Alibaba Courts the U.S. and Europe to Get Global Growth

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Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is ramping up its global expansion with new services aimed at attracting small businesses in the U.S. and Europe.

Alibaba.com — the company’s business-to-business platform which sells to companies outside China — is launching “Alibaba Guaranteed.”  The new service will provide buyers with greater certainty on delivery, payments and dispute settlement.

Alibaba Restructures

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The Jack Ma-founded conglomerate, which includes Alibaba, said on Tuesday, March 28, 2023 it was planning to split into six units and explore fundraisings or listings for most of them, marking the biggest restructuring in its 24-year history.

This might be a signal that Beijing’s regulatory crackdown on corporates is ending, propelling the conglomerate's shares higher and boosting investor confidence in prospects for Chinese tech firms.

Alibaba Goes From a 1 Million Goal to 2,000 Small U.S. Businesses Per Year

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Alibaba is going through a major transformation – transformation these days means cutting budgets, firing people and running a much leaner ship.  Also with the transformation comes a more realistic goal on their future performance.

History:  Alibaba launched its B2B eCommerce site, Alibaba.com, in the U.S. three years ago and set a goal of adding 1 million local businesses and global reach, but the company has fallen short of those targets in the ensuing years, the report said, citing three people familiar with the operations.

The majority of U.S. sellers cancel their subscriptions after a year, past and current employees said in the report. One person said Alibaba.com is now looking to sign up 2,000 small U.S. businesses per year rather than the 1 million goal.

Read on to see how the efforts of Alibaba to rival Amazon are falling a bit short.

Today in Global Small Business: Should You Care About the Global Minimum Tax?

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• With International MSMEs Day, China vows more support for small businesses.
• Changes in global tax structure – the Global Minimum Tax – will affect even global small businesses. Here's how to prepare.
• In the midst of a global pandemic, no matter how hard-working, creative, patient or resilient the local small business owner may be, the odds of achieving success are slim.  Yet they manage to survive and thrive.  Here's how.
• Quote of the week:  "I call Alibaba '1,001 mistakes.' We expanded too fast, and then in the dot-com bubble, we had to have layoffs. By 2002, we had only enough cash to survive for 18 months. We had a lot of free members using our site, and we didn't know how we'd make money. So we developed a product for China exporters to meet U.S. buyers online. This model saved us." – Jack Ma, co-founder and former executive chairman of Alibaba Group
• The resale market is booming.  Here's how global small businesses can benefit.
• Trade experts take stock on USMC's first anniversary.

Today in Global Small Business: The Art of Selling Online Globally

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• The art of selling online – globally.  
• Quote of the week: “We weren't born to create excuses, we were born to create excellence.”— Janna Cachola
• Hey New Yorkers, Chinese company Alibaba wants to teach you how to use their global B2B tool.
• Learn how to jump into the international market!
• Discover what small businesses think about artificial intelligence.
• How building a community can overcome a global culture of contempt.

The Belles of the Ball: E-Commerce SMEs

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U.S.-based small to midsize enterprises (SMEs), especially those in the business-to-business (B2B) realm, have been left behind in the rush to meet growing e-commerce demands of consumers. Digital marketplaces catering to small businesses in the B2B world have been mostly non-existent, despite global B2B e-commerce estimated to be a $24 trillion industry.  Alibaba and UPS are not the only ones clamoring to get in front of 30 million American sellers for SME action.

FedEx Corp. has made SME penetration a top priority, and has already announced seven-day-a-week service, extended pick-up times and expanded access points targeted at that market. Amazon.com, Inc. considers SMEs the lifeblood of its business, with its “Fulfillment by Amazon” service, in which smaller merchants use the company as its marketing, fulfillment and delivery partner, representing more than half of its total sales.

Learn how long e-commerce wallflowers, small and midsize enterprises have become the belles of the ball.

阿里巴巴正在通過英語門戶實現其全球抱負

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Alibaba is fulfilling its global ambitions with an English-language portal (阿里巴巴正在通過英語門戶實現其全球抱負) on Tmall, one of the single largest online retailers in China’s $1 trillion e-commerce arena.

