阿里新征程：驯服美国商家

“闻酒香，轻晃酒杯，然后小抿一口。”

一个意大利籍的侍酒师（sommelier）正在用醇和的罗伯特蒙大菲（Robert Mondavi）红酒向一群酒客讲解红酒。其中一些着装考究，侧耳倾听；还有一些握着酒杯，仿佛他们正漫游在葡萄庄园，或者端坐在中间嵌有葡萄酒桶的酒桌上，就着奶酪和肉食。

这原本是纳帕尔酒庄观光手册上描绘的场景，而现在，这发生在千里之外的工业城市——杭州。这个加利福尼亚式的品酒区位于阿里巴巴公司园区，该活动是蒙大菲酒园为吸引阿里巴巴庞大的用户群体的一部分。

几乎所有的宾客都是中国人，而且年轻。其中一些人小心翼翼地轻抿或者啜饮红酒，就像美国人喝梅子白兰地（slivovitz）和清酒（soju）那样小心谨慎。甚至，侍酒师只是最基本指导下如何握红酒杯都会引来赞叹声。这场景就是跨文化交流的写照，从中也可一瞥阿里巴巴和美国公司面临的高风险。

在过去的五年里，阿里巴巴一直是最热门的电子商务公司，融合了 eBay 和亚马逊的模式，3.86 亿的用户在 2015 财年贡献了 3940 亿美元的销售额。是其国内最大竞争对手销售额的 6 倍之多。阿里巴巴创造了一个巨大市场和庞杂的物流体系，能够即时为国内中产阶级提供服务。“为寻求中国消费者，我们正采取新的零售模式，线上配送速度也比任何一个国家快。”宝洁大中华区电子商务总裁许敏（Jasmine Xu）说。这些潮流令人印象深刻，以至于强势的亚马逊都成为阿里巴巴的合作伙伴之一。2014 年，阿里巴巴的首次公开募股（IPO）也是业内的一件大事。

而如今，阿里巴巴略显疲态。受中国经济衰退和京东等竞争对手崛起的影响，阿里巴巴增速放缓。股价从 IPO 后最高的 115 美元跌至如今的 80 多美元，缩水了 26%。为了保持增长势头，马云和阿里巴巴 CEO 张勇计划依赖美国公司——美国的品牌对中国消费者有极大的吸引力。“此战略对阿里巴巴的未来至关重要，”马云表示。

为了吸引这些美国大牌，其中包括宝洁、雅诗兰黛和梅西百货，阿里巴巴将自身描述为这些品牌进入世界人口第一的市场的捷径。阿里巴巴在营销、数据分析和配送方面帮助外国公司。而且，阿里巴巴最近还上线了对国外品牌吸引力更大的天猫国际，帮助国外公司去除了很多障碍，如税务、监管和物流，这些恰恰是国外品牌进驻中国市场所处的困境。阿里巴巴的底气都源于其将普通的光棍节打造成双十一购物狂欢节，强力证明了自己的实力。2015 年阿里巴巴双十一 140.3 亿美元的销售额，这是美国所有电商感恩节、黑色星期五和网络星期一（Cyber Monday）销售总额的两倍。

“Sniff, swirl, then swish.” An Italian-born sommelier guides a crowd of tasters through generous pours of velvety Robert Mondavi reds. Some of the well-dressed guests listen intently. Others clutch their glasses as they wander among lush gardens or settle at upright wine-barrel tables to nibble on cheese and charcuterie.

It’s a scene straight from a Napa Valley tourism brochure—but it’s taking place 6,200 miles away from that cradle of Cabernets. Beyond the gardens lies the industrial sprawl of Hangzhou, China; a thick cloud of urban smog hangs just a few feet above the party. And the California-style tasting area is a pop-up, built on the campus of e-commerce giant Alibabaas part of a campaign by Mondavi to tap Alibaba’s enormous customer base.

The guests are almost all Chinese and young, and some sniff and sip the wine warily, the way Americans might approach slivovitz or soju. Even basic instructions from the sommelier about how to hold a wineglass draw appreciative ahs. It’s a scene of cross-cultural courtship—and a glimpse of a broader effort with high stakes for Alibaba and American companies alike.

