Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding is set to cooperate with four third-party inspection firms in response to the rising demand of customers for higher-quality products and at the same time help local manufacturers to upgrade their infrastructure, the company announced on Tuesday.
The move is part of the firm's latest campaign to overhaul the quality of its products. Earlier in April this year, Alibaba unveiled a new service dubbed "Zhongguozhizao," which literally means a focus on quality, for its e-commerce platform Taobao.com to serve as a sales channel for manufacturers and factories that process products for brands overseas.
In cooperation with China Certification and Inspection Group; Swiss inspection, verification, testing and certification company SGS; German inspection agency TUV; as well as the French-based quality inspection firm Bureau Veritas, Alibaba will introduce more professional but stricter inspection services to manufacturers, the company said in a statement.
Alibaba also pledged to guarantee an improvement on the quality of the commodities through Zhongguozhizao.
Currently, the platform is being used by more than 4,500 manufacturers and enterprises across China, Zhang Qin, vice president of Taobao.com, told attendees of an e-commerce summit in Beijing earlier this month.
Companies that have subscribed to the service have also posted average sales of more than 40 million yuan ($6.24 million) per day, Zhang added.
Alibaba president Jin Jianhang said that the company is also planning on improving its input in the future to assist manufacturers in China to compile standards, market their brands and build a talent-fostering system.