The e-commerce giant began offering an English-language portal on Tmall for the first tim to entice more merchants from around the world to sell to Chinese consumers. 

Alibaba is seeking new growth engines to offset a cooling economy at home as the trade war rages on, while fending off increasingly aggressive competitors locally and globally.

Read more about how Alibaba aims to double global brands with its new English site.

Today in Global Small Business: A Few Good Russian Cartoons Are Going Global

©iStock/Ekaterina Bedoeva 

What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• A learning fair can encourage going global.
• International e-commerce is booming these days and so too are the opportunities—and challenges—for payments players.
• A few Russian cartoons are going global thanks to being picked up by Netflix.
• Managing international trademark portfolios in the era of globalization.
• Alibaba's Jack Ma's true mission is not retail, but globalization.
• Register for the next wegginar® on October 3rd:  Small Startup, Big Global Impact, with Kati Kollhoff, CEO, NUMIX: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8060785115734801921 -- no charge but you must register to attend.

Today in Global Small Business: Growing Your Business Beyond Borders

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• News!  Join a weggchat™ via Twitter with Laurel Delaney on "Take Your Business Global" August 8 at 11:00 a.m. Central time.  Instructions here.  E-commerce will be covered.
• How SMEs can build a global approach for growth.
• Not costs, but unpredictability worries SMBs regarding trucker drive shortage.
• Facebook’s in-house creative agency, Creative Shop’s Vice President and Chief Creative Officer, Mark D’Arcy, moves into expanded role as the platform’s VP of Global Business Marketing.
• Alibaba equips individuals with the skills needed for e-commerce success in the digital economy through it Global E-Commerce Talent (GET) Network.
• The risks and opportunities to growing your business beyond borders.

China's Surging Third-Party Payments Market Is in Trouble

Today in Global Small Business: PayPal Marketplaces Goes Global

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• How do you create a workplace that works?  Joselyn DiPetta at Google, and Managing Partner, Present Possibility, will address that topic in the next WEGGinar™ held on Wednesday, December 6 at 11:00 a.m. Central time. WEGGinar™ is no charge but you must sign up to attend: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/1837790091765976835.
• Alibaba sets up a hub for small businesses to go global.
• E-commerce offers significant opportunities to the logistics industry. 
• PayPal Marketplaces goes global.  What is PayPal Marketplaces and how does it differ from regular PayPal?  Find out here.
• Learn how two e-commerce giants -- one being Amazing -- are trying to export their success.
• Discover not 1 but 27 social media tools that will help you become a savvy global marketer.

Today in Global Small Business: Ireland's Most Powerful Women

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• Ireland's most powerful women.
• How to finance export sales (WEGGinar™on 7/12 - no charge).
• Oh UPS and Martha Stewart are kissing ... to Alibaba because China is a BIG market.
• The pros and cons of selling on Amazon.
• How to take a website global.
• A view of business expansion via exporting.

E-Commerce Helps Small Businesses Go Global

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How do you create jobs and generate livelihood in a country?  Set up an e-commerce platform, such as the case in Pakistan, by China's biggest e-commerce portal Alibaba.

The [China] prime minister Nawaz Sharif] termed e-commerce a catalyst for bringing improvement in Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector, which he said could help promote the disadvantaged segments of the society. He said digital transactions were a solution for small entrepreneurs to expand their businesses and reach global markets.

E-commerce has the potential to unlock growth in emerging markets and elsewhere.

Read more ...

Today in Global Small Business: Small Table Maker Vintage Industrial Takes on Alibaba's Fakes

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• Learn five takeaways from the ICC World Trade Agenda Day.
• Jack Ma's bold promise—that Alibaba would help create 1 million jobs in the U.S. over five years.
• Souq.com — which sells health and beauty products and electronic goods — has become the highest-valued internet company in the Middle East.
• Why should you export?
• The financial and cultural considerations to importing for small businesses.
• How a small table maker Vintage Industrial takes on Alibaba's flood of fakes.

