AliExpress customer group analysis and market development trends

Before discussing the target customers of “AliExpress”, it is crucial to understand its development history. Initially, “AliExpress” focused on online small foreign trade wholesale, mainly attracting the participation of small foreign merchants, including small wholesale and purchasing activities. As time goes by, especially since 2012, “AliExpress” has begun to transform, and its business volume has grown rapidly. In January 2013, the platform’s transaction volume increased 4.2 times year-on-year, and set a single-month transaction volume record since its establishment in 2010, exceeding the previous full-year transaction volume.

In 2013, the “AliExpress” platform under Alibaba Group clearly announced that it would transform from a small-amount online foreign trade wholesale platform into an overseas-oriented shopping platform, the “International Taobao”. At this time, “AliExpress” has targeted its target customer groups at overseas individual consumers, especially focusing on emerging markets with potential such as Russia, India, and Brazil. According to data in February 2014, the main markets of “AliExpress” remain in the United States and BRICS countries such as Russia and Brazil. At the same time, 20 to 30 emerging markets have gradually emerged on the platform. For example, Israel’s transaction volume has increased five times, and Spain’s transaction volume has increased four times. In addition, some Eastern European countries have gradually formed a second echelon and begun to import large quantities of Chinese consumer goods.

Currently, the composition of buyers on AliExpress has shown new characteristics, with 65% of the buyers being individual consumers and 35% being small merchants. This means that on “AliExpress”, retail and wholesale buyers coexist, showing the diversity and complexity of the platform’s customer base. This strategy of transformation and market segmentation has given “AliExpress” more opportunities and challenges in global competition.