Alibaba to attract top brands in image rejig

E-commerce giant sets $15.6b sales goal for high-end goods After being dogged by accusations of selling poor-quality, even counterfeit goods, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said on Monday that it is planning to rope in more high-end manufacturers to boost the overall image of its online marketplace.

It said it had teamed up with four quality-inspection organizations to ensure that he products sold directly by the manufacturers conformed to Chinese quality standards.

The company said on Monday it will invest tens of billions of yuan to attract more than 10,000 quality manufacturers to set up virtual stores on its Taobao marketplace, setting an annual sales target of 100 billion yuan ($15.61 billion) for high-end goods.