E-Commerce and Marketing Case Study 2022

Running head: E-COMMERCE & MARKETING
E-COMMERCE & MARKETING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Major services provided by Alibaba
Alibaba or Alibaba Group Holding Limited, is a conglomerate organization which has
its presence all over the world, and is based in China. The organization is specialised in e-
commerce, internet, retail and technology. The multinational organization was founded in the
year of 1999, and the founder is Jack Ma. The headquarter o this organization is in Zhejiang,
and the organization provides consumer-to-consumer, business-to-business and business-to-
consumer sales services through the system of web portals along with through the services of
electronic payments, services of clod computing and services of shopping search engines.
The products which are offered by the management of this organization ranges from e-
commerce to entertainment, retail, films, mobile media, television shows and others. Coming
to the services offered by this multinational conglomerate, it involves Alibaba.com, Alibaba
Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, AliOS, AliExpress, AliGenie, Alipay and others. The organization
employs almost 102,000 people globally. Overall, it can be stated that the organization of
Alibaba is the largest retailer and e-commerce business entity in the whole world
(Alibabagroup.com 2019).
One of the major competitor in the region of China is JD.com. This business house is
treated as one of the primary and major competitor of the organization of Alibaba in the e-
commerce platform. It can be stated in this context that the organization of JD.com can be
termed as a direct-sales retailer house. Contrasting in the context of the e-commerce services
that is offered to the customers around the world, JD.com warehouses, ships and markets the
products or the merchandises directly to the consumers who are from the region of China by
the help of the national shipping network that is possessed by the management of this
business entity. This is one of the strategic advantage that is enjoyed by this company, which
also involves a last-mile delivery feature throughout the most parts of the region, which helps
the customers to receive their needed product by the help of the unique service provided by
the management of JD.com (Wang et al 2018).

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Competitive Advantage of Alibaba in China
It can be stared in this context that Alibaba possess three major business-to-business
divisions. One of the site is 1688.com, which focuses all the transactions that is performed
between the businesses by using the Chines language. This site is mainly used by the
management of this organization in the region of China to perform their business.
Transparent business operations that are performed by the management of Alibaba
throughout the world. Convenience in the overall business operations in the region of China
has helped Alibaba to perform the overall buying and selling process in the Chinese market
(Osawa 2014).
Another major, and probably the most important competitive advantage that is
enjoyed by Alibaba is the number of internet users. More than 560 million internet users are
present in the market place of China. It can be stated in this context that China is the largest
market of internet users globally, and this is enjoyed as they are the most populated nation in
the world. It increase the scope or opportunity to target the most number of people, which is
another competitive advantage that is enjoyed by the management of Alibaba. The customer
friendly approach that is followed by this organization also helps to gain the competitive
advantage against its rivals like JD.com and other business entities (Ter, Tan and Pan 2016).
Motivational Factors
From the above discussed competitive advantages of the business house of Alibaba, it
can be clearly stated that the motivational factors plays an integral part in the overall business
operations that is performed by the management of Alibaba in China as well as in the other
parts of the world. The motivational factors that are enjoyed by Alibaba are the number of
internet users as well as the scope of performing business in the region of China. It has been
already discussed that China is the largest market of internet users globally, which increases
the overall scope or opportunity to target the most number of people possible and sale the
wide array of products and services that are offered by Alibaba (Tan et al 2015).
From the consumer’s point of view, the motivational factor that is enjoyed by the
people present in China is the availability of different products and services that is offered to
them by Alibaba. The robust search function, easy to use and consumer-friendly approach
that acts as a motivation of the customers to use the services that are offered by Alibaba along
with purchasing the products that are sold by them, too. Assurance of securing the overall,

