Alibaba Group’s Q1 2023 financial results reveal a mixed performance in its retail and e-commerce sectors, while its Tmall platform experiences a significant increase in new merchants.
In the first quarter of 2023, Alibaba’s China commerce retail business generated RMB132,062 million (US$19,230 million), marking a 3% decrease compared to the same period in 2022.
This decline was primarily due to a mid-single-digit drop in online physical goods GMV generated on Taobao and Tmall.
However, the company’s International commerce retail business saw a substantial increase of 41% compared to the same quarter of 2022, primarily due to the growth in revenue generated by Trendyol, Lazada, and AliExpress.
Despite the mixed results, Alibaba’s Tmall platform has shown promising growth.
In Q2 2023, Tmall saw a 75% year-on-year increase in the number of new merchants joining the platform, surpassing the total number of new merchants in the previous year’s first half.
The top five categories for these new merchants were consumer electronics, fashion and apparel, home decor, food, and home goods. Among these new merchants, nearly 30 achieved a transaction scale exceeding RMB10 million, and nearly 700 exceeded RMB1 million.
Interestingly, 45% of the new merchants on Tmall were brands from specific industry zones, and 20% were new consumer brands. This indicates a growing trend of industry-specific brands and new consumer brands leveraging Tmall’s platform for growth and exposure.
In the first quarter of 2023, Alibaba’s local consumer services segment, which includes the Instant Supermarket Delivery business, generated RMB12,549 million (US$1,827 million), marking a 17% increase compared to the same period in 2022.
This growth is attributed to the strategy refinement of the Instant Supermarket Delivery business to focus on building customer mindshare for grocery delivery services through the Ele.me platform.
Alibaba’s logistics arm, Cainiao, also saw a significant increase in revenue, generating RMB13,619 million (US$1,983 million), an 18% increase compared to the same quarter of 2022. This growth indicates the increasing demand for efficient logistics services in the e-commerce sector.
Meanwhile, Alibaba Cloud, the company’s cloud computing sector, generated RMB18,582 million (US$2,706 million), a slight decrease of 2% compared to the same quarter of 2022. Despite the slight decrease, Alibaba Cloud remains a significant player in the cloud computing market.
Alibaba Group’s revenue for the quarter ended March 31, 2023, was RMB208,200 million (US$30,316 million), a 2% increase compared to RMB204,052 million in the same quarter of 2022.
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