Report: Alibaba to Expand Grocery Retail Business

Alibaba’s (NYSE: BABA) Freshippo, the grocery retail chain, is likely to add three new membership stores in January 2022, according to a report on Benzinga.

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China Daily reported on Thursday that including the new stores, the tally will reach seven stores since initiation of the membership-only warehouse chain in October 2020.

Details

Tagged Freshippo Business Group-X Wholesale Store (X store), the new stores are planned to open in Shanghai, Suzhou, and Nanjing in the neighboring Jiangsu province. Notably, Alibaba also added one store in early December in Shanghai.

According to Freshippo, each store will have approximately 3,000 stock units for retail. More than 40% of products in the membership-only X store are the company’s exclusive products.

Additionally, the X store delivers products within half a day to customers living within a 20-kilometer radius of the store. The products purchased in other Freshippo stores are delivered to customers within a three-kilometer radius of another store, with a minimum delivery time of 30 minutes.

VP of Freshippo, Zhao Jiayu, said, “We emphasize sourcing locally, which not only satisfies the needs of Chinese customers but also helps merchants and even peasants in remote areas from the supply side.”

Official Comments

Jason Yu, GM of consultancy Kantar Worldpanel in China, said, “The competitive edge of Freshippo’s X Whole Store is still embedded in its bespoke sets of solutions to meet local customer needs－represented by the half-day delivery and its sourcing strategy－while keeping customer sentiment as a marketplace that offers ‘good value for money.”

Wall Street’s Take

Recently, Daiwa analyst John Choi reiterated a Buy rating on Alibaba but lowered the price target to $170 (43% upside potential) from $195.

Consensus among analysts is a Strong Buy based on 20 Buys versus three Holds. The average Alibaba stock forecast of $203.05 implies 70.8% upside potential from current levels.

Website Traffic

TipRanks’ Website Traffic Tool, which uses data from SEMrush Holdings, the world’s biggest website usage monitoring service, offers insight into Alibaba’s performance this quarter.

According to the tool, the Alibaba website recorded a 10.13% decrease in global visits in November compared to the same period last year. Also, a quarter-to-date comparison showed a decline of 3.76% compared to Q3 2021, while year-to-date website traffic growth stands at 1.67%.

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