Alibaba’s Ele.me to roll out $75m subsidies to consumers, merchants

The company also set aside $10m in benefits for its employees.

Alibaba’s on-demand delivery service Ele.me has unveiled plans to offer several rounds of incentives to support Shanghai merchants and encourage spending in the city, the company announced in a news release.

Ele.me will launch $74.64m (RMB500m) in subsidies to boost confidence in the consumption market, with $29.86m (RMB200m) going to merchants and the rest distributed as red packets and promotions to consumers, Alibaba said.

In addition, the platform said it has set aside an additional $10.45m (RMB70m) to ramp up efforts to improve employee benefits.

Just 1,400 stores were able to stay open and serve Shanghai’s roughly 25 million residents during the lockdowns in April and early May, according to the platform.