AI is rewriting China's consumer product expansion overseas.
Author | Dao Ma
In 2025, the global influence of Chinese consumer enterprises has entered a new stage.
According to data from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, the Research Institute of Donghai Securities, and McKinsey, the global retail revenue reached $3.268 trillion in 2024, with the Chinese market contributing $660 billion, accounting for 20% of the global total. Among them, 80% of Chinese retail enterprises are actively deploying in overseas markets. Chinese consumer products are gradually emerging on the global stage.
From DJI drones to the now globally popular Labubu; from domestic three-wheeled vehicles to the robots and robotic dogs under Unitree Technology; and then to Miniso, Mixue Ice Cream & Tea, and Bawang Cha Ji... In the process of globalization of Chinese consumer enterprises, we clearly perceive a change: Chinese consumer enterprises are achieving breakthroughs at a faster pace, and the "adaptability" demand for Chinese products overseas is stronger.
There is no doubt that the global consumer market is welcoming the "Chinese Moment." Looking back at the past two decades, the overseas expansion of Chinese consumer enterprises has undergone three changes: In the 1.0 stage of globalization, we started from foreign trade, achieved foreign exports through OEM, and completed the first step of going global; in the 2.0 stage of globalization, we entered the era of product going global, began to distribute products and open branches according to the characteristics of overseas markets, and cross-border e-commerce began to rise; in the 3.0 stage of globalization, digital intelligence has greatly accelerated globalization, the pace and efficiency of Chinese enterprises going global have increased significantly, and Chinese products and enterprises have been deeply integrated into overseas local markets.
Under the new stage, the basic environment and logic for Chinese consumer enterprises to go global have begun to change. In addition to their own innovation and R & D, AI is becoming the new infrastructure for Chinese consumer enterprises to go global.
Chinese consumer enterprises going global already have a new growth lever, and this lever effect is being replicated on a large scale.
01 The overseas expansion of retail enterprises has entered a new development stage of cloud-intelligence integration
Driven by the wave of digital economy globalization, the retail industry is undergoing unprecedented changes. With the innovation of production methods and the upgrading of user needs, overseas enterprises face higher requirements: they not only need to continuously improve product quality and service efficiency through digitalization, but also need to empower through AI technology and carry out refined and localized operations to win the global market.
To meet the improvement of these two aspects of capabilities for retail enterprises to go global, full-stack AI capabilities are indispensable.
"AI + going global brings more possibilities to today's retail enterprises." On July 9th, at the Alibaba Cloud Summit for Chinese Enterprises Going Global (Beijing Station), Han Hongyuan, the Chief Solution Architect of the Public Cloud Business Unit of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group, said: "Chinese enterprises have many advantages, but they lack the opportunity to quickly find basic capabilities after going overseas. As a leading AI cloud, Alibaba Cloud should promote and cover the basic capabilities that Chinese enterprises are used to and rely on both at home and abroad to help Chinese enterprises smoothly carry out business overseas."
Han Hongyuan, the Chief Solution Architect of the Public Cloud Business Unit of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group
AI is becoming the key lever for the rapid growth of Chinese retail enterprises going global. According to a survey by Xiaguang Think Tank, more than 90% of retail consumer goods enterprises are considering or implementing generative AI in the field of supply chain logistics. Technology is driving Chinese retail enterprises to release unprecedented productivity and efficiency.
Cao Kuang, a senior solution architect in the North China region of the Public Cloud Business Unit of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group, said: "First of all, the combination of cloud and AI has become an industry consensus. The characteristics of cloud services such as elastic expansion, flexible deployment, and instant response are the best carriers to support the development of AI. Secondly, on the AI infrastructure we have built, enterprises can more efficiently integrate high-quality resources and focus on upper - layer application innovation. Alibaba Cloud's global layout not only provides cloud computing capabilities but also extends AI capabilities overseas, providing strong technical support for the global development of enterprises."
Cao Kuang, a senior solution architect in the North China region of the Public Cloud Business Unit of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group
The effect of AI is accelerating its manifestation in the practical experiences of many enterprises. Liu Chenyu, the person in charge of Xiaguang Think Tank, said at the summit: "The era of enterprises going global alone is over. Chinese enterprises face more and more tests when going global. From infrastructure such as cloud, logistics, and warehousing to links such as payment, marketing, and compliance, the required capabilities are becoming more and more vertically segmented and professional systems, and these cannot be completed by a single enterprise. With the improvement of the service provider ecosystem, their binding with the business of overseas enterprises deepens, and the resulting growth effect will gradually appear."