Today in Global Small Business: Jack Ma's Future of Commerce

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• Alibaba founder Jack Ma's future of commerce.
• Why UK small businesses aren't thinking globally.
• Four (4) days left to register for the 2nd Annual Global Small Business Forum held in Chicago 10/21.
• Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker says "small businesses are leading the way."
• Is it too early to be planning your 2017 e-commerce holiday calendar (I don't think so).
• The silver bullet for helping small businesses trade: Plurilateral agreement on de minimis.

Today in Global Small Business: WTO Proposes Agreement to Support E-Commerce for SMEs

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• How technology can help small businesses save time with automation and have a global reach.
• Why The International Monetary Fund has urged governments to take action to tackle a record $152tn mountain of debt mountain.
• Register for the 2nd Annual Global Small Business Forum held in Chicago Friday, October 21st.
• World Trade Organization proposes a new global agreement to support e-commerce for SMEs.
• Why Walmart is doubling down on e-commerce investments and what we can learn by it.
• Should Alibaba be put back on the list of sellers of fakes?

Today in Global Small Business: Why Failure Is Good for Success

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• Is the Guggenheim going global?
• Is e-commerce no longer news, at least in India?
• Bull Alibaba in a China shop?
• Higher education in China expands due to globalization.
• Why failure is good for success.
• New immigration rule for entrepreneurs proposed by White House.

The Beginning of a New Global Trading System

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China has more than a billion people and is tapping into markets such as India and Africa -- capturing markets that account for more like three to four billion users, in places with fast emerging middle classes.

"If you are banker and you are in transaction banking, you are foolish if you think in five years' time the majority of your customers' transactions will be conventional supply chain transactions, or conventional trade transactions. They and a growing host of new businesses, often global SMEs, will be trading through platforms like Alibaba. So the banking side of the business will gravitate towards Alibaba, and there may be one or two other platforms competing alongside them."

For example, if we are leaning toward a platform-based global commerce economy, what about Google, Facebook, eBay and Amazon?  Don't underestimate their capabilities.

Read more:  Alibaba advances:  How China is using fin tech to take control of global trade

How Much Can a Company Sell Online in 90 Minutes?

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China-based Alibaba Group Holding Limited announced that USD 5 billion (approximately RMB 31.8 billion) of gross merchandise volume (GMV) was settled through Alipay on Alibaba’s China and international retail marketplaces in the first 90 minutes of the November 11, 2015 Global Shopping Festival.

According to Alibaba Group, this year’s November 11 Global Shopping Festival features more than six million products from more than 30,000 brands sold by over 40,000 merchants.

Learn more:  Alibaba Defined | Alibaba Annual Report 2015

Note:  GMV is the total amount settled through Alipay on Alibaba’s China and international retail marketplaces. All November 11, 2015 GMV and other figures are subject to final auditing following conclusion of the event.

Two Powerhouse CEOs Have a Conversation About the Importance of Global Small Businesses

©2015 Laurel Delaney.  All rights reserved.  Jack Ma, Founder &
Executive Chairman, Alibaba Group (second from left)

©2015 Laurel Delaney.  All rights reserved.

Jack Ma, Founder & Executive Chairman, Alibaba Group (R)

©2015 Laurel Delaney.  All rights reserved.

Jack Ma, Founder & Executive Chairman, Alibaba Group (R)

©2015 Laurel Delaney.  All rights reserved.
Ken Chenault, Chairman & CEO, American Express (L) and Jack Ma, Founder & Executive Chairman, Alibaba Group (R)

I had the great honor and privilege to listen to Ken Chenault, Chairman & CEO, American Express and Jack Ma, Founder & Executive Chairman, Alibaba Group have a conversation on building and supporting the small business community and the opportunities and challenges facing them.

Small businesses are making a big impact.  From local restauranteurs to online shop owners, entrepreneurs are helping shape and enhance their communities around the world.

• Read Jack Ma's latest commentary published in the Wall Street Journal (6/9/15).
• Read the Chicago Tribune news article (6/10/15) about the event.
• Watch the CNBC (LIVE Chicago) interview with Jack Ma talking about Alibaba's international strategy.
• Learn more about the Alibaba Group's story (video) here.
• Internet Retailer's coverage by Nona Tepper here.