery of businesses across a wide range of sectors while broadening and diversifying our consumer base by addressing their changing preferences in a post-Covid-19 environment,” he said.

    The company reported 874 million mobile monthly active users on its Chinese digital marketplaces in June which represented an increase of 28 million, quarter on quarter.

    In Southeast Asia, Alibaba’s Lazada Group achieved more than 100-per-cent quarter on quarter growth in orders, with general merchandise, FMCG, and electronics the driving categories.

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  • Shopee dominates online shopping in Vietnam

    Shopee dominates online shopping in Vietnam

    Shopee reported a new web traffic record in Vietnam with 52.5 million monthly visits last quarter, exceeding Lazada’s previous record in 2017.

    The Singapore online shopping platform’s numbers exceeded those of the next two put together, Vietnamese companies Mobile World (25.1 million) and Tiki (21.1 million), according to data collated by Malaysian online shopping aggregator iPrice Group.

    Shopee achieved growth of 21.6 percent from the first quarter, while the three behind it, Mobile World, Tiki, and Singapore’s Lazada, saw declines of 6-12 percent.

    In the last quarter of 2017 Lazada reported 50.5 million monthly visits, but since then its numbers have declined — to 18.5 million in the second quarter of this year — as other players grabbed a bigger share of the market.

    Tiki and another homegrown player Sendo informed authorities in June that they planned to merge, but later decided to call off the deal due to disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and disagreements between their shareholders.

    Last year Vietnam’s Internet economy, which has been growing annually at 38 percent since 2015, was estimated to be worth $12 billion.

    It is expected to rise to $43 billion by 2025, according to the “e-Conomy Southeast Asia report 2019” by Google, Singapore investment firm Temasek and U.S. global management consultancy Bain.

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  • JD sales beat estimates as customers move online

    JD sales beat estimates as customers move online

    China’s JD beat analysts’ estimates for quarterly sales, as the firm benefited from a shift in shopping habits of domestic consumers who have largely moved to online ever since the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

    The results coincide with growing tensions between Beijing and Washington. Several Chinese companies are putting off plans for US listings amid tensions between the world’s top two economies, while those listed in New York are seeking to return to exchanges closer to home. In June, JD raised about $3.87 billion in its Hong Kong secondary listing.

    JD executives did not offer any comments on US-China tensions on a conference call with analysts on Monday.

    China, which has under a thousand active Covid-19 cases currently, has largely emerged out of lockdowns but demand is still picking up in many sectors.

    Retail sales in the world’s second-largest economy slipped in July, dashing expectations for a modest rise, as consumers failed to shake off wariness about the coronavirus, while the factory sector’s recovery struggled to pick up the pace.

    The company’s net product revenue, which includes online retail sales, rose 33.5 percent to $25.74 billion in the second quarter.

    Net income attributable to shareholders rose to $2.38 billion from $89.4 million a year earlier.

    The company’s total net revenue rose 33.8 percent to $28.98 billion in the quarter ended June 30.

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  • Amazon India diverts into online medicines sales

    Amazon India diverts into online medicines sales

    Amazon India has opened a digital pharmacy trading in Bangalore in an attempt to grow its market reach in the highly competitive territory.

    The new Amazon Pharmacy service extends the firm’s online offer by trading in prescription and over-the-counter drugs, in a region where restricted medicines can often be purchased without evidence of the prescription. The firm will also trade in traditional remedies and health devices.

    India’s online medications industry operates in an environment where regulations are unclear, and where numerous startup-level firms are operating on a local scale. Amazon moved into the sector in its home market two years ago, purchasing American online pharmacy Pillpack.

    Amazon has recently expanded into food delivery, liquor trading and automobile insurance within the Indian market as part of its expansion moves.

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  • JD outlines aggressive expansion strategy for Mainland China

    JD outlines aggressive expansion strategy for Mainland China

    Chinese e-commerce giant JD is planning on a widespread store network expansion within five years.

    The firm will open 20 E-Space experience stores in first-tier cities, 300 home-appliance flagship stores in prefectural-level cities and 5000 stores in towns and villages by 2025, according to the firm’s senior VP Yan Xiaobing.

    Yan made the announcement at a press conference marking the completion of JD’s full acquisition of home-appliance chain 5Star, commenting that the complete store network “will create a new offline JD”.

    The E-Space stores, known for allowing consumers to try anything in store, will be 50,000–100,000sqm in size, while the home-appliance stores will be 10,000–20,000sqm each.

    5Star, to be renamed JD 5Star, is the third-largest home-appliance chain in the territory, with annual sales of more than US$2.6 billion.

    “The Covid-19 pandemic took its toll on the home appliance industry in the first of this year,” said China Household Electrical Appliances Association director Jiang Feng. “JD’s acquisition of 5Star could play a key role in driving the industry’s transformation.”