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online payment system in the Chinese market has also motivated the consumers to avail the
products and services that is offered by the management of this multinational conglomerate
(Wu and Gereffi 2018).
Recommended Strategies
Advancement or improvement on the field of technology has ignited the opportunity
level of the organizations like Alibaba whose entire business operations depend on usage of
internet. But there are people who are not comfortable to access the internet or do not uses
smartphones. It can be stated in this context that more than 400 million people in the region
of China do not uses smartphones and internet (Statista 2019). Therefore, Alibaba is losing
these market segment, who may possess the power to use the wide array of products and
services that are offered by this multinational house.
In order to target this market segment, Alibaba may open some physical stores,
through which different products and services can be sold from there, which are usually sold
in the online platform of Alibaba. This will help these targeted segment to select the different
range of products and services that are usually sold in the online platform of the organization.
This will both increase the market share of the organization of Alibaba and the revenue
earning from the market place of China.
The people who are not the customers of Alibaba at present need to be identified, and
they need to be offered the product and service according to their need and requirement and
in lesser price, so that they will feel attracted towards this organization and purchase their
products and services, which will increase their customer base and gain the competitive
advantage against the rival business houses (Anwar 2017).
Recommended Strategies for Alibaba
It has been already discussed that the organization of JD.com along with other
business entities like Tencent, Baidu, Wanda and others possess serious competition in the
Chinese market place. It can be said in this context that all these local companies provide
unique but major challenges to Alibaba in the retail and e-commerce platforms in China.
Diversified line of businesses that are performed in the market place of China helped them to
lead against the local competitors who are present in the Chinese market. The wide array of
services that are offered by Alibaba through their e-commerce platform. Engaging the people
with their online platform will help them to identify the ever-changing needs and

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requirements of the people and satisfy them by offering the products and services required by
them (Rui 2018). It can be said in this context that provide unique things in innovative ways
helps to attract people from this competitive market place and helps to gain the competitive
edge over others. Possessing the power of satisfying the needs and requirements of the people
present in the Chinese market place will help the management of Alibaba to taste the success
in the online market, where they have to face cut-throat competition from the local businesses
from China like JD.com, Tencent, Baidu, Wanda and others which will help to provide
unique but major challenges in the retail and e-commerce platforms and enjoy the sustainable
competitive advantage (Kim, Zhang and Zhang 2016).
Distinct Differences
In this context, it can be said that there possess particular differences between
marketing as well as selling of goods in online platforms in business to business-to-business
and to business-to-consumers. The example that will be taken in this context is Lazada
Group, which was bought by Alibaba (Lazada.com 2019). It is an e-commerce platform,
which performs online shopping to the end customers. It can be stated in this context that
different approaches are followed by the management of an organization to attract the people
from market place and business entities. Identification of the customers in their online
shopping platform is done and products are sold according to their needs and requirements.
Whereas, the needs and requirements of the business houses as a whole are identified in the
B2B business approach and strategies are designed according to that. The overall transaction
of the goods sold on the online platform of this e-commerce platform takes a lot of time, as
the final approval between the management of Alibaba in the context of Lazada Group and
the business to whom they are selling takes a lot of time. On the other hand, the buying and
selling process takes much lesser time when they are sold to be end customers. A thoroughly
planned decision making process is involved in the B2B decision making process, whereas
emotion plays an important part in the decision making process in the B2C business between
the Lazada Group and the other business houses which are involved in the overall transaction
process (Kolis and Jirinova 2013).

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Reference
Anwar, S.T., 2017. Alibaba: Entrepreneurial growth and global expansion in B2B/B2C
markets. Journal of International Entrepreneurship, 15(4), pp.366-389.
Alibabagroup.com. (2019). Alibaba Group. [online] Available at:
https://www.alibabagroup.com/en/global/home [Accessed 21 Dec. 2019].
Kim, S., Zhang, X.A. and Zhang, B.W., 2016. Self-mocking crisis strategy on social media:
Focusing on Alibaba chairman Jack Ma in China. Public Relations Review, 42(5), pp.903-
912.
Kolis, K. and Jirinova, K., 2013. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN B2B AND B2C CUSTOMER
RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT. FINDINGS FROM THE CZECH
REPUBLIC. European Scientific Journal, 4, pp.22-27.
Lazada.com. (2019). Home. [online] Available at: https://www.lazada.com/ [Accessed 22
Dec. 2019].
Osawa, J., 2014. Alibaba Tackles Amazon, eBay on Home Turf. Wall Street Journal, 11.
Rui, W., 2018. Internationalization Strategy of Chinese E-Commerce Firms. The Case of
Alibaba Group.
Statista. (2019). China: non-smartphone users by monthly data volume 2012 | Statista.
[online] Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/286146/distribution-of-non-
smartphone-users-in-china-by-monthly-data-volume/ [Accessed 21 Dec. 2019].
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Wu, X. and Gereffi, G., 2018. Amazon and Alibaba: Internet Governance, Business Models,
and Internationalization Strategies. In International Business in the Information and Digital
Age (pp. 327-356). Emerald Publishing Limited.