Alibaba is the hottest e-commerce company of the past five years, a fusion of eBayand Amazonwhose 386 million active users accounted for $394 billion in sales in fiscal 2015—six times the sales volume of its biggest Chinese competitor. The company created a huge marketplace and a sophisticated distribution network just in time to serve a generation of Chinese consumers attaining middle-class prosperity. “We are seeing Chinese consumers adopt new retail formats and online shopping faster than any of their global counterparts,” says Jasmine Xu, president of e-commerce for Procter & Gamble Greater China. Those trends fueled a rise so impressive that even the mighty Amazon became an Alibaba partner, and the company’s IPO was one of the business highlights of 2014.

Today, however, Alibaba looks mortal. Its growth has slowed, hampered by China’s ebbing economy and by competition from a growing crop of rivals like JD.com. Its stock has fallen 26% from its post-IPO highs, from $115 to the mid $80s. To reignite its growth, chairman and founder Jack Ma and CEO Daniel Zhang plan to lean on U.S. companies—brands that hold enormous appeal in China. “This is an incredibly important strategy for the future of Alibaba,” Ma says.

To woo these iconic companies—among them P&G, Estée Lauder, and Macy’s—Alibaba is pitching itself as a shortcut to the world’s most populous market. Alibaba is helping foreign companies with marketing, data analytics, and shipping. And more recently it has sweetened the pot with a newer service, Tmall Global, that lets U.S. brands sidestep many of the taxes, regulatory hurdles, and logistics hassles that trip up foreign companies in China. All this comes from the company that turned the obscure Singles Day holiday into a lucrative shopping phenomenon. Alibaba’s $14.3 billion in Singles Day sales in 2015 were double the U.S. e-commerce total from Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday combined.

如果一切如马云和张勇所愿，那么阿里巴巴和美国公司必将从中获得丰厚的回报。阿里巴巴从每笔交易中抽取 2%-5% 不等的交易费实现盈利，2015 财年，阿里巴巴收入达到 120 亿美元。投资公司 SunTrust Robinson Humphrey 分析师鲍勃•佩克（Bob Peck）预估到 2017 年，美国和欧洲的产品每年在阿里巴巴平台上营业额将达到 300 亿 - 400 亿，这将给阿里巴巴额外增加 20 亿美元的收入。而且尽管绝大多数国际大牌的产品都是中国造（这颇为讽刺），但是以阿里巴巴如此大的体量，每年美国对中国的进口商品额都保持两位数的增长，2014 年，美国向中国的进口额达到了 1200 亿。

张勇坦言，这是最乐观的情况。“在美国售卖的商品不一定在中国开卖。”阿里巴巴面临的风险就是：这些美国品牌仅仅将阿里巴巴的平台作为一个“展示柜”，然后抛弃这个平台，选择其他的销售渠道，研究机构 China Market Research Group 分析师 Ben Cavender 如是说。

淘宝是阿里巴巴的主站，于 2003 年上线，基本就是中国版的 eBay。淘宝是一个电子虚拟集市，小型公司和个人卖家占据统治地位。从镶满珠宝的 iPhone 手机壳到活蝎子，商品无奇不有。早期，淘宝也是国外品牌山寨品的聚集地——如今，这一问题依然存在，阿里巴巴已经采取整顿措施。

2008 年上线的天猫采取了与淘宝完全不同的商业模式，天猫也是张勇独创的理念。他将天猫定位于一个销售高质量服装、食品和电子产品的平台，当然，也瞄准奢侈品牌。在天猫，消费者可以买到各式高质量商品，从 Olay 洁面乳到博柏利大衣。阿里巴巴也将未来的增长押在了天猫上。虽淘宝仍是最大的平台，第三季度总销售额达到 690 亿美元，相比之下，天猫是 430 亿美元，但是天猫当季总销售额同比增长了 56%。是淘宝增速的 4 倍之多。

If all goes as Ma and Zhang hope, Alibaba and American companies could reap enormous rewards. Alibaba earns money by charging fees of 2% to 5% on transactions on its sites, and in fiscal 2015 it took in $12 billion in revenue. Bob Peck, analyst at investment firm SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, estimates that U.S. and European goods could generate $30 billion to $40 billion in annual sales on Alibaba by 2017. That could add as much as $2 billion a year to Alibaba’s top line. And while many of the goods sold by international brands are, ironically, made in China, an Alibaba bump of that size could still generate a double-digit percentage increase in U.S. exports to China, which totaled about $120 billion in 2014.

