Alibaba to allow global wine producers to ship and sell wine direct to Chinese consumers through its website

Alibaba, China's biggest online retailer, is giving global wine producers and distributrors direct access to Chinese online consumers with a new wine service on its site.

The new Wine Direct platform will potentiallly allow bulk wine and major wine suppliers to ship wine to China to be bottled in the country and then sent to Allibaba's warehouses for direct shipment to consumers.

Or if already bottled, the wine can be sent direct to Alibaba for immediate distribution to its consumers.

The breakthrough move was announced this week at Chateau Senailhac in Bordeaux, the headquarters of Cellar Privilege, a Bordeaux négociant part-owned by Jack Ma, reported by Decanter China.

Sebastian Badault of Alibaba France said:  "Alibaba is building a platform to help educate consumers about the culture of wine and to be a bridge between them and wine producers across the world."

China's online market is booming and was worth US$610billion in 2015, up from US$20billion in 2008. Online now acccounts for 11.5% of all retail purchases in China.

But is set to grow even more as the size of the Chinese middle class increases from current levels of around 300 million.  

Edith Huang of the newly-formed Direct Import division that sits within the TMall part of Alibaba, said producers will be able to set up their own pages on the site. It will be up to producers to get their own wine in to China and to the Alibaba warehouses. 

It is hoped the new system will also help Alibaba and producers get round the issue of counterfeiting which is still rife across the Chinese wine market. The new site is being marketed at both mainstream and high-end wines, hence why the European launch was held at a Bordeaux chateau.  

"We have seen searches for wines rise within Alibaba and wanted to respond to that," said Badault.

To work on the site producers, merchants and importers must agree to payment made on sale of the wine, not in advance. Upfront costs are mainly limited to transport to China, Alibaba's warehouses and correct labelling. There is no fee for actually using the service, as Alibaba works on a commission basis of around 2% per sale.

Over the next decade, Alibaba intends to recruit two billion customers worldwide, and help 10 million small and medium businesses outside of China to reach Chinese consumers, reports Decanter China. 

A special ‘9/9’ Wine Festival Day is be launched on September 9 2016 to help promote and launch the new wine programme to Chinese consumers.