Liu Chenyu, the person in charge of Xiaguang Think Tank
This trend is particularly obvious in the intelligent transformation of the retail industry. Cao Zhi, a senior product solution architect of the Artificial Intelligence Platform PAI of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group, said: "The recommendation scenarios for fast - moving consumer goods are becoming more and more diversified, and recommendation is essential in the consumer field. In addition to product recommendations, it also involves emerging scenarios such as social recommendations and video recommendations. Alibaba Cloud can provide targeted solutions according to the scale, technological maturity, and needs of different customers to help enterprises optimize the recommendation system and achieve business growth."
Cao Zhi, a senior product solution architect of the Artificial Intelligence Platform PAI of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group
In addition, the value of data assets cannot be ignored. Zhen Rixin, the vice - president of Lingyang, said: "In the era of large models, building a global data system is the core competitiveness of enterprises. The model layer is difficult to become the exclusive competitiveness of enterprises. Structured and unstructured data (documents, pictures, etc.) determine the intelligence level and differentiation of intelligent agents. It is recommended that enterprises should systematically plan application scenarios, integrate global data assets, build a data governance system, and support AI - driven overseas data applications. In the future, multi - party co - creation and exploration are needed."
Zhen Rixin, the vice - president of Lingyang
These concepts are accelerating their transformation into industry practices. At the summit, many retail SaaS enterprises such as Boxiaotong, Zhichi Technology, and UFIDA also shared their technology practice scenarios. The cutting - edge technological strength of Alibaba Cloud is vividly demonstrating the globalization pace of the Chinese retail industry through them and the retail enterprises they serve.
02 Instant retail in the AI era has achieved an explosive growth of 45% in sales in three months
Instant retail is experiencing explosive growth globally. Taking Brazil as an example, the number of instant retail users in this market has doubled from 40 million to 80 million within a year, and the 30 - minute delivery service in the country covers more than 7 million physical stores. In this wave, how can enterprises break through the challenges of fragmented channels and refined operations?
Zhang Yu, the CEO of Boxiaotong Technology, said in his sharing at the summit: "AI technology is not an abstract concept but a tool rooted in front - line business. Only by empowering the entire chain from product selection to pricing, from channels to execution can sustainable growth be achieved."
Zhang Yu, the CEO of Boxiaotong Technology
In the battlefield of instant retail, product selection is the first and most crucial step. In the traditional model, enterprises rely on the experience of buyers or on - site investigations overseas, which is not only costly but also difficult to keep up with the rapidly changing market rhythm. However, AI technology makes the emergence of "blockbusters" no longer accidental through in - depth mining of full - channel data.
For example, the transformation of a Shenzhen - based incense - diffuser enterprise going global. As a former candle OEM factory ranked among the top three in the world, when it entered the incense - diffuser track after the pandemic, it faced the dilemma of "unable to conduct overseas investigations and unclear new product directions." Boxiaotong integrated the full - volume data of overseas brand official websites, social accounts, and e - commerce platforms based on AI technology - including user reviews from 12 countries, listing records of more than 300 supermarkets, and new product announcements of international brands - to build a real - time updated trend model and concluded that citrus - scented and small - capacity (below 50ml) incense - diffusers have a growth rate of more than 50% among young people in Europe and America, and supermarkets such as Walmart prefer mid - end products priced at $10 - 15. Based on this insight, the enterprise precisely adjusted its supply chain, designed suitable products for Walmart and IKEA, and achieved a sales volume of 600 million from scratch in just a few years. Its self - operated business on Amazon also exceeded 70 million. "The hard strength of the Chinese supply chain needs the 'navigation system' of AI to precisely connect with global demand," Zhang Yu said.
The "price chaos" caused by fragmented channels is another major pain point for instant retail enterprises. A leading dairy enterprise once saw its annual sales volume shrink by 8% due to out - of - control channel pricing; while a pharmaceutical chain store increased its market share in Shanghai by 12% and its net profit by 1% within three months through AI - driven refined management after its market share declined. Behind this is the hardcore ability of AI in price monitoring and channel optimization.
