Alibaba is building a brick-and-mortar mall - BI Intelligence

Alibaba is planning to open its first brick-and-mortar mall in April at its headquarters in Hangzhou, China, MarketWatch reports . “More Mall,” as it is reportedly called, will be five stories tall and offer products from brands on Alibaba’s Taobao platform and elsewhere. It will also feature retail technologies like virtual fitting rooms, high-tech makeup testing mirrors, and Alibaba’s tech-based grocery store. More Mall is another step in Alibaba’s plan to go after traditional retail. The company has invested as much as $8 billion in brick-and-mortar retail in the last two years, according to Forbes, with its current footprint including Hema, its grocery store chain, and Tao Cafe, its unstaffed convenience store. Hema stores allow shoppers to get additional product information by scanning a barcode and order items to be shipped from the store, while Tao Cafe offers customers the ability to pick their products and pay automatically upon their exit. These innovations could ...