That’s the best-case scenario. As Zhang admits, “What sells in the U.S. doesn’t necessarily sell in China.” For Alibaba there’s the risk that U.S. brands will use it to “showroom” goods—and then abandon it for other sales channels, says Ben Cavender, an analyst with China Market Research Group. Still, it’s a relationship with tremendous potential, and Fortune recently took a closer look at its rapid evolution.

Alibaba’s flagship website, Taobao, which launched in 2003, is essentially China’s eBay. It’s an eclectic virtual bazaar dominated by small businesses and individuals selling to one another, where shoppers can find oddball collectibles from mom-and-pop retailers, jeweled iPhone cases, and live scorpions. In its early years Taobao also became a market for counterfeits of foreign brands—a problem that persists today, though Alibaba has taken steps to curb it.

Alibaba’s other site, Tmall, went live in 2008 with a business model sharply distinct from Taobao’s. Tmall is Zhang’s brainchild. He positioned it as a marketplace for higher-quality clothing, food, and electronics, with a focus on luxury brands. This is where visitors browse and buy everything from Olay face creams to Burberry coats. It’s also the site on which Alibaba has staked its growth. Taobao is still the bigger platform, generating $69 billion in gross sales for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with $43 billion for Tmall. But Tmall’s gross sales grew 56% year over year that quarter, four times as fast as Taobao’s.

天猫的销售额增长归功于不断扩大、有品牌意识的中产阶级群体。据瑞士信贷（Credit Suisse），目前，中国有 1.09 亿人资产净值介于 5 万 - 50 万美元之间，到 2022 年，这一群体人数将达到 5 亿。这为中国电子商务的发展提供了良好的条件：40% 的中国人在网上买东西，美国仅为 10%。

这些人最想要的就是国外产品。与本土同类产品相比，国外品牌总是自带光环；近年来曝光的一些丑闻也加剧了这一趋势，如在食品和化妆品中违规添加有害的化学品。苏敏（音译）就是典型的例子；“我我喜欢在天猫上买化妆品，”她说，但是她只相信科颜氏（Kiehl』s）和兰蔻（Lancôme）等品牌，相对安全。“我也不会在实体店购买，”她说。

Tmall owes its growth to China’s rapidly expanding, brand-conscious middle class. Currently there are 109 million Chinese people with a net worth between $50,000 and $500,000, according to Credit Suisse, which estimates that those ranks could surpass 500 million by 2022. It’s a demographic that’s very comfortable with e-commerce: 40% of Chinese consumers buy groceries online, for example, compared with only 10% of Americans.

What many aspirational Chinese want most is goods from abroad. Foreign brands often carry a better reputation than their Chinese equivalents; recent crises involving toxic chemicals in Chinese-made food and cosmetics have fueled that sentiment. Min Su, a fortysomething professional driver in Hangzhou, underscores the point. “I’m addicted to buying beauty products on Tmall,” she says. But she trusts only brands like Kiehl’s and Lancôme, saying they’re safe to put on her skin. “I don’t buy in stores,” she says; she doesn’t trust them either.

美国公司若想俘获苏敏这类的消费者，天猫就提供一个入口。然而，对于国外品牌而言，也是喜忧参半。“即使是大品牌，想在中国投入运营也及其困难，”分析师 Cavender 表示。与其他所有国外品牌一样，与天猫达成合作关系的品牌要建立政府认可的业务单元，开设中国银行账户。这些证书和许可证必须个人亲自办理，通过多级部门，仅仅开设银行账户就要耗费数月之久。其结果就是那些早已在中国投资基础设施建设的美国大公司，如耐克、宝洁、盖璞，甚至亚马逊就很好地利用了天猫平台的优势，而其他品牌仍因政策原因迟滞不前。

为了解决这个问题，张勇在 2014 年上线了天猫国际。天猫国际是一个跨境的交易平台，规避了很多监管问题。通过天猫国际销售产品的国外公司不必在中国设立分部或开设中国银行账户；通过几天的操作它们就能在天猫国际上开卖了。阿里巴巴旗下的蚂蚁金服负责与品牌所在国家银行处理交易流程问题。菜鸟物流则很好地解决了配送和库存问题。

