Global trade is changing, don’t get left behind

BY SELENA SINGLETON

Did you know the opportunity in global B2B e-commerce is six times larger than B2C? According to the US International Trade Commission, it is a $23.9 trillion market. And global trade is only on the rise. The 2019 US B2B E-commerce Market Report outlines a consistent trend of 12 percent annual growth in B2B e-commerce sales over the past two years.

E-commerce is critical for any business to capture this demand, but it’s not always easy to get started. There are challenges that come along with learning to sell online to audiences both local and global. Building an e-commerce site takes time, money, and technical skills. It is also difficult to learn how to find the right customers, then find a way to communicate and transact with them.

This is why more and more businesses are reaching their business buyers on Alibaba.com, a global e-commerce marketplace where B2B buyers and sellers all over the world connect. Alibaba.com is an end-to-end trading platform serving businesses of every size across 190 countries and regions.

Selling on Alibaba.com is akin to participating at a trade show that is open 24/7, 365 days a year, with over 10 million active buyers passing through every year. The mission of Alibaba.com is to make it easy to do business anywhere. This means helping buyers find suppliers quickly and efficiently, and enabling sellers to access skyrocketing demand from a global community of buyers.

The platform features keyword advertising for sellers to target buyers interested in specific product categories. Live translation tools are built in to ensure buyers and sellers can communicate and transact in a trusted environment. Each service offered on Alibaba.com is designed to help businesses overcome barriers to succeeding in global trade.

Alibaba.com opened its B2B platform to U.S. businesses this summer and introduced tools designed specifically for them. This gives the opportunity for business owners to sell their products to both buyers in the U.S. and across the globe. These companies recognize they can become multinational companies without leaving their office.

To better serve our customers from around the country, and to more deeply understand their needs, a national “Build Up” tour was born. These workshop and networking events feature our local partners, customers, and executives from the Alibaba.com U.S. team. We travel to different cities across America to build community with businesses that are interested in tapping into the global B2B e-commerce opportunity.

Build Ups consist of interactive discussions geared toward helping people “build up” their businesses through Alibaba.com and the ecosystem of partnerships and services that we are continually growing. Attendees can then partake in a Q&A session, followed by one-on-one meetings for business owners interested in learning more.

Our most recent partnership with the Queens Chamber of Commerce brought the Build Up tour right to our backyard. Over 85 business owners attended, and we enjoyed meeting everyone face-to-face to discuss ways Alibaba.com can help them grow in 2020.

We’re looking forward to future events and workshops with the Queens Chamber of Commerce. Make sure to stop by alibaba.com/events if you’re ready to start growing your online B2B sales.

Selena Singleton is association partnership director for Alibaba.com North America. She can be reached at [email protected]

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