In the aspect of price management, the system built by AI realizes "real - time scanning + intelligent early warning": The price data covering all channels (including authorized stores, unauthorized dealers, and cross - border platforms) is updated once an hour. Once an abnormal situation such as a premium of more than 20% or a discount below the cost line occurs, the system will automatically trigger an early warning and trace it back to the specific store. A fast - moving consumer goods enterprise planning to raise prices found through this system that 30% of terminal stores had discounted without permission. After timely rectification, it not only stabilized the market order but also recovered a 2% profit loss.
The optimization of channels focuses on "mining high - quality stores" and "execution closed - loop." The AI algorithm screens out "golden stores" from millions of stores across the country by analyzing 15 dimensions such as the order volume of a single store, delivery range, and user repurchase rate. For example, a 1000 - square - meter Wumart supermarket in Beijing has a much higher instant retail order volume than a front - warehouse with a scale of 200 people, but it was not included in the brand's key cooperation list. After the brand discovered this gap through AI scanning, it quickly established cooperation, and the number of new orders increased by more than 3000 in a single month.
More importantly, AI can penetrate the appearance of "strategic signing" and directly hit the execution and implementation. A nutritional products enterprise has a strategic cooperation agreement with a leading KA chain, but AI data shows that the actual on - shelf rate at the terminal is only 60%. By targeting and strengthening 300 blank stores, the sales volume of the enterprise's instant retail channel increased by 45% in three months.
"It's important to know what to do, and it's even more important to know what has been done," Zhang Yu emphasized. The growth of instant retail cannot be achieved without the execution closed - loop of the "last mile." AI technology enables enterprises to keep track of "whether the goods have arrived at the store, whether the products are on the shelves, and whether the prices are compliant" in real - time through full - channel scanning.
Another representative case is a pharmaceutical chain enterprise in Shanghai. After its market share declined, the enterprise used the AI system to scan the instant retail data of more than 5000 pharmacies in Shanghai every week and found that 30% of the stores had problems such as "out - of - stock of core drugs" and "inconsistent online and offline prices." So the enterprise carried out rectification for three consecutive months: optimizing the replenishment cycle, unifying online and offline pricing, and strengthening staff training... Eventually, it not only increased its market share by 12% but also increased its net profit by 1% due to reduced excessive promotions.
This kind of closed - loop of "data insight - strategy formulation - execution monitoring - effect review" is the core value of AI empowering retail enterprises. "The growth of instant retail is like building a tower with sand, and AI enables each grain of sand to be precisely piled up where it should be," Zhang Yu said.
It can be said that the competition in instant retail has entered the era of "millimeter - level" refinement today. The practice of Boxiaotong proves that AI technology is not just an icing - on - the - cake tool but the core engine to reconstruct the entire chain of "product selection - pricing - channels - execution." It enables enterprises to see the trends in the fragmented market and finally achieve a growth leap from "passive adaptation" to "active creation."
"The future of instant retail will definitely be a data - driven battlefield. Those who can deeply integrate AI with their business will be able to run out their own acceleration on the 30 - minute delivery track," Zhang Yu said.
Zhang Yu introduced that the cooperation between Boxiaotong and Alibaba Cloud is a strong combination in the fields of big data and cloud computing. Boxiaotong will continue to maintain in - depth cooperation with Alibaba Cloud. By integrating the technical, resource, and service advantages of both sides, it provides more comprehensive, efficient, and secure digital solutions for enterprises. In the field of instant retail, Boxiaotong's channel operation empowerment products, combined with Alibaba Cloud's global network coverage and stable cloud services, help retail enterprises achieve refined operation of multiple channels, reasonably allocate resources, and enhance their competitiveness in the terminal market.
03 Intelligent marketing services in the AI era accelerate the connection with global consumers
A few years ago, enterprises going global generally faced some confusion: Should the customer service system be lightweight or heavily invested? Should they choose outsourcing services or build their own teams? This is like the dilemma enterprises face when going global - whether to cast a wide net or concentrate resources on key channels. In the stage of rapid business growth, enterprises need to expand their contact points with customers and also be prepared to bear the pressure of a large number of communication interactions.
