Alibaba Group Announces 2020 Spring Thunder Initiative to Help SMEs during the COVID-19 Pandemic
By: Alibaba Cloud
Tags: Coronavirus, E Commerce Business, Retail, Alibabacloud, Sme

Bolster the growth and digital transformation of your business amid the outbreak through the Anti COVID-19 SME Enablement Program. Get a $300 coupon package for all new SME customers or a $500 coupon for paying customers.

In order to win this inevitable battle against COVID-19, Alibaba Group is stepping up its efforts to support SMEs around the world by sharing our technical expertise and through the newly launched 2020 Spring Thunder Initiative. Similar to the relief measures that were rolled out during the 2008 financial crisis, the Spring Thunder Initiative is designed to help small and medium enterprises during the immediate crisis and to open them up to more business opportunities in the long run. Measures from the initiative include helping SMEs expand into new markets through Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms, alleviating immediate financial challenges, fostering digitized manufacturing clusters and accelerating the digital transformation of China’s agriculture sector.

Alibaba Cloud Launches the Global Anti COVID-19 SME Enablement Program

In order to support the digital transformation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) during this ongoing health crisis, Alibaba Cloud has launched the Anti COVID-19 SME Enablement Program. Through this program, Alibaba Cloud is offering a $300 coupon package for all new SME customers, which covers 12 key products including Elastic Compute Service (ECS) servers, ApsaraDB for RDS databases, and Object Storage Service (OSS) instances.

Existing Alibaba Cloud paying customers are eligible for a $500 coupon, which can be used on one of the 8 advanced products including ApsaraDB RDS, PolarDB, Redis, MongoDB, Global Accelerator, Cloud Enterprise Network, Web Application Firewall, and Anti-DDoS. In addition, we would like to invite all global associations that are supporting SMEs to join our enablement program and enjoy additional benefits. This program is valid from April 23rd to June 22nd.

Alipay Bolsters Chinese SMEs amid Covid-19

Following the announcement of the 2020 Spring Thunder Initiative, Alipay also shared seven ways in which it would aid SMEs in China through their economic hardships. The platform has committed to help 50,000 offline merchants bring their businesses online and said it would offer free online training courses to more than 3 million people in the service industry to prepare for this digital transformation. Alipay would also provide additional support to merchants in Wuhan — the original epicenter of Covid-19 — by offering them interest-free loans for the first month.

Cainiao to Help Merchants Save RMB1 Billion in Logistics

Alibaba’s logistics arm Cainiao on Thursday said it would lower logistics costs for merchants by RMB1 billion in the coming year as a part of Alibaba’s Spring Thunder Initiative to support SMEs. This includes offering transportation at cheaper rates and cutting logistics fees for orders processed in bonded warehouses by 15%.

Lazada Increases Support for SMEs

E-commerce platform Lazada has ramped up measures to drive business activity across Southeast Asia during the coronavirus outbreak. Aside from continuing to offer reduced freight rates for cross-border merchants, the platform has also increased its number of charter flights and has rolled out an incubation program that provides online training on e-commerce operations and traffic growth.

Tmall Drives Growth for Brands

Alibaba Group’s B2C online marketplace Tmall launched its Super Consumer Growth Accelerator program to help brands and businesses hit by Covid-19. Tapping the many tools and resources within the Alibaba ecosystem, the program aims to drive 30 billion new visits to Tmall in 2020. Meanwhile, the platform’s cross-border unit, Tmall Global, said it aims to bring 1,000 new international brands onboard over the course of the next 12 months. The e-commerce operator said it would expand its brand-incubation plan, which was piloted last year and is part of its five-year program to bring $200 billion worth of imported goods into China.

To learn more about the latest efforts by Alibaba Group in the fight against COVID-19, please visit the following pages:

While continuing to wage war against the worldwide outbreak, Alibaba Cloud will play its part and will do all it can to help others in their battles with the coronavirus. Learn how we can support your business continuity at https://www.alibabacloud.com/campaign/fight-coronavirus-covid-19

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