Alibaba Group today launched its biggest physical Taobao store in Malaysia, in partnership with MyTOWN Shopping Centre and Lumahgo New Retail Sdn Bhd. Named as Taobao Store by Lumahgo, the 5,000 sq ft store is comprehensive, offering a mix of offline and online shopping experience using New Retail technologies.
“The Taobao store will serve as a platform for us to showcase popular products and introduce new ones that appeal to local customers, and we hope to employ out consumer insights and technology to create new opportunities for our local partners to deliver even better services,” said Alibaba’s Tmall World Malaysia marketing manager Jess Lew at the launch of the store here, today.
The Taobao Store offers over 1,000 products across top selling categories such as electronics, beauty, home and living, and smart home appliances. Lew also said selection of products has been curated based on the preferences and purchasing trends of local shoppers through Taobao shopping app, drawn from international and local homegrown brands including Lorenzo, Khind, KitchenAid and Deep Furniture.
“The idea of this store is that we want customers to come in, feel the experience and try the products themselves first. Profit is not the main objective as we are aiming for the best shopping experience for consumers,” she added. Meanwhile, Lew said Alibaba is open to explore opening similar stores in other states such as Penang and Johor Bahru.
“We are also exploring the possibilities of having the Taobao app in English language to cater to the broader customers in Malaysia. “But currently the focus will be for this store and for non-Mandarin customers, they can come here to shop with the assistance of our staff,” said Lew.
Shoppers at the store can purchase a displayed product by scanning a QR code on the electronic price tag, pick up items from the store or arrange for delivery and even installation, and make the payment directly from the app.