而且，更诱人的条件在于：通过天猫国际进驻中国市场的公司能支付更低的税。阿里巴巴与中国政府合作在四个城市建立了“保税仓”。从这些保税仓发货不同于标准的进口关税流程，有些甚至不征税。还有一些在仅征税 10%，条件是有消费者购买了该商品，这与正常流进口流程 30%-40% 关税形成鲜明对比。阿里巴巴官方表示：中国政府对此持欢迎态度，因为这能拉动国内消费。

Tmall offers U.S. companies a portal to consumers like Min. But selling on the site is only half the battle. “It’s incredibly difficult to set up operations [in China], even if you are a large brand,” says Cavender, the analyst. Like all foreign companies, Tmall partners must establish a Chinese-licensed business unit and a Chinese bank account. Paperwork to obtain licenses and permits must be filed in person, often with multiple agencies. Even opening a bank account can take months. Consequently, big U.S. companies that had already invested in China infrastructure—Nike, P&G, Gap, and, yes, Amazon are prominent examples—have taken advantage of Tmall. But for others the bureaucracy remains daunting.

Zhang attacked this problem by creating Tmall Global, which debuted in 2014. It’s a “cross-border” marketplace that creates a huge, helpful regulatory loophole. Foreign companies that sell only through Tmall Global don’t need to set up Chinese subsidiaries or bank accounts; in practice, they can start selling to Chinese consumers in a matter of days. Alibaba’s payment spin-off, Ant Financial, handles transaction processing with the brands’ home-country banks. Alibaba takes care of shipping and inventory through Cainiao, its network of logistics partners, a service for which Tmall customers pay extra.

Perhaps most appealing: Companies that import through Tmall Global can pay lower taxes. Alibaba has worked with China’s government to create “bonded” warehouses in four cities. Goods shipped through these points aren’t subject to standard import duties. Some aren’t taxed at all; others are taxed at discounted rates of 10%, and only after shoppers purchase them. This compares with the 30% to 40% wholesale tax rates standard for such brands, says Cavender. It’s a deal the Chinese government was willing to offer, Alibaba officials say, because it meant consumers would spend more money at home.

张勇将天猫国际描述为美国公司与“数字时代的中国”中间缺失的一环。张勇是马云的得力干将，2007 年加入阿里巴巴，曾在普华永道等公司有任职经历。他言语轻柔，你不得不贴过去才能听清楚，但是语气确是十分自信。“我们没什么可失去的了，”他说，“天猫国际帮助这些公司学习中国市场，不用大规模投资就能理解中国消费者。”

就目前来看，这一策略极具吸引力。好市多（Costco，美国最大的连锁会员制仓储量贩店）通过天猫国际在中国市场首次闪亮登场；早些年，梅西百货一直努力在中国建立自有电子商务渠道，起伏不定，但现在入驻了天猫国际。而那些早已在中国广为认可的品牌，如宝洁也利用天猫平台，因为这可以将新产品更快地推向市场。现在的问题是：这些品牌是仅仅小试一把，还是准备深耕天猫国际平台。

在阿里巴巴总部园区，年轻的员工聚在一起欢笑、玩手机。很多人骑着阿里巴巴标志的自行车在各栋楼之间穿梭。硅谷式的各种福利设施，如哺乳室和乒乓球台，每层楼都有配备。尽管如此，参观者也能根据一些标志物认出这是在杭州，而不是硅谷。一排排的竹类植物点缀在宽阔的办公室，每个办公桌上也有一棵，预示着好运，长长的竹节使得空旷的办公桌看起来像林间空地。虽然园区有各种高科技设施，但是座便器本质上就是在地面开了个洞罢了，每个卫生间还有一个篓子供员工倒茶叶渣。

身处这些建筑里的阿里巴巴员工正在为国外品牌进行基础设施建设。2014 年，当好市多（Costco）计划在中国开卖食品的时候，好市多用货船把几吨坚果运往宁波的“保税仓”，除此以外，其他的都交给菜鸟物流就行。阿里巴巴的配送网络不是中国最快的，京东在中国 40 个城市推出了当日达服务，相比之下，阿里巴巴仅在 6 个城市推出了同类服务。菜鸟物流的优势在于广度，菜鸟物流可以配送到中国每个地区，超过 200 个城市支持次日达。明年，菜鸟物流仓库面积将扩大五倍，达到 5400 万平方英尺，比纽约中央公园面积还要大。其中有很多就用来存放国外商品。

