Alibaba's Tmall introduces insurance to guarantee real goods

A pedestrian walks past advertisements for the Tmall 11.11 online shopping festival on the Singles Day at a subway station in Shanghai, China, OCt 29, 2015. [Photo/IC]

HANGZHOU - Tmall, Alibaba's international retail platform, introduced insurance to guarantee the authenticity and quality of its products on Thursday, in the run-up to the yearly Singles' Day shopping spree on Nov 11.

Consumers who receive fake products will receive unconditional returns and refunds and compensation four times the paid price.

According to Alibaba, several thousand brands including Louis Vuitton, Samsung, Xiaomi, Panasonic and Siemens have joined an initiative to crack down on fake goods. Sports brands such as Nike, Adidas, Converse and Reebok have worked out a fast identification process to facilitate consumers' insurance claims.

In addition, quality insurance will help consumers seek compensation if received products do not match their online descriptions.

Both insurance plans were jointly launched by Tmall, Alibaba's financial service affiliate Ant Financial and insurance companies including People's Insurance Company of China (PICC)and Ping An Insurance.

Alibaba raked in $9.3 billion on Singles' Day last year.