Alibaba Group and modern day trading -The Asian Age

There is a famous story in the Arab mythology about Ali Baba and Challish Chor meaning one Ali Baba and forty thieves. The mythical character Ali Baba and activities of his followers are  familiar to many people.  

But there is another Alibaba which is turning round the whole trade and commerce in the present day world. This is not a myth but very much real. 

The company named Alibaba Group introduced a unique system of trading applying latest digital technology and  selling goods throughout the world sitting in Eastern country China. It surpassed all other giant companies and breaking records one after another particularly in selling consumer goods through online.

China's Alibaba Group has set an example of e-commerce marketing in front of the global modern day trade and commerce. It broke all previous records by selling consumer goods worth over $32 billion just in a single day.

According to a report released by the global app market data provider App Annie, the sales of China's biggest online shopping festival hit over 32 billion US dollars this year, App Annie also forecasted that the shopping frenzy will break the world record in mobile e-commerce sales.

Last year, Alibaba Group, China's e-commerce giant, spread the shopping festival to the Western market, with downloads of its app AliExpress surging in the United States and Britain.

The shopping spree, also known as Singles' Day or Double 11, falls on Nov. 11 every year and sales in 2017 hit 168.2 billion yuan in 24 hours on Tmall Global Shopping Festival.

Now, one may wonder how it was possible of selling $30 billion worth of consumer goods in a single day to thousands of people. It was not a bulk or whole sale dealing. People ordered for goods from every corner of the world. The value of the orders was calculated to be $30 billion. It was possible only because of recent development in IT technology and many digital devices.

Observing the rapid growth in Alibaba group's e-commerce site we can assume that the trade and commerce is gradually turning to that direction. The maximum trade and commerce will take place through online in future.

The physical existence of shops and markets will disappear gradually. People will not feel much necessity of going to shops and malls for just shopping purposes.     According to company's profile, the Group's mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere.

It enables businesses to transform the way they market, sell, operate and improve their efficiencies. It provides the technology infrastructure and marketing reach to help merchants, brands and other businesses to leverage the power of new technology to engage with their users and customers and operate in an efficient way.

Its businesses are comprised of core commerce, cloud computing, digital media and entertainment, and innovation initiatives. In addition, Ant Financial, a company in which they have agreed to acquire a 33% equity stake, provides payment and financial services to consumers and merchants on their platforms.

An ecosystem has developed around the platforms and businesses that consists of consumers, merchants, brands, retailers, other businesses, third-party service providers and strategic alliance partners.

The Group was founded in 1999 by 18 people led by Jack Ma, a former English teacher from Hangzhou, China. By two decades it emerged as  the world's biggest online commerce company.

The  founders had started the company to champion small businesses, in the belief that the Internet would level the playing field by enabling small enterprises to leverage innovation and technology to grow and compete more effectively in the domestic and global economies.

Now, it has three main sites - Taobao, Tmall and Alibaba.com . It has hundreds of millions of users, and host millions of merchants and businesses. Alibaba handles more business than any other e-commerce company.

Alibaba is the most popular destination for online shopping. It is the world's fasted growing e-commerce market. Transactions on its online sites totaled $248 billion last year, more than those of eBay and Amazon.com combined.