Alibaba invests in fashion platform Mei.com

The Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has invested in Mei.com, China’s leading flash sales platform for luxury and fashion products. Alibaba will profit from Mei.com's wide selection of luxury brands, especially for its B2C platform Tmall.com, while Mei.com will be able to enhance its supply chain services with Alibaba's help.

“Alibaba Group’s ecosystem and its multi-level cross-platform retail services will be further enhanced with our investment in Mei.com. We hope that Mei.com will exert its advantages to create synergy with Tmall in providing more premium luxury goods to consumers. At the same time, Alibaba will help Mei.com and other brand partners enter our ecosystem to allow more efficiency in helping them locate consumer groups, conduct brand marketing and establish an online supply chain system”, said Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba Group.

Alibaba plans to form a specialised service team to support Mei.com’s development and help grow its user base, brand cooperation base, logistic services and IT infrastructure services, the company said in a statement.

“We are very pleased to receive this strategic investment from Alibaba Group. The two parties complement each other and together with Tmall, we will bring premium and trusted genuine brands to consumers. In the future, we see a significant opportunity to provide enhanced shopping experiences for Chinese customers in search of affordable fashion and luxury products”, commented Thibault Villet, founder and CEO of Mei.com.

Mei.com follows an online flash sales business model where online shoppers can avail of limited time offers on luxury goods. Each sales event starts at 9 am and promotes genuine goods at significantly reduced prices. Currently, Mei.com cooperates with more than 280 international brands like Armani, Zegna and Michael Kors. Similar to Tmall.com's model, Mei.com also works directly with international brands or official brand distributors.