阿里巴巴也帮助国外公司判断哪类商品在中国最受欢迎。比如，在阿里巴巴的帮助下，梅西百货将重点商品集中在配饰、鞋子、毛巾和床单，国外品牌这些“触肤类”产品深受中国消费者的喜爱。在食品领域，阿里巴巴在中间的文化转化作用非常重要。比如，中国人不擅长烹饪大虾，于是阿里巴巴帮助国外渔民开发基础教学视频，教消费者如何烹饪甲壳类食材。所以，金宝（Campbell）也很快意识到其汤类产品对中国消费者有吸引力——但不是作为一道独立的美食，而是其他食材的蘸料。金宝也请了一位中国厨师为天猫国际平台研发配方。

Bernie Chou 是罗伯特蒙大菲（Robert Mondavi）中国区的总经理，她说中国人不愿意买全尺寸、750 毫升一瓶的红酒，可能一次性喝不完。于是，蒙大菲在中国推出了 187 毫升装的产品，是原来四分之一大小，所以消费者不花大价钱就能喝到 Chardonnay、Cabernet 、Sauvignon 和 Merlot 这些知名红酒。

阿里巴巴也下了一番功夫推广这些美国合作伙伴，利用海量的购买数据精准营销。比如一位消费者经常购买阿拉斯加深海鳕鱼，那么很大程度上，这位消费者也对其他同类产品亲睐有加。如果一个消费者在其他商家那里买了纸尿裤，那么天猫就为为其推送宝洁旗下的纸尿裤、卫生纸和其他婴儿产品。

这些品牌纯正的美国身份总是一而再、再而三地被强调。在天猫上，这些美国品牌总是会用红色大字体标上“美国制造”。去年春季，华盛顿苹果委员会（Washington Apple Commission）在天猫上开展了一轮促销，虽然销售额只有 10 万美元，但是该促销的到达的范围，却令人印象深刻：1840 万中国消费者打开了促销页面，“美国制造”的标签起到了很大的作用。而且，这些在天猫平台开卖的苹果还有额外的保障：消费者扫码就能知道苹果的身份。

虽然国外品牌在阿里巴巴平台获得了足够大的曝光度，这些品牌也对此感到乐观，但是说到具体的销售额，所有的品牌都三缄其口。阿里巴巴拒绝透露这些国际品牌具体的销售数据，张勇也承认目前美国商品仅占全部销售额很小的一部分。在采访中，宝洁公司表示其在中国的电子商务业务包括但不局限于天猫，在中国的线上销售规模也超过了美国和欧洲。宝洁拒绝透露每年在中国 70 亿美元营收中有多少来源于电子商务渠道，仅仅表示在过去的四年里，线上渠道销售数据增长了 100 倍。

在阿里巴巴平台上大范围的曝光也为国外品牌带来了可观的销售数据。今年 9 月，雅诗兰黛在天猫国际进行了为期 6 天的促销活动，最终销售额达到 130 万美元；4 月份一次两天的大促销卖出了总价值 60 万美元的面霜。销售专家指出这类促销都伴随着较大的折扣，但如果这些促销帮助品牌在双十一而有块立足之地，那就超值。

In his stark office in Hangzhou, Zhang describes Tmall Global as the missing link between American companies and “digital China.” Zhang, 43, is a Jack Ma protégé and finance guy who joined Alibaba in 2007 after a career that included a stint at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He speaks so softly you have to lean in to hear him, and his simple navy suit hangs baggily on his slender frame. His message, though, is confident. “You have nothing to lose,” he says, addressing an imagined American executive. “Tmall Global gives these companies the ability to learn the Chinese market and understand the Chinese consumer without a massive investment.”

So far that pitch has proved alluring. Costcohas used Tmall Global to make an impressive China debut. Department store stalwart Macy’s tried and failed earlier this decade to establish its own e-commerce presence in China; now it has a “storefront” on Tmall Global. And some companies that already sell widely in China, including P&G, are using Tmall Global because it lets them bring new products to market faster. The big question is whether the brands now dipping a toe in these waters will commit further and dive in.

