Shanghai, China – Sep. 16, 2020 – Dow Inc. today announced an agreement that accelerates the incubation of new products and helps drive the growth of local consumer brands by providing Dow’s innovative materials science solutions to brands with a presence in Tmall’s baby care category. The announcement was made at a joint signing ceremony with Alibaba Group’s baby.tmall.com and imall.1688.com at the Alibaba Baby & Maternity Incubation Center, a significant milestone in imall.1688.com’s C2M (Consumer-to-Manufacturer) strategy to offer customized products to consumers and a step forward in Alibaba Group’s drive for product incubation and commercialization.
Dow will leverage its leading technologies and R&D expertise to provide customized materials development services and solutions to help leading and new brands under Tmall stay competitive in the race to meet Chinese parents’ desire for unique, high quality mother and baby products. Under the partnership, Baby.tmall.com will provide materials suppliers with accurate market insights and analysis while imall.1688.com will drive the incubation of new products and brands in China, efficiently allowing consumer brands to connect directly to manufacturers to make purchases under a C2M model.
“With big data and in-depth market insights driven by AI, baby.tmall.com and imall.1688.com will bring more accurate information on innovation trends and market forecasts to materials suppliers like Dow,” said Yoke Loon Lim, president of Dow Greater China. “Our close partnership will leverage the strengths of all three parties to shorten the lead time for the application and commercialization of new materials from 12 months to less than six months.”
Dow and Alibaba have been successful in similar partnerships. In March, when the COVID-19 pandemic was rampant, the Dow 1688 Flagship Store developed a new sterilizing laundry detergent within 30 days through the imall.1688.com and Tmall platform. The detergent was sold through Tmall.com to address an immediate market need, demonstrating the value that a C2M strategy can bring to industrial brands.
“The next decade will be a Consumer-to-Manufacturer age. Consumers will decide product materials, bringing B2B manufacturers from behind-the-scenes to connect directly with consumers,” said Wang Hai, Alibaba Group VP, general manager of Domestic Trade and general manager of the C2M Division. “Our goal is to leverage innovative formulas and patents from materials science brands and work with consumer brands to quickly create high-quality products.”
Empowered by Alibaba’s data, leading materials providers at 1688.com will reach numerous domestic emerging brands at baby.tmall.com. The 1688.com platform will also provide a comprehensive and economical production-and-purchase solution, pushing online retail to a new level with the vibrant iteration of high-quality products.
Dow and Alibaba Group started their digital partnership in December 2018, when the Dow Flagship Store opened at 1688.com. Today, the online space sells more than 120 products and receives thousands of sales leads annually. In 2019, Dow and imall.1688.com launched a strategic cooperation in big data, full-field marketing and C2M that resulted in the successful completion of multiple C2M projects during the first half of 2020. Dow has a wide range of applications for the baby and maternity care market, including eco-friendly and innovative materials science solutions used for maternal and infant mattresses, pillows, strollers, safety seats, and other traveling and bedding products.
About Dow
Dow (NYSE: DOW) combines global breadth, asset integration and scale, focused innovation and leading business positions to achieve profitable growth. The Company’s ambition is to become the most innovative, customer centric, inclusive and sustainable materials science company. Dow’s portfolio of plastics, industrial intermediates, coatings and silicones businesses delivers a broad range of differentiated science-based products and solutions for its customers in high-growth market segments, such as packaging, infrastructure and consumer care. Dow operates 109 manufacturing sites in 31 countries and employs approximately 36,500 people. Dow delivered sales of approximately $43 billion in 2019.
For further information contact:
Rachel Wu
Dow Greater China
+86 21 3851 2961
rachelwu@dow.com