HANGZHOU: March 21, 2018. Alibaba’s Tmall Global BtC platform is to open six new procurement centers to help vendors meet the ever-growing Chinese demand for imported goods.

The facilities will be set up in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, North America, Europe and Oceania said president Jet Jing.

Launched in 2014, Tmall Global is a dedicated channel for cross-border e-commerce that leverages Alibaba’s consumer analytics to provide vendors a periscope into Chinese consumers’ shopping preferences.

China is currently the world’s second-largest consumer market after the US according to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and is expected to add nearly US$2 trillion in new consumption to its economy by 2021.

BCG also projects China’s e-commerce cross-border trade to more than double to RMB 620 billion (US$98 billion) in gross merchandise volume by 2019, from RMB 305.5 billion in 2016.

“This year, we are committed to offer our overseas merchants more personalized and customized solutions so they can receive faster and more direct assistance from the platform, which enable them to accelerate their growth in China,” Jing said.

Such information also helps various governments to better assist local SME vendors, he added.

Tmall Global currently offers Chinese consumers over 18,000 brands from 74 countries and regions. One of them is Maserati that has become the first automaker to leverage Alibaba’s smart technology by integrating two dealerships in Shanghai and Beijing with its online presence on the Tmall platform.

The  manufacturer says the goal is to better target its marketing campaigns and tailor service for each customer visiting a dealership.

“Linking the online and offline and understanding our customers is the priority for a brand such as ours,” commented Maserati China CEO Alberto Cavaggioni. “Everything is driven by having the customer at the center, making sure we can deliver something he or she cannot experience anywhere else.”