Alibaba.com, Alibaba Group’s B2B marketplace, is launching a new B2B service called Alibaba.com Select, aimed at retailers, distributors, wholesalers, medium and large enterprises in Europe that already import from China or are interested in doing so.
According to “The Future of B2B E-Commerce: Online Platforms,” an independent study by Euromonitor International in collaboration with Alibaba.com, large companies have been able to adapt quickly to digital-only business, but SMEs (sellers or buyers) have been slower to change strategy and adopt e-commerce. The research showed that this is often due to a lack of resources and access to information about the platforms’ capabilities, so they tend to focus on working with established partners. Alibaba.com Select responds directly to this need by offering a comprehensive B2B procurement service.
The buying process within Alibaba.com Select includes five phases: Request for Proposal, Bid Analysis, Product and Documentation Analysis, Contract Signing, and Contract Closing. Throughout the process, Alibaba.com’s European team supports the buyer. The buyer gets maximum insight into the production processes and can track the status of the delivery in real-time.
The project is mainly active in the product categories of home products, including textiles and linens, clothing, small appliances, consumer electronics, DIY products, garden furniture, products related to solar energy and e-mobility (charging stations). Alibaba.com has a network of 200,000 sellers and over 40 million buyers in more than 200 countries. The launch of the new service is intended to help B2B buyers optimize their own supply chains, according to Alibaba.
