Alibaba urges Aussie firms to embrace new tech

The recently officially established Alibaba Group Australia and New Zealand, the local subsidiary of Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group, has urged Australian businesses to embrace new digital platforms and technologies to drive international e-commerce growth.

The subsidiary’s managing director, Maggie Zhou, presented at the City of Sydney’s Future Asia Business Summit on Thursday. She said there has never been a better time to be an Australian brand or retailer.

“Technology is a powerful enabler and has given local businesses unprecedented access to global markets. Sydney and the rest of Australia is renowned for its quality of life and through e-commerce consumers all over the world can buy the products that make this possible,” she said.

Alibaba Group established its Australia and New Zealand headquarters in Melbourne earlier this month, in a move designed to facilitate more cross-border sales by local retailers over Alibaba’s massive online shopfronts.

Zhou called on Australian retailers to embrace the trend towards the convergence of entertainment, media, payments and shopping.

“I know some Australian businesses, particularly retailers, may be nervous about disruption and nervous about large, global players entering this market. However, Alibaba is here to partner with local businesses and build their brands in China and beyond,” she said.

With sales of over 3 billion Chinese yuan ($567.4 billion) in 2016, Alibaba is the world’s largest retailer, she said.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the digital economy presents strong opportunities for businesses looking to tap into rapidly growing Asian markets, and that the summit was an ideal opportunity to explore how to maximise these opportunities.

“Initiatives such as today’s summit are part of our work to ensure that Sydney is a supportive business environment and that our most talented companies and the entrepreneurs behind them can grow their business right here in Sydney,” he said.

Austrade GM of International Operations David Landers, who appeared on a panel Q&A session at the event, said there are also great opportunities for Australian service providers to find new business in the increasingly sophisticated Asian markets.

“Australia’s exports of modern business services — including financial services — to ASEAN countries have increased at an average annual rate of 12.1% over the past 10 years. This is an important indicator of Australia’s future potential to sell larger volumes of modern business services into Asia,” he said.

Pictured: Alibaba Australia and New Zealand Managing Director Maggie Zhou.

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