HANGZHOU, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Alibaba Group's e-commerce platform Taobao announced Thursday an initiative to deploy its consumer-to-manufacturer (C2M) system, which will bring 10 billion new orders to factories across China over the next three years while prompting up the digital transformation of traditional factories.
According to the company, the initiative also plans to transform 1,000 manufacturers into "Super Factories" with each output exceeding 100 million yuan (about 14.11 million U.S. dollars) and build 10 digital industrial clusters nationwide of more than 10 billion yuan.
Through the system, factories will be able to manage raw materials and product inventory based on precise consumer distribution, preferences and behavioral data, it said.
Also, Taobao will assist these factories with product research, development and promotion. Alibaba's financial arms will provide capital and liquidity to these manufacturers, it added.
"Stepping up our made-to-order strategy is an ongoing Taobao initiative to diversify product supplies across its ecosystem to meet demand from our consumers and help manufacturers lagging in the digital race use technology to transform their processes," said Wang Hai, general manager of Taobao's C2M business unit.
"Manufacturers will benefit from increased efficiency and reduced costs and will be able to generate higher revenues," Wang said.
