Mar and Alibaba partnership
From left: Raphael Grillion, e-commerce director of Royal Canin China; Cecilia Li, vice-president and managing director of Wrigley China; Jet Jing, vice-president of Alibaba Group; David Manzini, general manager of Mars Chocolate China; Carl Su, general manager of Mars Petcare China.

HANGZHOU, CHINA — Mars Inc. has partnered with Alibaba, an on-line and mobile commerce company, to sell products in China. Mars brand foods will be available on Alibaba’s on-line platforms, Tmall and Rural Taobao. The partnership also includes the development of an e-commerce food safety program through Mars’ Global Food Safety Center (GFSC) in China.

As part of the partnership, Mars said it plans to use Alibaba’s marketing services to improve its efficiency. Many of Mars’ brands already have been successful on Tmall, the company said.

“Mars is an invaluable addition to our ecosystem, and this collaboration is a significant milestone for Alibaba as we now have established close partnerships with three of the world’s top food and beverage companies,” said Jet Jing, vice-president of Alibaba Group. “We will continue to enable the digital transformation of our partners to help them leverage our ecosystem of marketplaces and infrastructure of support for brand building, customer management, channel expansion and product innovation. Alibaba and Mars share a common commitment to improving safety standards, quality monitoring, and consumer awareness in China. With our combined strengths and resources, we are confident that we can elevate China’s consumption model in the era of big data, and deliver greater economic and social benefits to all stakeholders.”

In April, Mondelez International, Inc. entered into a partnership with Alibaba Group to sell its range of snacks products on-line. Mondelez created a “store” on Alibaba’s Tmall.com platform, and also increased its investment in Tmall.com by introducing exclusive products through the platform. In May, Mondelez introduced Oreo Colorfilled cookies to the Chinese market. The Colorfilled initiative, which was introduced in the United States in 2015, allows consumers to customize the packaging of Oreo cookies.