18 01732 759725 INTERVIEW have increased tremendously. In addition to Trade Assurance and AI tools, we’re improving our payment system to make transactions more fluid all the way through to payment, for example by introducing local European payment methods and different types of credit card. MIT: What other things should SMEs be looking for from Alibaba.com in the next 12 months? ML: CoCreate is one of the most important initiatives in the coming months, a not-to-be-missed opportunity for entrepreneurs and SMBs to discover the latest enhancements to Alibaba.com. I would invite all SMBs to join us at CoCreate in London on November 14 and, before that, urge anyone with a great product or business idea to enter CoCreate Pitch to be in with a chance of winning a share of the £750,000 prize fund. www.alibabacocreate.com product ideas to finding suppliers to placing an order and completing the transaction. MIT: Apart from the AI tools you’re developing, are there other ways you’re strengthening your platform or other areas where you are seeking to make improvements? ML: There’s still a lot we can do because B2B transactions are very complex. Our long-term vision is to make it easy to do business anywhere and to make B2B transactions as easy as buying a pair of sneakers online. The AI tools we’re developing will simplify the process, but we also believe the trust element in B2B transactions is superimportant, so we are doing a lot to develop trust between buyers and sellers, for example through Trade Assurance, which is like having Alibaba.com in the middle, providing assurance services for both sellers and buyers so that they can trade with confidence. Our goal is to increase use of Trade Assurance around the globe, particularly in the European market where Trade Assurance orders human resources, and AI tools really can help them become more efficient and effective. Our B2B AI sourcing tool Accio. com, for example, is revolutionising how SMEs do business, enabling them to make very data-driven, informed sourcing decisions. As soon as they have a product idea, they can use Accio to test that idea, to see its market potential, to see whether a similar product is already in the market, and to work out the right retail price, taking into consideration wholesale prices, business costs, margins etc.. They can then finetune attributes, find the best supplier to develop the product and connect with them via our communication tools. Since we launched Accio.com last year, it has been used by more than 2 million users globally, highlighting the desire of SMBs to incorporate AI tools into the sourcing experience. Already, it has increased purchasing intent by 40% compared to traditional methods, and our team at Accio is continuing to enhance tools and add more functionality to give SMBs great support all along the supply chain, from developing CoCreate Pitch Alibaba.com is supporting its launch of CoCreate in Europe by extending its product-based pitch competition, CoCreate Pitch, to SMES globally. Entrepreneurs and SMEs interested in taking a product idea from prototype to global distribution are being invited to submit their entry to CoCreate Pitch before the October 15 deadline. They can either post a 30-second video highlighting their business or product idea on Instagram or TikTok (using the hashtag #CoCreatePitch and tag @Alibaba.com_official) or they can fill out an online form at https://pitch.alibabacocreate.com/?tracelog=pr. Submissions will be judged on innovation, feasibility and market potential. Thirty European semi-finalists will be announced on October 25, before finalists pitch live at CoCreate London in front of a judging panel made up of industry leaders and investors, including Everette Taylor, CEO of Kickstarter, the official Crowdfunding Partner of CoCreate Pitch 2025. Two Grand Champions, from the Las Vegas and London events, will each receive approximately £150,000 (50% cash and 50% in sourcing credits on Alibaba.com), with 20 global winners being awarded up to £30,000 in cash and sourcing credits. All participants will receive complimentary access to Alibaba.com’s AI-powered sourcing tools and supplier network, enabling rapid prototyping and costefficient production. See last year’s highlights at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LojKyVGN0tY ...continued
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDUxNDM=