Alibaba Group Holding is known for connecting the foreign brands with the Chinese consumers. Now the Chinese e-commerce giant wants to be the go-to online marketplace, as part of its globalization strategy, where the American businesses trade with each other.
For US market on Tuesday, July 23, 2019, the Chinese e-commerce company revealed its ambitious plans by launching the new capabilities on Alibaba.com for US businesses that includes domestic payments, the marketing tools, and also a US-based support team.
The company is also kicking off a national tour to recruit small-scale US businesses, in Brooklyn, New York, to sell on its platform.
Few more anchor retailers like RobinsonFresh and Office Depot have also opened their stores on Alibaba.com, but still company is not revealing exact number of U.S. sellers, that signed up for the new initiative so far or its goal.
This also put the Chinese e-commerce giant in direct competition with Amazon, in business-to-business (B2B) online marketplace. The online business sales have also grown fast and that have also overtaken retail e-commerce sales. U.S. B2B e-commerce market will be worth $1.1 trillion, by 2019, as compared to business-to-consumer (B2C) market at $480 billion, according to Forrester.
“Our relationship with our sellers is we’re an ally to them. And it’s really important to understand that if you’re a seller, it’s all about how you own the relationship with your customers, We don’t,” said John Caplan, the head of Alibaba’s B2B business in North America.