On Alibaba’s headquarters campus, young employees cluster, laughing and messaging on mobile phones. Many ride Alibaba-branded tandem bikes from one building to another. Silicon Valley–style perks, such as lactation rooms and Ping-Pong tables, dot every floor. Still, a visitor sees plenty of reminders that she’s in Hangzhou, not Menlo Park. Rows and rows of bamboo plants punctuate the massive office floors; there’s one placed on each desk for good luck, and the tall reeds make open desks look like forest clearings. For all the campus’s high-tech trappings, most of its toilets are essentially just holes in the floor, and each bathroom includes a bucket where employees dump their tea leaves.

Tucked among these buildings, employees are building up Alibaba’s infrastructure for foreign brands. In 2014, when Costco decided to start selling food in China, it shipped several tons of nuts via freighter to a bonded warehouse in Ningbo. It didn’t have to handle any logistics beyond that, thanks to Cainiao. Alibaba’s shipping network isn’t always China’s fastest: JD.com, for example, boasts same-day delivery in 40 cities, compared with only six cities for Alibaba. But its reach is tremendous. According to Cainiao executive Wan Lin, it ships to every district in China and can ship overnight to 200 cities. Cainiao will quintuple the warehouse space it leases, to 54 million square feet, over the next year—setting aside a space bigger than New York City’s Central Park, largely to accommodate foreign goods.

Alibaba also helps companies figure out which products might fare best in China. For Tmall Global, the company helped Macy’s focus its selection on accessories, shoes, towels, and sheets—the kind of “touch the skin” categories where China’s shoppers covet foreign brands. In the food world, Alibaba’s cultural translation is particularly vital. To most Chinese, for example, lobster may as well have come from Mars. Alvin Liu, general manager of Tmall Global, says the site has helped U.S. fishermen develop instructional videos to teach consumers how to cook the crustacean. Campbell’s quickly learned that its soups were prized—not as freestanding dishes, but as sauces for other meals. The company hired a Chinese chef to create recipes for Tmall; one explains how to make a traditional sweet-and-sour sauce out of a tomato-based soup.

Bernie Chou, the general manager for Robert Mondavi in China, says many Chinese shoppers hesitated to buy a full-size, 750-milliliter bottle of wine that they might not like or finish. Mondavi, a division of U.S. conglomerate Constellation Brands, responded with 187-milliliter bottles, each a quarter the size of a normal bottle, so that drinkers could try Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot without a big investment.

Alibaba puts plenty of promotional muscle behind its U.S. partners. It can tap its huge well of purchasing data to target their marketing, reasoning that someone who buys, say, Alaskan black cod is more likely to splurge on other American delicacies. If a consumer has bought diapers from any manufacturer, Tmall will pitch the person offers for P&G’s diapers, wipes, and other baby products.

The American origin of these brands, meanwhile, is emphasized at every turn. Tmall web pages for their products often feature the phrase “Made in USA” in a massive font, in red type. Last spring the Washington Apple Commission held a promotion on Tmall Global. It generated only about $100,000 in sales, but Rebecca Lyons, a marketing manager for the association, was impressed by its reach: 18.4 million Chinese consumers clicked on the promotion, and the apples’ American cachet was a big draw. Thanks to that publicity, Washington apples have now penetrated Sam’s Club and other retailers in China. Those sold on Tmall have an additional benefit: a QR code that lets purchasers use their smartphones to verify the fruit’s origin.

While U.S. brands are generally upbeat about the exposure they’re getting from Alibaba, almost everyone involved is mum about how much they’re actually selling. Alibaba declines to disclose total sales for international products, and Zhang acknowledges that goods from the U.S. still represent a small percentage of sales volume. Of the 10 American companies Fortune spoke with, all declined to reveal their sales totals from Tmall and Tmall Global. “It’s still early days for our business in China,” said a Campbell’s spokesperson in a typical response. P&G, which sells everything from Pampers to Gillette razors through Tmall, was more openly bullish but not much more specific. It says its China e-commerce business, which includes but is not limited to Tmall, is now the company’s largest online retail operation, surpassing those in the U.S. and Europe. P&G declined to reveal e-commerce’s share of its $7 billion in annual China revenue but said its value had grown 100-fold during the past four years.

