Alibaba offers cloud computing for Southeast Asia’s retailers to embrace digitisation and big data

Alibaba Group Holding, the world’s largest e-commerce services provider, is making a push into Southeast Asia by offering a suite of cloud computing solutions to help retailers embrace digitalisation and provide the kind of online-offline shopping experience that is already commonplace in China.

A suite of computing solutions ranging from cloud architecture and machine learning to the internet of things (IoT) and security will be on offer, according to an announcement made by Alibaba Cloud in Singapore. It is the first cloud computing conference outside China hosted by the Alibaba unit.

The solutions from Alibaba Cloud are a step to help Southeast Asian retailers jump on the bandwagon of the so-called new retail concept. This combines online sales and marketing, offline showrooms and physical stores with logistics, big data analysis across a single value chain to deliver a seamless blend of online and offline shopping experiences.

“This new suite of offerings includes products that are highly efficient, cost effective,” said the cloud computing unit’s chief solution architect, Derek Wang. “Some of them are the first of their kind in the industry.”

The push into Southeast Asia, with a combined population of 550 million people, is part of the strategy of Hangzhou-based Alibaba to serve 2 billion consumers by 2036, handling 1 trillion yuan (US$144.6 billion) in gross merchandise volume.