① AliExpress platform’s own resource allocation
According to the business positioning of the AliExpress platform, its main team is roughly composed of relevant departments such as the technology research and development department, the buyer development department, the seller development department, the customer service department, and the logistics support department. Among them, the main work content of the technology research and development department is the construction of the website itself and the development of related tools; the main work content of the buyer development department is how to expand buyers, and the focus of work may be on SEO, SEM, EDM and other aspects; the main work content of the seller development department is how to expand sellers; the main work content of the customer service department includes seller certification, payment and refund processing, dispute handling, etc.; the logistics support department includes various general logistics support work such as finance and human resources.
② AliExpress platform’s core partners
There are two types of major partners of the AliExpress platform, the first is online payment manufacturers, and the second is Google. In the international environment, PayPal is the most important tool for completing online transaction payments; and the buyers of the AliExpress platform are mainly obtained through search engines such as Google. However, in the entire business process of the AliExpress platform, the AliExpress platform itself does not directly have a relationship with related logistics companies such as DHL, UPS, TNT, and EMS.
(4) The cost structure of the AliExpress platform.
The main costs of the AliExpress platform are divided into two categories, namely operating costs and promotion costs. Operating costs include employee salaries, rent, electricity, servers and related expenses; promotion costs mainly include keyword advertising promotion costs on search engines such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google. This cost fluctuates greatly and sometimes far exceeds its operating costs. Since its launch in 2009, the AliExpress platform has placed huge amounts of advertising on overseas television, newspapers, magazines, and mainstream European and American websites. For example, it has invested hundreds of thousands of hot-selling product keywords in Google and used SNS, email, and other methods to expand its overseas influence.
(5) The source of income for the AliExpress platform.
The main sources of income for the AliExpress platform are four categories. The first is AliExpress Express, which is based on click payment, similar to Taobao Express. The second is alliance promotion. Sellers set commission ratios to attract foreign websites to promote, and pay according to transactions, similar to Alimama Taobao Alliance. The third is the withdrawal fee, that is, the seller is charged a fee of US$15 for each withdrawal operation, and the US$15 income is shared by AliExpress and Citibank Singapore. The fourth is from transaction commissions. Alibaba will charge a transaction commission of 3% to 9.15% of the total transaction amount for each successful transaction on the platform according to the payment method. This platform currently supports wire transfers, Alipay and other cross-border online payment methods. Among them, if the seller uses Alipay (Escrow) to conduct transactions, Alibaba only charges a 5% commission, that is, 5% of the total product price plus the total shipping cost, which is currently the lowest fee among similar payment services in the world.