Alibaba launches “Fliggy Buy” shopping service for Chinese travellers

Alibaba Group’s travel service platform, Fliggy, has launched its “Fliggy Buy” service, a new shopping channel for Chinese travellers to browse and buy goods on Fliggy before reaching their destination, picking them up in stores after they arrive. Prior to an overseas trip, Chinese customers can access detailed information and buyers’ reviews about products through Fliggy Buy. Customers are able to browse features, check stock, and compare prices across different merchants before committing to an online purchase. Online customer service is also available on the platform. Merchants on Fliggy Buy will include duty-free and tax-free stores, both overseas and within mainland China, including international brands, and speciality local stores. Furla Hong Kong and Laox of Japan have already joined this channel. “Duty-free and tax-free stores are our focus during the first phase of rollout, as they are the most visited shopping and consumption venues amongst Chinese outbound tourists. Our next step is to enrich the product categories on Fliggy Buy and recruit more overseas merchants to include high-end luxury brands, household electronics sellers, as well as pharmacy and cosmetics stores, assisting them to reach more Chinese consumers,” said Roman Zhu, head of Fliggy Buy at Fliggy. The new service echoes Alibaba’s “Global Fun” strategy, which promotes international travel for Chinese tourists by working with industry players to build direct relationships with Chinese consumers while providing the tourists richer experiences when abroad. According to Fliggy’s insights, it shows an upward tendency of Chinese travellers spending overseas, as the average spending of these travellers grew 9% year-on-year in 2018. With the growing purchasing power of Chinese outbound travellers, opportunities are appearing for brands and retailers to pounce on. “Fliggy is committed to making it easy to conduct travel business in the digital era. The launch of Fliggy Buy represents our latest move to work with merchants targeting the vast numbers of tourists from China to develop innovative solutions and offer them targeted customer traffic. Our aim is also to embrace the potential of digital technology and provide a holistic travel experience encompassing food, accommodation, transportation, sightseeing, shopping and entertainment,” Zhu said.