Alibaba.com is the platform of the Chinese e-commerce company of the same name, aimed at overseas business clients.
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BEIJING – Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is expanding its global expansion by offering new services aimed at attracting small businesses in the US and Europe.
Alibaba.com, the company’s business platform that sells to companies outside China, announced Thursday the launch of the “Alibaba Guarantee” to provide greater confidence in shipping, payments and dispute resolution.
The platform is part of Alibaba’s fast-growing international business, which also sells directly to consumers overseas through sites such as AliExpress.
While consumers in China have long enjoyed shipping tracking and favorable returns policies, small businesses purchasing goods on cross-border e-commerce platforms do not due to the added complexity of cross-border trade.
Alibaba.com’s new service aims to provide customers with more accurate delivery dates and free local returns, the company said in a press release.
“We think this is in line with current global trends,” Guo Zhang, president of Alibaba.com, said in an interview Thursday, according to a CNBC translation of his remarks in Mandarin.
He noted a growing trend toward fragmentation of supply chains and said a growing number of local businesses, whether in the cosmetics or auto industries, needed to buy globally to protect profits.
The online platform mainly sells products from Chinese suppliers to small businesses in Europe, the US and other parts of the world. The Alibaba.com website states that you can buy individual products or in bulk, but the user registration page notes that “suppliers prefer to do business with companies.”
Zhang said the number of shoppers on Alibaba.com has at least tripled over the past five years, with the gross value of online goods reaching about $50 billion. GMV measures total sales over a given period.
Demand for equipment
Over the past three to four years, the most popular products sold on Alibaba.com include custom T-shirt printing or laser cutting machines, Zhang said.
He noted that since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, growing interest in diversifying supply chains has stimulated demand for such machines. The growth of the new energy vehicle industry has also generated demand for new auto parts sold by Alibaba.com, Zhang said.
Sporting goods are also popular among shoppers in Europe, he said.
In November, Alibaba.com invested in German business company Visable and its European marketplace europages.
Alibaba.com works with many EU suppliers who sell within the bloc, Zhang said, adding that the company aims to help the region accelerate digitalization by bringing more technology to business.
Trade activity within the EU is much higher than the bloc’s trade with other countries, he noted.
Alibaba.com will also begin incorporating artificial intelligence tools into its platform this year, Zhang said.
These include the ability for sellers to use AI to quickly create product descriptions with search keywords or provide customer support after hours, he said.