In addition, as the key role to directly establish communication links with users, customer service faces challenges such as language differences, communication habits, and remote team management and cooperation. These problems are difficult to solve only through online communication. Often, multiple roles of the local team need to cooperate to ensure the efficiency and smoothness of services. For example, for intelligent hardware enterprises such as consumer electronics, when customers encounter problems, they need to create and assign tickets, and the local engineer team or the technical team of partners will implement the solutions. This means that customer service is often a full - process service, not the work of one person.
Now, there are answers to the above questions. "When Chinese retail enterprises go global, not only do products and brands need to go out, but also pre - sales and after - sales consultations are important parts to enhance the corporate brand image," Duan Xinlong, the industry consulting director and overseas consulting expert of Zhichi Technology, said at the summit. The communication data between enterprises and customers has become an important infrastructure for enterprises going global.
Duan Xinlong, the industry consulting director and overseas consulting expert of Zhichi Technology
Today's emerging overseas brands attach more and more importance to the construction of customer contact centers. Zhichi Technology has been continuously helping overseas enterprises build customer contact centers, enabling customers to access through multiple contact points such as voice calls, independent websites, and overseas social media.
The customer contact center is not only a channel for after - sales communication but also a position for brands to establish connections with users, undertaking functions such as marketing and private - domain operation, and enhancing the connection between consumers and brands. A well - known domestic cross - border e - commerce fast - fashion enterprise saw its overseas business grow rapidly last year. A large number of service demands such as pre - sales consultations, logistics inquiries, and after - sales returns and exchanges became a huge pressure for it.
Therefore, their customer contact center built a communication system with customers based on IM tools and overseas WhatsApp accounts. For example, according to the current stage of merchants (settlement, incubation, growth), through these tags, customer service problems can be quickly diverted to relevant responsible persons to improve the response speed. In addition, they also built a media matrix on overseas social media such as Instagram and Facebook. By outputting high - frequency content and interacting with customers through replying to comments and private messages, they gradually improved consumer satisfaction.
Another difficulty is data compliance. The more developed the region, the stricter the data compliance requirements. For example, in EU countries, collecting phone recordings must obtain the explicit permission of users. When collecting users' private information such as age, religious belief, and social security number, it must be anonymized. This work is not only a large - scale task but also easy to have a negative impact on the corporate image if not handled well.
With the development of large models and artificial intelligence, the gap in cross - language communication has been bridged. With the help of AI technology and the multi - node and multi - data - center of Alibaba Cloud, the service and marketing efficiency of enterprises going global has been significantly improved. As a SaaS service provider, Zhichi Technology has also formed a relatively good cooperation with the Alibaba ecosystem.
Duan Xinlong believes that with the gradual maturity of large - model technology, Chinese enterprises going global should boldly use AI without worrying that AI will be too "cold." For example, in some developed countries in Europe and America, brands generally present a lot of documents on a single page for users to solve problems independently. "If we provide an interactive self - service solution center with a Chatbot, the customer satisfaction will be much higher than that of traditional European and American brands," he said.
Similarly, the customer contact center built based on AI also has an absolute advantage in the overseas logistics scenario. For example, after a well - known domestic logistics express company went global to the Middle East, it found that the cash - on - delivery (COD) model was still widely used locally. However, in many places in the Middle East, there was no perfect postal code and address system, and many delivery addresses were like "a house north of the mosque," resulting in a high probability of empty trips for couriers. Through AI, the enterprise can confirm GPS information and signing time points with users through multiple channels such as overseas social media, text messages, and voice before delivery and provide this information to couriers, greatly improving the communication efficiency between couriers and users and the one - time delivery success rate. This not only optimizes the logistics delivery process but also enhances the customer experience.
04 The enterprise operation service of full - stack AI improves the efficiency of the supply chain by 50%
Under the wave of globalization, the overseas expansion of Chinese retail enterprises has moved from "product export" to the deep - water area of "global operation." How to break through geographical barriers, achieve efficient collaboration, and compliant operation has become the core proposition for Chinese enterprises to go global.
UFIDA BIP Enterprise AI Full - Stack Cloud provides an integrated solution for overseas enterprises based on scenario - based intelligence, full - stack data governance, and cloud - native architecture. Li Huayan, the general manager of the product operation department of the product and R & D center of UFIDA BIP, said: "The new - generation enterprise software must be rooted in scenarios and make AI technology a real productivity tool for globalization."
