Alibaba’s September sourcing festival: US orders up 31.6%

The surge in US orders during Alibaba's September sourcing festival signals resilient cross-border demand despite broader trade tensions, with AI-driven discovery tools increasingly converting into measurable GMV growth. The breadth of growth across nearly all industries suggests this is not a sector-specific spike but a platform-wide acceleration, which could indicate shifting procurement patterns among global buyers. What matters next is whether this momentum persists beyond the promotional window and whether AI's role in matching buyers with merchants becomes a structural driver of trade flows rather than a seasonal boost.