Retail News Asia has released new sales data from AliExpress, the online retail platform founded in 2010 and part of the Alibaba Group that enables small businesses in China and other countries to offer international products to online shoppers. The data shows growing demand for winter sports products, which AliExpress attributes to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and the generally rising popularity of winter sports worldwide.
AliExpress saw a 60 percent year-on-year increase in sales of winter sports products in the fourth quarter of 2021, with more and more customers looking for more fashionable ski gear. Products with technical features such as heated ski gloves were particularly in demand, with sales of such gloves increasing 780-fold year-on-year in Q4 2021. However, a comparative figure for units sold in the previous year was not provided. Top-selling winter sports items on AliExpress included ski helmets, snowboard sets, ski pants, ski gloves and ski goggles. In particular, sales of ski helmets on AliExpress increased 1500 percent year-on-year in Q4 2021. AliExpress sees no slowdown in the trend and predicts that 2022 will be a milestone for its platform’s winter sports equipment market.
The top five markets buying winter sports equipment on AliExpress include Russia, the U.S., South Korea, France and Spain. With AliExpress operating in over 200 countries and regions around the globe, customers in Iceland, Chile and other remote areas are gaining traction on the platform. In this regard, AliExpress points to its well-developed logistics ecosystem. The price-performance ratio of ski equipment has proved particularly advantageous for French and Spanish customers. For example, sales of ski goggles and ski gloves in Spain increased by 100 percent and 53 percent, respectively, compared to the previous year. In France, customers opt for a double-layer ski jacket, resulting in 72 percent year-on-year growth for this item. More and more customers from South Korea are buying ski gloves and double-layer ski jackets on AliExpress for their ski adventures in Asia.
AliExpress says it is committed to providing faster and more efficient cross-border delivery with its resilient cross-border e-commerce ecosystem. It consists of seven domestic selection warehouses in China, nine automated sorting centers in China, overseas warehouses, and over 80 charter flights per week. In partnership with Cainiao Smart Logistics Network Limited, formerly known as China Smart Logistics Network, a logistics company founded in 2013 by Alibaba Group together with eight other companies, AliExpress currently offers a 10-business-day delivery time for select cross-border orders in Spain and France, 12-business days for Brazil, and five business days for South Korea. Since 2020, AliExpress and Cainiao have also actively built overseas warehouses to improve the capacity and efficiency of cross-border logistics networks. Local shipments can be delivered within three days in Spain and France and within seven days in the rest of Europe. A network of more than 20,000 self-pickup service points has been established in Spain, France, Poland and Russia, combining AliExpress lockers operated by Cainiao with pickup points operated by local partners.
In parallel with this news, the U.S. Trade Representative’s office (USTR) has added AliExpress as well as WeChat (Tencent Holdings) to the U.S. government’s latest list of “notorious markets” that allegedly sell or facilitate the sale of counterfeit goods. The list includes 42 online markets and 35 physical markets that reportedly engage in or facilitate significant trademark or copyright piracy. China-based online markets Baidu Wangpan, DHGate, Pinduoduo and Taobao also remain on the list, as do nine physical markets in China suspected of manufacturing, distributing and selling counterfeit goods, the USTR office said. Alibaba said it would continue to work with government authorities to address concerns about intellectual property protection on its platforms.
