The difference between Aliexpress and Alibaba is retail and wholesale. AliExpress started in April 2010, and its services currently cover more than 200 countries and regions around the world. Through refined operations in key countries, it has achieved rapid development in Russia, Brazil, Spain, the United States and other countries.
In the past, AliExpress was a C2C platform with low prices, low quality, and a mixed bag. At the end of 2015, AliExpress upgraded and transformed into a B2C platform. Alibaba Group has still spotted the trend of domestic industrial upgrading and manufacturing quality improvement. Through measures to crack down on counterfeit goods, speculation, fraud, and inferior quality, it has eliminated groups of merchants who repeatedly open stores, repeatedly distribute goods, and “play tricks.” Only by raising the threshold of the platform can enterprises and brands enter, eliminating some individual sellers and sellers who distribute goods, and also hope to produce high-quality products like Amazon.
According to the announcement of Alibaba Group, AliExpress’s GMV in 2014 was approximately 23 billion yuan, with revenue of 9.8 billion yuan. About 65% of its transactions were through international Alipay transactions. Based on this, the platform commission rate is estimated to be approximately 4%, when the cross-border “Double 11” shopping spree was launched for the first time. By “Double 11” in 2016, exports generated a total of 36 million orders, an increase of 5 times, and 50% of the transaction volume came from the mobile terminal.
The number of overseas independent buyers on AliExpress has reached 100 million, and the top five countries in terms of transaction volume are: Russia, the United States, Spain, France and the United Kingdom.
For Alibaba Group to achieve its international goals of “buying globally” and “selling globally”, building AliExpress into an online retail trading platform for the global market is key. 11Main, which was once built in the United States, The overseas e-commerce platform has given up.
In addition to the current domestic retail exports, the next step for AliExpress is to expand to local sellers to serve local buyers. Finally, it will transform from “Selling Goods Globally” to “Selling Goods Globally”, where all sellers can To sell to the world, the proposed “big data empowering” small and medium-sized enterprises is no different from the B2B platform strategy.
AliExpress’s transformation into B2C seems to be following the path of Tmall, abandoning small sellers and killing the donkey. However, in the context of the industry, it is necessary to help China’s small and medium-sized brands complete their transformation and upgrading in the global market. First, we must complete the transformation and upgrading of the platform itself. The first is product upgrading. All merchants must settle in as enterprises. Individual merchants are no longer allowed to settle in. Products must be branded. Under this policy, at least 1/3 of the original products will be removed from the shelves.
AliExpress is divided into eight major business scopes, with eighteen major business categories. It charges annual fees to merchants based on the major business categories to increase the entry threshold; at the same time, through the “annual fee refund” measure , to encourage high-quality merchants, if the annual transaction volume is more than 60,000 US dollars and the service indicators meet the standards, 100% of the annual fee will be refunded.
Second, through multiple dynamic indicator assessments, we will continue to survive and eliminate the fittest, and combat excessive and disorderly platform competition such as fakes, speculation, fraud, and inferior quality.
Third, global layout is inseparable from logistics, improve logistics guarantee, and cancel untraceable package transportation. The logistics support behind AliExpress mainly relies on the Cainiao platform. Cainiao proposes cross-border fourth-party logistics “worry-free logistics” to negotiate with logistics providers on behalf of merchants and consumers to obtain more favorable prices and services, and based on logistics data Analyze and predict to choose better logistics channels for merchants.
For example, provide trading goods into Cainiao’s cooperative warehouse, and add offline physical unpacking inspection to achieve dual online and offline control.
At the same time, more cross-border logistics cooperation channels have been opened up. The Cainiao platform has entered into the Universal Postal Union network by establishing strategic cooperation with China Post; after a large number of goods are collected, commercial lines are directly shipped to Russia, and with electronic customs clearance technology, Improved customs clearance efficiency; opened an AliExpress display store at Moscow Railway Station, scan the QR code on site to make reservations; cooperated with Hong Kong Post, Singapore Post, 7-11, FamilyMart, CircleK, etc. to provide self-pickup points for consumers in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and other places .