Alibaba join hands with 5 leading home textile brand to test ‘try-before-you-buy’ online sales program

Alibaba Group a privately owned Hangzhou based Chinese internet-based e-Commerce giant having business-to-business online web portals, online retail and payment service has recently tied up with five leading home textile producers in the country to offer “try-before-you-pay” options to online shoppers on its trading platform Tmall.com starting September.

The new online shopping program allows customers to try a product and even wash it before deciding whether to keep or return it. The cost of trying the product is covered by freight delivery insurance if a customer decides to return a product, according to a notice posted on Tmall.com on Thursday.

Tmall.com announced its home textile brand partners, which include Luolai, Mendale, Fuanna, Shuixing and Beyond.

Li Jing, vice president of Mendale, said that they have come up with this new online shopping program, try-before-you-pay as the product quality is more important than before and customers won’t place online orders unless they are satisfied with the actual product.

According to China Home Textile Association, Tmall.com handled half of the 53 billion yuan (US$8.6 billion) in online home textile sales in China in the first 10 months of last year. The Internet and big data have required the industry to provide more personalized services.

Alibaba is the most popular destination for online shopping, in the world’s fastest growing e-commerce market. The transactions on its online sites totaled $248 billion last year which is estimated to touch $713 billion by 2017.