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Online luxury goods retailer Tmall Luxury Pavilion shared this week the success of its latest shopping innovation: a digital assistant to help gift-givers select presents for loved ones ahead of a shopping festival this weekend.

In other news, Alibaba Group released its fourth-quarter earnings report this week. Executives also elaborated on the group’s transition to a holding company structure; read our analysis below.

Tmall Luxury Pavilion Debuts Digital Gift Picker Ahead of May 20

Tmall Luxury Pavilion recently launched a digital assistant to help customers find the perfect gift for loved ones ahead of May 20, a day dedicated to celebrating love in China.

In Mandarin, the date sounds like “I love you” and has become an occasion marked by gift-giving and dinners by couples and friends.

The tool works as a one-on-one conversation with an AI, which will share present recommendations in a chat on the platform’s mobile app. A daily average of 10,000 shoppers have used the service since it launched over two weeks ago, Tmall Luxury Pavilion shared.

The assistant’s gift suggestions cover a database of hundreds of thousands of products from all merchants and brands on the platform.

Aliviews: Daniel Zhang on Alibaba’s Reorganization and Q4 Earnings

Alibaba Group’s Chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang addressed investors and analysts on an earnings call.

“Looking back at the recent events in the past few months, Alibaba, like the world we are in, is at the beginning of a new era of transformation. The world is standing at the new starting point in the age of AI,” he said.

“For Alibaba’s own transformation, we expect the progress in group reorganization and capital management efforts to further unlock Alibaba’s own productivity and foster more innovation, such as new products and services and new experiences focused on creating value for our customers.”

Read his comments here

Alibaba Says Cloud To Spin-Off; Freshippo & Cainiao To Pursue IPOs

Alibaba Group Holding said it plans to spin off its cloud business within 12 months, kicking off the first phase of its largest-ever reorganization.

The group’s board of directors has approved a full spin-off of the Cloud Intelligence Group via a stock dividend distribution to its shareholders.

Before the spin-off, Alibaba plans to bring in external strategic investors through private financings, ahead of it becoming an independent publicly listed company.

“We are taking concrete steps towards unlocking value from our businesses,” Daniel Zhang said in a statement on Thursday.

Read more about this development now

Alibaba Q4 Profits Beat Forecasts As Multiple Businesses Narrow Losses

Alibaba Group Holding’s fourth-quarter profits beat Wall Street analysts’ expectations as multiple business units curbed losses.

During the quarter ending March 31, losses narrowed year-over-year at Alibaba’s value-for-money platform Taobao Deals, community marketplace Taocaicai, Local Consumer Services as well as at the Digital Media and Entertainment business.

“In an increasingly complex world, we have proactively transformed our organization to strengthen the competitiveness of our businesses through greater independence to address the evolving needs of different customers and capture new opportunities,” Daniel Zhang said.

Analysts expect this focus on profitability to continue after the group unveiled its biggest-ever restructuring in March.

Read the full story now

Scent of Success: Cracking China’s Fast-Growing Fragrance Market

Increasingly, Chinese consumers are using fragrance as a form of self-expression and buying niche brands, unisex fragrances or scents that speak to their cultural heritage.

Perfumers are rushing to cater to more diverse demands by broadening their product ranges.

“China is evolving very fast. And there is a key preference of Chinese consumers that impacts that evolution, which is the pleasure of expressing yourself,” Camila Tomas, Vice President of Innovation & Technology at Spanish fashion and fragrance giant Puig, told Alizila.

Read more about China’s evolving perfume market now

Alibaba Brings US Small Fragrance Brand To Chinese Consumers Via Tmall Global

Adirondack Fragrance & Flavor Farm, a family-owned business based in New York, has been designing and crafting fragrance products for over 43 years. To grow its business further, the brand has partnered with Alibaba Group to expand into China.

The home fragrance company is preparing to launch in the market with a ministore on cross-border marketplace Tmall Global.

Learn more here about how Alibaba is helping the small business expand

Alibaba Cloud Unveils Incentives, Rebates to support 12,000—Strong Partner Network

Alibaba Cloud said on Monday its partner network has swelled to around 12,000 companies, up from 11,000 last year, as it continues to invest in building relationships worldwide, according to platform executives.

“Partners play an essential role in enhancing and delivering Alibaba Cloud’s services and offerings to our global customers,” said Selina Yuan, President of International Business at Alibaba Cloud, in a statement.

The company will offer discounts and rebates for resellers and distributors, incentives for independent software vendors and join product or service launch initiatives for all partners as part of a $1 billion investment plan launched in September 2022 to support partners’ technology innovations over the next two fiscal years.

Learn more now

Alibaba Celebrates 7 Years of Retail Innovation in Italy – Slideshow

Alibaba hosted more than 600 designers, executives and business people last week to celebrate seven years of supporting Italian businesses in the Chinese market.

Attendees included Italy’s Deputy Minister of Enterprises and Made In Italy MP Valentino Valentini and Diego della Valle, President of luxury leather brand Tod’s.

“The protection of intellectual property and brands in collaboration with the group’s platforms contributes to the development of Italian exports and the gorwing presence of Made In Italy in China,” the deputy minister tweeted after the event.

Take a peek at some highlights from the event with Alizila’s slideshow