A poster promoting the upcoming Double 12 shopping festival. (Photo : Getty Images)
Koubei, an online-to-offline e-commerce platform that is backed by Alibaba Group Holdings, is expected to give a sales boost to overseas offline stores, as they provide Internet-based finance to more merchants during the "Double 12" shopping festival on Dec. 12.
More than 70,000 offline stores are expected to participate in the festival, said Koubei.
The offline stores that are participating are from 16 countries and regions, which include the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Thailand, Japan, South Korea and Singapore.
Koubei was established last June by Alibaba and its financial arm, Ant Financial. It became Alibaba's O2O vehicle that competes with the current market leader, Meituan-Dianping, which is backed by Tencent Holdings.
The company said that there will be more than 1 million convenience stores, restaurants, supermarkets, cinemas and gas stations around the country that will be using their platform to offer discounts to customers up to 50 percent if they pay through Alipay, Alibaba's mobile payment platform.
Ant Check Later, an online financial services provided by Ant Financial, is planning to extend loans to consumers in order for them to fund purchases from overseas sellers.
The "Double 12" event is treated as a sequel to the Singles' Day of Alibaba that is held annually on Nov. 11.
Last year, the Double 12 event saw participation from more than 300,000 businesses that have accepted payments for purchases on their store through Alipay.
Samuel Fan, the CEO of Koubei, said: "Offline businesses will be upgraded by Internet technology. Koubei will leverage its own resources and advantages such as its huge number of active users, technology and big data to help merchants enhance the efficiency of every link of production and create added value."
He added that the Internet-based consumer finance will be extended to offline business this 12/12, which includes insurance for consumers for food safety and personal safety. He said that they will also be providing credit services to merchants.
Lu Zhenwang, CEO of Wanqing Consultancy in Shanghai, said: "Alipay hopes to enhance the frequency of its use and users' stickiness at offline stores through Double 12, and its ultimate goal is to offer finance, big data and other value-added services for merchants."
