HANGZHOU, China--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Representing a record-breaking year, the number of China-based consumers shopping U.S. brands online over the holiday season has increased 7 times over last year, according to Ant Financial Services Group’s Alipay, which enables leading U.S. brands and retailers to easily sell and ship directly to customers in China through its Alipay ePass cross-border e-commerce solution. The result was uncovered as part of Alipay’s early holiday shopping review conducted from November 17th through November 30th, when the Company also found that total sales from China-based consumers purchasing U.S. products through Alipay ePass increased 15 times versus last year.
Interestingly, Millennials represented the largest group of consumers, replacing the middle class as China’s strongest online shopping segment for cross-border purchases. Topping the list were shoppers born in the 90s, with 34% of the shoppers born after the 90s (which increased 3 times over last year), closely following those born in the 80s. Shoppers were predominantly female (70%), with fashion, beauty, baby products and health & wellness categories representing 75% of total transactions. Further, 80% of total transactions were made by new Alipay ePass users. Overall, the most consumption took place in Shanghai and Beijing, followed by Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang.
“Among the savviest shoppers in the world, Chinese consumers are continuously seeking high quality U.S. products and Western merchandise that they can’t find in China,” said Jingming Li, President, Alipay US. “With better logistics and localized payment options now available to make cross-border purchases, we expect this tremendous growth of Chinese consumers to continue throughout the holiday season, particularly as U.S. e-commerce retailers provide more discounts and promotions.”
Launched in September 2014, the Alipay ePass program is a cross-border e-commerce solution that enables U.S. brands and retailers to sell directly to Chinese consumers using localized payments and direct shipping. Through the program, Alipay’s 400 million registered users in China can shop its retail partners’ full online assortments at the same retail prices offered to U.S. consumers, while receiving Alipay’s fast, reasonably priced shipping, customs clearance, and door-to-door delivery anywhere in China. Further, Alipay ePass removes all currency and logistics barriers, providing Chinese consumers a convenient shopping experience that is easy, safe and consistent with what they know and trust. For more information on Alipay ePass, please contact: alipayus@list.alibaba-inc.com.
About Ant Financial
Ant Financial Services Group is focused on serving small and micro enterprises as well as consumers. With the vision “to turn trust into wealth,” Ant Financial is dedicated to building an open ecosystem of Internet thinking and technologies while working with other financial institutions to support the future financial needs of society. Businesses operated by Ant Financial Services Group include Alipay, Ant Fortune, Yu’e Bao, Zhao Cai Bao, Ant Micro Loan, Sesame Credit and MYbank.
About Alipay
Alipay is the world’s leading third-party payment platform, with 400 million registered users and more than 200 financial institution partners. With mobile payments accounting for more than half of Alipay’s over 120 million transactions per day, the company most recently launched Alipay 9.2 as its latest smartphone app. In addition to traditional online payment functions such as online shopping, money transfers, and utility bills, Alipay is expanding its applications to include wealth management services, and provides local services to over 200,000 restaurants, shops and offline merchants. As of October 2015, Alipay’s barcode payment is accepted in about 50,000 oversea retail stores, and tax reimbursements via Alipay are supported in 24 countries.
