AliExpress' Overseas 618 Offensive: Building a Matrix of 100 Top Influencers to Drive Brand Livestreaming

[Ebrun Original] AliExpress' 'Brand ' cross-border brand initiative has received another upgrade. On June 1st, the platform officially announced that during this year's 618 shopping festival, it will launch the 'Global Top 100 Influencer Brand Livestream' campaign. This involves assembling a matrix of 100 top overseas influencers to conduct livestream shopping sessions for Chinese brands participating in AliExpress' 'Brand ' program across the globe.

The campaign kicked off on the first day of AliExpress' overseas 618 promotion, June 1st. Two leading influencers from Spain and Japan came to Alibaba's Xixi Campus to start cross-border livestreams, introducing Chinese brands to local consumers through their cameras.

According to AliExpress, at least 100 such livestreams will be held during this year's 618 period. Apart from the two in Hangzhou, the rest will be broadcast locally overseas, covering 14 countries including Spain, France, Italy, Poland, Germany, the United States, and Brazil. Up to 60 Chinese brands are participating, such as Xiaomi, Gamesir, Honor, and Ugreen.

I. This 618, a Heavy Blow with 'Influencer Livestreaming + Brand Marketing'

The so-called 'Top 100 Influencer Matrix' refers to AliExpress' deep collaboration with over 100 local top-tier and vertical Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) in key global markets and regions, forming a livestream ecosystem network. This network covers multiple language groups including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, and Japanese, and spans core categories like technology, fashion, home goods, maternal & child, and auto parts.

This 618 marks the first time AliExpress is opening up this network to merchants on a large scale. Influencers in the program will broadcast simultaneously on multiple social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok (provided they have over 200,000 followers on the respective platform), introducing Chinese brands to local consumers in their native languages.

'For Chinese brands, the 'Top 100 Influencer Matrix' is a brand-new traffic pool and, more importantly, a trust network,' said Ying Peng, AliExpress Country Business Head. 'In Spain, we are partnering with the host of the national-level price comparison platform CholloMetro, whose influence could be likened to a 'Spanish Li Jiaqi.' In Italy, we have tech review authority Andrea Galeazzi and top kids' blind box influencer SilviaKidsYT. In Brazil, we collaborate with million-follower bloggers Escolha Segura and MW Informática, who specialize in 3C and digital product reviews—they are like the 'Brazilian version of Film Tornado'...'

It is reported that during the 2025 618 period, AliExpress organized a dedicated livestream for Pop Mart, inviting US-based influencer Teala Dunn, with tens of millions of followers, to broadcast from the Pop Mart theme park in Beijing. 240,000 viewers worldwide flooded into her livestream, and over a dozen popular product links, including those for Labubu, sold out instantly upon listing.

Furthermore, AliExpress has been piloting livestreaming in markets like Brazil and Italy. For instance, in Brazil, AliExpress has built a livestream ecosystem comprising 'influencers + regular users + official channels,' achieving high-frequency coverage from weekly to daily broadcasts. It has deeply collaborated with over 50 top local IPs, creating a highly engaging livestream matrix. Currently, the average viewing time per livestream session on AliExpress Brazil is nearly half an hour; during major promotions, livestreaming is a core transaction engine.

'After a year of refining the process, we are formally opening up this capability to brands comprehensively this year,' Ying Peng pointed out. The over 100 dedicated livestreams during the 618 (also known as the Summer Sale) period will serve as a starting point, evolving into a future model of 'benchmark sessions in China + regular local sessions' for influencer livestreaming. On one hand, AliExpress will invite the top few influencers from each country to China to visit brands' R&D centers, places of origin, and industrial clusters. Through innovative formats like 'origin traceability livestreams,' they will transform the supply chain into visual brand stories. On the other hand, through daily operations and product organization capabilities, AliExpress will continuously expand the influence of influencer livestream shopping locally overseas.

Beyond building this off-platform marketing capability through the livestream matrix, AliExpress' 'Brand ' cross-border brand initiative is also upgrading its on-platform marketing capabilities for this year's 618. According to Yan Zhi, AliExpress Head of Brand Cross-Border Marketing, platform IPs like 'Super Brand Day' and 'Super New Product Day' will be further expanded to core markets such as the Americas and South Korea.

II. Building the Influencer Livestream Matrix into New Infrastructure for Brand Globalization

'The influencer livestreaming model will become a long-term 'ecological infrastructure' built by AliExpress for brands,' Ying Peng stated. 'We are not simply helping brands do a one-off influencer livestream shopping session. We are looking at how to bridge the relationship between Chinese brands and global consumers, and how to more systematically, productively, and scalably push more Chinese brands to the world.'

In his view, a major pain point for Chinese brands going global is the lack of awareness and trust—many overseas markets are still in the early stages of brand recognition for 'Made in China,' with impressions lingering on 'cheap but not good enough.' Therefore, AliExpress is elevating overseas influencer livestreaming to a strategic level: deeply connecting Chinese supply chains with global consumers through content seeding, helping Chinese brands make the leap from merely 'selling products' to 'building brand equity.'

'Content seeding is a key bridge for cultural translation,' Ying Peng explained. Chinese products are often feature-rich, but their presentation may not align with how overseas users understand things. Overseas influencers can explain product design concepts and the brand stories behind products using the language, contexts, and emotions familiar to local consumers. Through their genuine reviews and usage feedback, they help consumers make purchasing decisions.

It is reported that in the future, AliExpress will continue to improve its livestreaming capability building, including:

1. Establishing an 'AE Global Livestream Calendar,' setting monthly and weekly themed livestreams (e.g., China Chic Month, Green Smart Manufacturing Week) to provide merchants with regular livestreaming resources. 2. Launching a 'Talent Growth Program,' collaborating with local MCN agencies to cultivate cross-border livestreaming talent. 3. Opening up 'Brand + Livestream' service packages to help more Chinese merchants access this new model. 4. Exploring new technology applications like virtual hosts and AI-assisted commentary to enhance scalability.

III. The 'Brand ' Program Shows Results, Doubling Down This Year

'We are very clear that what AliExpress truly aims to do is evolve from an e-commerce sales platform into an infrastructure for brand globalization,' said Yan Zhi, AliExpress Head of Brand Cross-Border Marketing.

He noted that since its launch in September 2025, the AliExpress 'Brand Cross-Border Brand Program' has continuously strengthened its capabilities, offering brands diversified solutions at about half the cost of Amazon. Data shows that in 2025, the GMV of brands on the AliExpress platform grew by 40% year-over-year, with brand buyer penetration exceeding 30%.

'This year, we will continue to reinforce our positioning in brand globalization and maintain our investment in the 'Brand ' program,' Yan Zhi explained.

Specifically, AliExpress Brand will rely on the dual engines of 'Marketing and Distribution' to build a full-chain growth solution for brand globalization:

First, on the marketing side, it serves to elevate brand awareness. On-platform, it will continuously build new commercial channels and a brand marketing IP matrix; off-platform, it will build a matrix covering over 10,000 influencers across core global markets and 500,000 affiliate publishers, securing advertising spaces in key landmarks across over 100 major cities. Simultaneously,

Second, on the distribution side, it leverages precise forecasting and reliable warehousing & logistics to achieve cost reduction and efficiency gains. Currently, AliExpress has achieved warehousing and logistics coverage in 27 key countries, offering next-day delivery services in major cities across 4 countries. This can reduce merchants' warehousing and logistics costs by 10%. Simultaneously, through precise sales planning and inventory forecasting, the platform helps merchants better manage stock.

Yan Zhi also revealed that in the future, the AliExpress 'Brand Cross-Border Brand Program' will provide more scalable, integrated marketing solutions for brands, continuously strengthening the connection between on- and off-platform marketing resources—starting from this year's 618, it will launch annual CPC/CPS partnership plans for brand merchants.

Furthermore, AliExpress will fully initiate productization and AI capability building to support more brand globalization plans.