Welcome US sellers!
That’s what Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. is telling US business firms.
The e-tailer is planning to allow small US businesses to sell on its oldest online platform Alibaba.com, the company confirmed as it seeks to tap into the business-to-business online market.
This will help Alibaba compete more aggressively against the rivals Amazon and Shopify which already have thriving marketplace for themselves.
This development will open up markets served by Alibaba to US merchants, including India, Brazil and Canada. US merchants, previously able to only buy on Alibaba.com, can now also sell to other US-based businesses on the marketplace.
“Alibaba aims to empower entrepreneurs and help them succeed on their own terms,” said John Caplan, Head of North America B2B at Alibaba Group.
He further added that the firm is not too concerned about the competition with the likes of Amazon, Shopify and others. “We think competition is good and we think anything that helps small businesses is good. So we are interested in building an ecosystem of relationships and companies that are helping US small businesses be successful,” he said.
According the United States International Trade Commission, the so-called B2B industry generated US $ 23.9 trillion in revenue globally in 2016, while e-commerce sales directly to consumers totalled US $ 3.8 trillion that year. And majority of this revenue will be to Chinese businesses.
This comes as Alibaba is facing lean e-commerce revenue growth which has been further threatened by the US-China trade war and a growing number of rivals.
Alibaba is hoping to attract local US businesses as their marketplace platform of choice by offering global selling power to small- and medium-sized businesses. Alibaba highlighted its interest in winning over manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors.
The firm had recently launched an English-language website for its Tmall Global platform, in an attempt to double the number of international brands on the platform to 40,000 in the next three years.