Li Huayan, the general manager of the product operation department of the product and R & D center of UFIDA BIP
Xianmeilai in Henan is an enterprise going global that produces shrimp dumplings. As an enterprise focusing on frozen seafood processing, its business covers Beihai and Qingdao in China and Ecuador in South America. It faces the complex challenges of multi - organization collaboration, multi - language environment, and cross - time - zone operation - how to integrate 12 domestic production bases, overseas business departments, and more than 20 dealer entities with a unified platform has become a key bottleneck on its IPO path.
Based on the full - stack cloud architecture of Alibaba Cloud and the capabilities of Tongyi large model, UFIDA BIP helped Xianmeilai to "travel light": There is no need to build its own computer room or allocate a large number of IT personnel in Ecuador. It can connect the business nodes in China and South America only through the network. Relying on the local service team in Mexico, it completed the online operation of the full business line at home and abroad in only two and a half months. Now, the response speed of its global supply chain has increased by 50%, and the error in cold - chain resource allocation is controlled within 2 hours, truly achieving "global layout and local in - depth cultivation."
In another case, the "trillion - level data challenge" of Muyuan Group, the "global pig king," highlights the value of AI even more. As an enterprise with an annual output of more than 10 million pigs, its cost accounting needs to be accurate to each pig, and the annual data volume is as high as 40TB. Relying on the in - depth integration of UFIDA BIP and Alibaba Cloud's PolarDB cloud - native database, the AI algorithm realizes the daily cost settlement of 1 billion pieces of data, and the efficiency is 20 times higher than that of the traditional system, laying a data foundation for refined breeding and global expansion.
Li Huayan said that the global capabilities of UFIDA BIP are essentially the product of the deep integration of AI technology and scenarios, and its core advantages are reflected in four dimensions:
Full - stack data governance breaks information silos. Enterprises going global often face the pain points of "numerous heterogeneous systems and chaotic data calibers." UFIDA BIP integrates structured (financial, production data) and unstructured data (contracts, documents, communication records) with a unified data base, and realizes data cleaning, association, and tagging through AI algorithms;
Process automation releases the value of human resources. Embedding AI into the entire business process realizes the closed - loop of "perception - reasoning - action." In the field of the supply chain, the AI scheduling algorithm can dynamically adjust the cold - chain transportation route according to the shrimp production in Ecuador and the domestic demand fluctuations, and the inventory turnover rate is increased by 30%;
Scenario - based intelligence focuses on business effectiveness. UFIDA BIP transforms more than 2000细分场景 into intelligent modules. For example, for the "localized marketing" scenario of retail going global, AI can analyze the consumption habits of the target market and automatically generate multi - language promotion plans; for the "global compliance" scenario, the intelligent compliance engine updates the requirements of EU GDPR, Southeast Asian data protection laws, etc. in real - time to avoid enterprises from suffering billion - level fines due to compliance issues;
The cloud - native architecture supports global collaboration. Relying on Alibaba Cloud's global data centers and acceleration network, UFIDA BIP realizes 24 - hour uninterrupted global access - even in African regions with limited network conditions, it can shorten the page loading speed from 1 minute to 3 seconds through intelligent compression and edge - computing technology, providing stable support for the global store management and base - station operation and maintenance of enterprises such as Huazhu Group and China Mobile.
The practice of UFIDA BIP confirms a conclusion: In the next stage of Chinese enterprises going global, what matters is "technological integration ability" and "scenario implementation ability." Through in - depth collaboration with technology partners such as Alibaba Cloud, UFIDA BIP transforms AI technology into reusable global capabilities, enabling enterprises to quickly build an operation system suitable for the local market without reinventing the wheel.
Globalization is not simply geographical expansion but the reconstruction of the global value chain with digital technology. With the support of AI, the overseas expansion of the Chinese retail industry is moving from "product output" to the deep - water area of "capability output," bringing more and more innovative products and services to global users.
In this process, as a globally leading AI and cloud - computing service provider, Alibaba Cloud has established a strategic direction to fully assist Chinese enterprises to go global in the next decade. It will accelerate the construction of a global cloud - computing network, deploy full - stack AI capabilities at each global node, and strengthen the construction of overseas compliance, service, and ecosystem teams. With global node coverage, full - stack technology products, multi - language AI capabilities, and local services, it firmly supports Chinese enterprises developing overseas.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Xiaguang Society." Author: Dao Ma. Republished with permission from Qiantang.
