Alibaba Gateway was held in the US, June 21 to 22, 2017. This is the largest event Alibaba has hosted outside of China. More than 3000 people participated. The event covered many success stories of merchants selling on Alibaba’s platforms in different categories with sessions detailing how Alibaba can help more American businesses sell on its platform.

Speakers at the conference discussed about the significant demand for American goods in China. Overall, US goods are ranked as the third most popular items on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms after goods from Japan and South Korea.

Chinese consumers generally prefer American brands, as they believe they represent premium quality and better design. This was the takeaway from Alibaba Gateway ’17. The international conference helped small-to-medium-sized businesses in US understand the opportunity in China and sell their products in China via Alibaba’s various platforms.

The conference highlighted that the market potential for the fashion category is expected to be driven by rising demand from the lower tier cities of China. The market size for fashion in China is projected to reach 195 billion dollars in five years. There are currently 102 cities in China with a population of over one million. The combined spending power of the lower tier cities is estimated to equal the four tier one cities—Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.