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Alibaba's (BABA) Promotional Campaign to Boost Global Footprint

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Alibaba’s (BABA - Free Report) international e-commerce retail arm, AliExpress, announced several promotional campaigns for shoppers after being named the exclusive global e-commerce partner of UEFA EURO 2024.

The company announced that 1,000 shoppers would have a chance to win UEFA EURO 2024 match tickets.

The promotional campaigns also include a Choice Day and Summer Sale with a theme of 'Summer Carnival,' a 'Shake & Win' game for time-limited prizes, and a fun quiz where users can win discounts, match tickets and discount coupons worth up to $500 each.

Alibaba aims to enhance the user experience for its global consumers on the back of this announcement. This, in turn, is expected to drive solid customer momentum among international shoppers and sports enthusiasts for its AliExpress platform, thereby expanding its global reach.

Strength in International Ecommerce Business Aids Growth

These promotional campaigns bode well for the company’s continuous efforts to bolster its international e-commerce business.

In fourth-quarter fiscal 2024, Trendyol expanded its cross-border business in the Gulf region. Alibaba’s increased investments to boost customer experience by expanding merchandise categories, as well as providing speedy and reliable delivery played the key catalyst of its Gulf expansion. As a result, Trendyol became one of the most downloaded e-commerce apps in the Gulf region during the quarter.

Alibaba’s growing initiatives to provide price competitiveness and high delivery speed to customers of AliExpress Choice further strengthened its international commerce business. The company created synergies between AliExpress and the cross-border logistics operations of Cainiao to bolster AliExpress’ 5-day and 10-day delivery services. It also increased investments in key markets to enhance customer experience, expand consumer base and strengthen its market position globally.

These efforts will continue aiding Alibaba in expanding its international e-commerce footprint. This, in turn, will strengthen its Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group (AIDC) segment’s performance, which is currently the key growth driver of the company.

The AIDC segment, which comprises Lazada, AliExpress, Trendyol, Alibaba.com, and other businesses operating in the international retail and wholesale markets, generated RMB 27.45 billion ($3.8 billion) in revenues, exhibiting year-over-year growth of 45%.

The strengthening AIDC segment is expected to aid Alibaba’s overall top-line performance in the near term.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 total revenues stands at $138.63 billion, indicating year-over-year growth of 6.2%.

Intensifying Competition Hurts Alibaba

However, Alibaba faces stiff competition against industry players like Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) and eBay (EBAY - Free Report) in the global e-commerce market.

Competitive pressure, coupled with rising expenses related to new initiatives, macroeconomic uncertainties and unfavorable foreign exchange fluctuations, remains a major risk for the company. Its shares have returned 2.7% in the year-to-date period, underperforming the Zacks Retail-Wholesale sector’s gain of 8.6%. Its shares have also  underperformed Amazon and eBay’s growth of 18% and 23%, respectively, in the same time frame.

Amazon has been leading the e-commerce market on the back of its strong Prime momentum, robust distribution strength, expanding fulfillment network and growing relationships with third-party sellers.

eBay, on the other hand, is making concerted efforts to strengthen its position in the e-commerce space. It recently launched a mobile consignment concierge, the Luxe Line, to offer a convenient selling experience, allowing visitors in Los Angeles and Las Vegas to directly access expert sellers listing and selling luxury items.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Currently, BABA carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

A better-ranked stock in the retail-wholesale sector is Coupang (CPNG - Free Report) , carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Coupang shares have gained 73.2% in the year-to-date period. CPNG’s long-term earnings growth rate is currently projected at 33.83%.

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