Alibaba (BABA) Stock Closed Lower Today as Tmall Global Fails to Deliver
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Alibaba Group (BABA) - Get Alibaba Group Holding Limited American Depositary Shares each representing eight Report closed down 2.99% to $105.52 as its Tmall Global site "stumbles," with traffic on the shopping platform a fraction of that on Alibaba's other marketplaces, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Ten months after its launch, Tmall Global, a shopping platform pitched as a "fast track into China" for foreign brands new to the mainland, is failing to live up to this promise, say brands as well as consultants who track online shopping data, the Journal said.
Foreign brands on the platform say Alibaba restricts them from buying ads. Some shops are selling so few products each month that they are considering leaving the site, the Journal noted.
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A review of the site for the Journal suggests about 70% of the stores are doing "almost no volume," Web Presence in China, a digital marketing agency, told the Journal. "That platform is really going to damage [Alibaba's] reputation," they said.
