Alibaba Launches Top-tier "88 VIP" Membership

Redefines customer experience with exclusive benefits across the Alibaba ecosystem

HANGZHOU, China, Aug. 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA) today rolled out a new premium "88 VIP" membership package that will offer exclusive benefits to members across the Alibaba ecosystem covering commerce, entertainment and local services. The "88 VIP" membership is a new tier within the 88 Membership Club, the customer-loyalty program launched last year for Tmall and Taobao marketplace customers.   

Currently Tmall and Taobao users can participate in the 88 Membership Club for free. For the first time, users can now purchase this premium "88 VIP" package to enjoy more extensive access to brand services, discounts and benefits. Users with 1,000 membership points and above will only need to pay an annual fee of RMB88 to get a tier upgrade to become an "88 VIP" member. Members with less than 1,000 points can choose to pay RMB888 for the upgrade.

"88 VIP" members will be able to enjoy a 5% discount on Tmall Supermarket and the flagship stores of 88 local and international brands on Taobao and Tmall. In addition, an "88 VIP" member is automatically entitled to membership across various Alibaba businesses, including video-streaming platform Youku, music-streaming platform Xiami, on-demand delivery service Ele.me and online ticketing portal Taopiaopiao and others. The total value of benefits available to an "88 VIP" member across the Alibaba ecosystem could reach RMB2,000. In the future, Alibaba will continue to bring more exclusive offers to its paid members with the aim to attract more users to join this premium VIP program.

"Customers always take center stage at Alibaba. With the introduction of New Retail, customers are more engaged both online and offline. The decision to have an exclusive membership tier is not just about rewarding our most active members, it's also about building an all-around experience our customers can enjoy every day," said Chris Tung, Chief Marketing Officer of Alibaba Group.

"The move exemplifies why we launched our membership program in the first place -- to provide our customers with not just goods, but also a better lifestyle. We want our '88 VIP' members to enjoy the best shopping discounts, the most-entertaining content and the most-reliable local services that Alibaba can offer," Tung added.

The 88 Membership Club was launched in August last year when Alibaba merged its Tmall and Taobao Marketplace loyalty programs into a single membership platform, to ratchet up the shopping experience for more than 500 million active users, while leveraging consumer insights to better connect brands with club members. Membership points are accumulated based not just on transaction volume, but also on the level of customer engagement.

About Alibaba Group

Alibaba Group's mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. The company aims to build the future infrastructure of commerce. It envisions that its customers will meet, work and live at Alibaba, and that it will be a company that lasts at least 102 years.

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