S&P expects bulk buying to eat into Alibaba's future profits. "Community buying" where groups of consumers appoint a leader to choose items and take delivery is catching on, particularly in smaller and poorer cities. It took off during the COVID outbreak, when grocery stores closed and people avoided crowded places. Consumers then realized it was both convenient and cheap. Community buying, which S&P estimates hit C¥130 billion in 2020, is still a small fraction of the overall C¥39 trillion online spend in China. But it is likely to grow 50% to 60% in 2021, based on sales momentum and recent corporate investments, the rating agency forecasts. It may also help companies translate grocery spending in China, a US$770 billion industry, online. Alibaba has responded to bulk and community buying with a "Taobao Deals" program and other initiatives. This, S&P predicts, will eat into margins, which for this segment have fallen from 71.5% for the previous two fiscal years to about 68% in calendar 2020.