Alibaba signs David Beckham as a brand ambassador

Alibaba announced that retired soccer star David Beckham is its new global brand ambassador.

CNBC confirmed that Beckham will promote AliExpress, the brand’s e-commerce platform, as part of the global deal, which was signed on Monday, May 27.

The terms of Beckham’s deal were not disclosed, but the move is part of larger sponsorship of the UEFA European Football Championship by several companies including Adidas, Alipay, Atos, Betano, Booking.com, BYD, Coca-Cola, Engelbert Strauss, Hisense, Lidl , Unilever Nutrition/Unilever Personal Care, Visit Qatar/Qatar Airways and Vivo.

“AliExpress is helping fans get even closer to UEFA EURO 2024™ this summer by offering them great rewards while the action is on the pitch,” Beckham said in a statement announcing the partnership.

Alibaba also announced that as part of its sponsorship of the event, it will offer app users a range of promotions, including free tickets to UEFA European matches.

According to Alibaba, this investment in the European market is a continuation of the company’s previous investments in the Middle East market in the first quarter of 2024.

This latest news also comes on the heels of Alibaba’s greater success with its recent “Singles’ Day.”

Singles’ Day, which began as an online shopping event celebrated every year on November 11 in China, has evolved into a multi-week shopping celebration spanning both real retail stores and a variety of e-commerce platforms. The impact of the pandemic on the economy did not stop the festival’s development, which proves consumer confidence. Alibaba confirmed strong sales of its e-commerce platforms Tmall and Taobao last year, without disclosing exact numbers.

Alibaba announced at the start of last year’s Singles’ Day that it would make 80 million products available at the deepest discount, encouraging its sellers to price aggressively. Analysts said the move was aimed at staying competitive with rivals Douyin and Pinduoduo, which consistently offered cheap goods. Therefore, discounts of 40% to 50% were more typical.

Total sales on various e-commerce platforms increased by about 2.08% to reach 1.14 trillion yuan ($156.4 billion), according to analytics firm Syntun. In contrast to the 2.9% increase compared to the previous year, this result indicated a moderate weakening in growth.