China’s e-commerce giants are reaching for the wallets of overseas Chinese

E-commerce giants Alibaba and JD.com expand global shipping options to target overseas Chinese as online consumer spending at home slows 

Alibaba opened two Tmall Home pop-up stores for six days last month in the cities of Melbourne and Sydney. Photo: Handout

When Dongguan native Joanne Fang wanted to buy a dish steriliser for her home in Brisbane, Australia earlier this year, she quickly found that many of the country’s retailers did not carry the cupboard-like appliance that is common in China.

For the uninitiated, the dish steriliser is a Chinese invention about the size of a small fridge, equipped with dish racks and heating elements to eliminate germs or nasty odours. In a country racked by hygiene scandals, dish sterilisers soon gained popularity and are now common in Chinese restaurants and homes.

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