FDBusiness.com

Unilever, the global food, home and personal care products group, has entered a comprehensive strategic partnership with Alibaba Group that will enable Unilever to reach customers across China with unprecedented precision and effectiveness through Alibaba’s data-driven ecosystem. Key areas of collaboration include rural China penetration, cross-border e-commerce, consumer protection and Big Data.

Alibaba Group is the largest online and mobile commerce company in the world in terms of gross merchandise volume.

“Alibaba has changed the shopping habit of Chinese consumers. Its mission is to make it easy to do business everywhere, and its vision is to build the future infrastructure of commerce. This meets the Unilever’s development needs in China,” says Marijn Van Tiggelen, Unilever North Asia President. “Alibaba is the leading internet company in China, with the most innovative thinking. It’s not only an online store, but also a solution platform for online payment, e-finance, and e-commerce logistics. In cooperation with Alibaba, Unilever can provide more convenient services to consumers in China.”

This agreement is a major milestone for a partnership that started five years ago with a single Tmall store, which has since grown steadily on a solid foundation of mutual trust and success over the years.

“We are very pleased to amplify our partnership with an industry leader such as Unilever,” says Daniel Zhang, Chief Executive Officer of Alibaba Group. “We look forward to building on our success in sales over the years and taking the collaboration to the next level. Moving forward, Alibaba Group and Unilever will jointly innovate in Big Data analytics application, cross-border e-commerce, and supply chain management. In this rapidly changing business landscape, we are committed to continually provide greater value to merchants and better experiences to shoppers.”