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Xinmei Shen

Alibaba Group Holding’s wholesale marketplace has briefly topped the shopping app charts in the US, as American consumers hunt for bargains amid fears of rising prices.
Alibaba.com, the e-commerce giant’s business-facing shopping platform, became the top shopping app on the iOS app store in the US at one point on Wednesday, according to Chinese media outlet wallstreetcn.com.
The Alibaba.com mobile app occupied the third spot on the US iOS app store’s shopping category for most of this week, having climbed from 18th place a month ago, according to data on analytics platform Sensor Tower.
On Wednesday, Chinese shopping platforms DHgate, Shein and Temu were all among the top 10 rankings for shopping apps on both iOS and the Google Play store, Sensor Tower data showed.
Taobao, also owned by Alibaba, dropped to 32nd place on iOS on Wednesday from fifth spot last week. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
The increasing popularity of Chinese shopping apps comes after video clips of local manufacturers promoting cheap made-in-China luxury goods went viral on TikTok earlier this month.
Chinese merchants have sought to appeal to shoppers in the US who have grown increasingly concerned that US President Donald Trump’s global tariffs will push up prices.
DHgate, which was a little-known platform a month ago, has racked up more than 500,000 downloads worldwide on iOS and 300,000 downloads on Google Play over the past month, according to Sensor Tower.
In its 2024 annual report, Alibaba described Alibaba.com as an international online wholesale marketplace that served more than 48 million buyers from more than 190 countries.
The group has been ramping up its global expansion efforts, as domestic demand slows and competition heats up from newer local rivals, including PDD Holdings’ Pinduoduo and ByteDance’s Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
China’s cross-border e-commerce platform operators have had to navigate rapidly changing policies amid the Trump-led global trade war.
Shein and Temu notified US consumers that they would raise prices starting April 25 “due to recent changes in global trade rules and tariffs”. Temu, owned by PDD, also suspended its ad spending with major US social media operators such as Google and Meta Platforms.


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The Alibaba.com mobile app occupied the third spot on the US iOS app store’s shopping category for most of this week


The Alibaba.com mobile app occupied the third spot on the US iOS app store’s shopping category for most of this week.