  • ShopBack launches cashback reward platform in Vietnam

    ShopBack launches cashback reward platform in Vietnam

    ShopBack’s website and mobile app made their official debut in Vietnam on Saturday, bringing about a smarter way for local online shoppers to “shop, save and discover”. Online shoppers in Vietnam can now earn up to 25 percent cash back from ShopBack Vietnam’s roster of over 150 merchants. These include international and regional brands like Lazada, Shopee, Watsons, Booking.com, Klook and 7-Eleven, as well as local brands Tiki, Sendo, Juno, G Kitchen, Vascara, and Fahasa.

    Founded in 2014, ShopBack, a leading rewards and discovery platform, now serves over 20 million users in nine markets across Asia Pacific. Besides Vietnam, it is also present in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia, and South Korea.

    ShopBack rewards users with cashback across a wide range of categories including general merchandise, travel bookings, fashion, health and beauty, groceries, and food delivery.

    “At ShopBack, one of our six core values is ‘Never Ending Customer Obsession’, and we hope to bring the high-quality ShopBack experience that our users know and love to consumers in Vietnam,” said Josephine Chow, head of expansion at ShopBack.

    Chow added that the increasing number of internet users, rising internet penetration, and a steady increase of the e-commerce share of total retail sales in Vietnam make it a core and high-potential market for the company.

    ShopBack Vietnam was launched in Beta at the end of 2019, and since has acquired over 150 merchants and around 800,000 users. The firm has seen consistent month-on-month growth of over 150 percent in sales and over 150 percent in orders this year. To date, VND4 billion ($172 million) has been given out to ShopBack users in Vietnam.

    Jacky Ha, commercial director, ShopBack Vietnam, said: “With a strong and clear value proposition – to simplify the shopping experience and help users save time and money – ShopBack is well-positioned to attract consumers in Vietnam, especially those looking to cut costs and maximize savings during this challenging period.”

    Ha cited a survey conducted by McKinsey that stated Vietnamese are feeling the impact of Covid-19 on their livelihoods, with some 70 percent expecting to be more careful with their spending going forward.

    “In fact, ShopBack Vietnam has been very well received since its beta launch late last year. We are thrilled to be officially launching ShopBack Vietnam and excited for what’s in store next,” Ha added.

    As part of its 8.8 launch campaign on August 8, 2020, ShopBack Vietnam will be teaming up with selected merchant partners like Lazada, G-kitchen, Watsons, Shopee, Booking.com, and Klook etc. to offer deals exclusive to ShopBack users.

    During the campaign, ShopBack users can earn up to 100 percent cashback during two flash sales. In line with the official launch, ShopBack Vietnam has rolled out new features including a new ‘Coupon’ icon on its homepage, whereby users can click to view a consolidated list of promo codes.

  • Alibaba-backed Best to list delivery business in Hong Kong

    Alibaba-backed Best to list delivery business in Hong Kong

    Alibaba-backed Best Inc is seeking a Hong Kong listing for its express delivery and freight delivery businesses, keen to boost its valuation and establish an investor base closer to China, said three sources with knowledge of the matter.

    The plans by Best, which went public in New York in 2017 and has a market value of US$1.8 billion, are preliminary and the offering size and target valuation have yet to be determined, said the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity as the information was private.

    The Hangzhou-based company, which has been unhappy with its New York valuation, decided not to include smaller units such as its supply chain management and cloud businesses in the Hong Kong listing as seeking a valuation for just the two delivery units would be more straightforward, one of the sources said

    The two units brought in nearly $4 billion in revenue last year, around 80 percent of the company’s overall revenue.

    The move also comes amid escalating geopolitical tensions between the US and China and tightening scrutiny of US-listed Chinese firms. Those uncertainties have prompted a number of Chinese companies to seek a second listing in Hong Kong.

    Best has tapped Credit Suisse and JPMorgan to lead the listing process said the sources. One source said the float could take place as soon as this year.

    Best and the banks declined to comment.

    Alibaba Group Holding, Best’s biggest shareholder, has endorsed the listing plan and would also consider investing in the float, said one of the people.

    The e-commerce giant, which in June increased its stake in Best to 33 percent via a $150 million convertible bond, also declined to comment.

    Alibaba’s interest in the float would mark another effort to gain more say in the world’s biggest logistics market which is rapidly growing but remains highly fragmented.

    Alibaba also has stakes in four other Chinese couriers – STO Express Co, YTO Express Group Co, ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc and Yunda Holding Co

    Best, led by founder and CEO Johnny Chou, a former Google executive, posted a 20.5-per-cent drop in first-quarter revenue from a year earlier and a net loss of $108 million, hit hard by the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic.

    Goldman Sachs is also an investor in Best, according to the Chinese company’s 2019 annual report.

    Best’s shares have fallen 18 percent so far this year. In contrast, the S&P/BNY Mellon China Select ADR Index, which tracks Chinese firms listed in New York, has gained 16 percent over the same period.

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