technologyreseller.co.uk 13 TR: Are there other ways in which you’re strengthening your platform or other areas where you are seeking to make improvements? ML: 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 that process, but we also believe the trust element in B2B transactions is important, so we’re doing a lot to create 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 they can trade with confidence. Our goal is to increase the use of Trade Assurance around the globe, particularly in the European market where Trade Assurance orders 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. TR: What other things should SMEs be looking out for from Alibaba.com? 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 tools that automatically generate highly professional digitalised catalogues that allow suppliers to get a new product or new offer to market in a fraction of the time it used to take. By fully digitalising their catalogues, suppliers also increase their visibility, because when a product is easily searchable, it is more likely to be found by buyers, who are also refining how they search for products. SMBs have very limited resources in terms of time and 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 SMBs 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 1 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 support SMBs all along the supply chain, from developing product ideas and finding suppliers to placing an order and completing the transaction. services to increase their visibility and we also provide services to buyers to give them the best digital sourcing experience, for example trade assurance and logistics services. TR: What digital sourcing trends are you seeing in Europe? ML: We see two big trends. As I mentioned, Alibaba.com is essentially a generalist platform: we have final consumer products on the one hand and raw materials and equipment on the other, and both product types have recorded very strong sales. On the consumer side, there’s a huge growth in products like shoes and fashion accessories, which have increased by more than 153%, and in consumer electronics and smart devices, which have grown by more than 73%. Where companies are not just buying products to sell, a lot have started to use our platform to source commercial equipment they need to operate their business. Sales of equipment that, say, a restaurant or a hotel might need have grown by almost 95%. We’re confident that being a generalist platform, serving companies whether they source products to use or to sell, is a source of growth for us. We are also seeing good growth for products that are very European, like French wine and Italian food or machinery from the industrial regions of Europe, so we will continue to reinforce our supply network and offer buyers more diversified products in terms of their geographical provenance and product type. TR: What do you see as Alibaba.com’s other core strengths? ML: From the start, Alibaba.com has been a platform for connecting buyers and sellers digitally and globally. As such, our strength lies in developing digital tools and infrastructure that make the sourcing experience more fluid, more efficient, more productive and lower cost, both for buyers and sellers. As we move into the AI era, our development of AI technology is very focused on solving the practical problems faced by SMBs. In the case of digital sourcing or global procurement, we have already developed AI tools that allow B2B buyers to get data-driven, tailor-made recommendations on suppliers. We also make it easy for them to connect with global suppliers through our communication tools. On the seller side, in addition to digital services that ensure the trustworthiness of transactions, we have developed AI INTERVIEW 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. You can either post a 30-second video highlighting your business or product idea on Instagram or TikTok (using the hashtag #CoCreatePitch and tag @Alibaba.com_official) or 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. See last year’s highlights at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LojKyVGN0tY
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