Alibaba Group Holding is rolling out a new outfit for its delivery workers that resembles the racing suit for Formula One (F1) racers, as the company seeks to give China’s e-commerce sector a facelift.

Alibaba will conduct an internal auction of 102 autographed uniforms, signed by group founder Jack Ma, CEO Eddie Wu Yongming and e-commerce chief Jiang Fan for the firm’s employees on Sept 10, Alibaba’s anniversary, according to a company post on Friday. The new orange uniform, a change from the previous light blue Ele.me outfits, featured 22 brands from the business.

The new uniform was first introduced in late August and the company is in the process of equipping active couriers. The kit includes upgraded helmets and food delivery boxes. Post owner Alibaba said the material was waterproof, wind-resistant and insulated and each set also came with a first aid pouch and a personal information holder to improve rider safety.

The new outfit comes as Alibaba invests in its delivery force in an effort to turn itself into a comprehensive e-commerce service provider. In early July, the Hangzhou-based firm pledged to pour 50bil yuan (RM29.57bil or US$7bil) into subsidies over the course of 12 months to win over consumers and merchants, jumping into a heated battle with Chinese delivery giant Meituan.

Alibaba said it had achieved an initial victory in its quest. On the firm’s second-quarter earnings call, Jiang said the number of daily active riders on Taobao’s Shangou instant commerce platform had surpassed 2 million – an increase of three times from April – creating over 1 million new jobs.

Shangou’s daily order volumes peaked at 120 million in July during an intense subsidy war, while monthly active users reached 300 million in August. The surge eroded Meituan’s market share. Meituan also said its second-quarter net profit fell 96.8% from a year earlier to 365.3mil yuan (RM216.10mil or US$51.2mil) and projected a loss for the third quarter. Meituan has 3.36 million monthly active riders and its peak of daily orders reached 150 billion, CEO Wang Xing said in an internal letter over the weekend.

The new delivery kit features all the logos from Alibaba’s business units plus the key logos from affiliate Ant Group.

The new outfit was also part of Alibaba’s effort to rebrand its couriers as “city riders” to “honour the profession of every rider”. Ele.me, Alibaba’s delivery unit, was merged in June into Alibaba’s core China e-commerce segment under Jiang.

Alibaba also rolled out a range of welfare measures for riders, such as subsidies for healthcare and pensions, special support for disabled riders, incentives for good deeds and educational help.

Alibaba’s investment in instant retail will continue, as Jiang said on the earnings call that the focus would shift more from scale to improving per-order economics and fulfilment efficiency while stressing that the high-frequency nature of instant purchases significantly boosts the Taobao business.

He said that instant retail could generate 1 trillion yuan (RM591.57bil) in additional transactions for the platform within three years. – South China Morning Post