Heavily publicized promotions generate a lot of the buzz and dollars for foreign brands on Alibaba. During one six-day Tmall promotion in September, Estée Lauder registered $1.3 million in sales; during a two-day sale in April it sold $600,000 worth of La Mer face cream. Retail experts note that items often sell at steep discounts during such promotions. But it all might be worth it if it helps brands get a foothold on Singles Day.

双十一也是张勇的杰作，他一手将单身狗自嘲的光棍节转变成了国内最大的购物狂欢节。“美国零售商若碰上这样大规模的促销活动绝对会措手不及，”证券公司 Wedbush Securities 零售业分析师和主管 Gil Luria 说。今年的光棍节，苹果、雅诗兰黛、罗伯特蒙大菲和梅西百货都参与其中。为了应对美国产品销售量的激增，菜鸟物流安排了 200 台运输机——传统的商业飞机已经不能满足需求了。

双十一前 8 分钟，阿里巴巴平台的销售额达到 10 亿美元；当天总交易额为 140.3 亿美元。（当天，京东和其他电商也进行了促销活动，但规模与阿里巴巴不在一个量级。）那么国际品牌表现如何？阿里巴巴并未透露具体的销售数据，而是说所有参与双十一的消费者中，33% 也就是 3000 万名消费者购买了国际品牌。好市多在所有国际品牌中排名第一，所售商品涉及内衣裤、厨房用品以及食品，其中就包括 245 吨坚果，价值约 410 万美元。

这是否说明国际品牌在天猫上取得了成功？现在下定论还为时尚早。太阳信托（SunTrust）分析师 Bob Peck 认为今年光棍节，阿里巴巴实现了国际品牌销售目标。基于阿里巴巴 3000 万购买国际品牌的消费者和他自己对天猫消费模式的研究，Bob Peck 估计国际品牌双十一销售额为 20 亿美元，其中一半销售额归为美国品牌，也就是说，国际品牌的销售额占到了当天总交易量的 14%。宝洁表示 2015 年光棍节销售数据创新高，仅 3 小时便超越了去年全天。即使是一贯言辞谨慎的张勇也用骄傲的胜利语气说道：“双十一证明了中国国内消费能力。”（财富中文网）

That, too, is a creation of Daniel Zhang, who latched on to a day celebrated ironically by romantically unattached Chinese college students and turned it into a behemoth e-shopping event. “You better believe U.S. retailers will jump on any event that drives this level of commerce,” says Gil Luria, retail analyst and managing director at Wedbush Securities. New sellers at the 2015 blowout included Apple, Estée Lauder, Robert Mondavi, and Macy’s. To accommodate an anticipated surge in American sales, Cainiao chartered 200 transport planes—traditional commercial plane “belly cargo” wasn’t going to be enough to ship everything, Wan Lin explains.

In the first eight minutes of the big day, Nov. 11, Alibaba sold $1 billion; by day’s end the total was $14.3 billion. (JD.com and other Chinese e-commerce sites also held Singles Day sales, though at nowhere near the same scale.) How did international brands do? On that topic, Alibaba is boosterish but fuzzy. Alibaba would not break out dollar values but says that 33% of its Singles Day shoppers, 30 million in all, made at least one purchase from international brands or merchants. Costco was the top international seller, Alibaba said. The bulk retailer enticed Chinese consumers to buy underwear, kitchen supplies, and a host of food items—including 245 tons of mixed nuts, about $4.1 million worth by Fortune’s back-of-the-envelope calculations. (Costco did not reply to multiple requests for comment.)

Evidence of success? It’s far too early to tell. Still, Bob Peck, the SunTrust analyst, thinks Singles Day 2015 delivered on its international promise. Based on Alibaba’s 30-million-customer count and his analysis of Tmall spending patterns, Peck estimates that international brands sold $2 billion worth of goods on Singles Day, with about half of that going to American brands. That would mean international sales accounted for 14% of revenue that day—in line with the share Peck thinks they’ll eventually post year-round. P&G says that it saw record sales on Singles Day 2015, surpassing 2014’s total in a matter of three hours. And even the soft-spoken Zhang is willing to take a cautious verbal victory lap: “This day demonstrates the power of domestic China consumption,” he tells Fortune.