Electronic Commerce Strategies : Alibaba Company

Running head: ELECTRONIC COMMERCE STRATEGIES 1
Electronic Commerce Strategies
Name
Professor
Course
Date

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE STRATEGIES 2
Abstract
The report addresses the analysis of the Alibaba Company in connection to its E-
Commerce strategies. The report is based on the questions addressing various parameters within
the Alibaba Company in China. The report analyzes major services provided by the company,
the importance of the company in China.
Introduction
Alibaba Company is one of the major companies in China. It is referred to as the king of
E-commerce in China. This is an undisputed B2C and B2B E-commerce company in China. It
was founded in the year 1999 by Jack Ma. In the first place, the company began as a B2B
exchange. It enabled the Chinese Manufacturers to sell their products such as circuit breakers as
well as hydraulic cylinders to retailers and traders internationally (Agarwal and Wu p.197). From
the next decade, the company branched out and it became first a C2C sector and the second B2C
sector. The two sectors were proved lucrative. Today, the company has been one of the major
developed tech companies becoming a major competitor company in the Tech sector (Blumer,
2016 p. 49).
Question 1
Advertisement services
This is one of the major services offered by Alibaba Company. The company does not
advertise direct but it offers the platform in which sellers can upload their products. Alibaba
allows the business to upload their requirements (Agarwal and Wu p.198). It the platform
provide the advertisement services by allowing the sellers, suppliers, and business to advertise
their products via the platform. Alibaba Company platform being an international one, many
customers can reach the goods and services advertised through the platform. The alibaba major
competitor in china is Amazon.com. Although Alibaba have high number of the sales annually, it
is followed closely by the Amazon.com. Alibaba need to perform better in future because
Amazon.com could take the first position if Alibaba under performs.
The export services
The company has a website known as OneTouch. This website helps the customers’ book
for their export space in the ships from China to other parts of the world. Through the website,

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE STRATEGIES 3
the customers can click on requirements regarding what they need to be exported. The website
has a customer website that guides customers on how to place an export cart for their goods.
Customers’ clearance services
The company has a website that helps in clearing the customers, especially who is willing
to sell their goods and service to other countries (Spina, 2013 p.1142). The website provides the
customers interphase where the customer can place an order of the goods. Through the websites,
the goods and services for the customer are cleared and allowed to proceed with the business.
Question 2
Alibaba Company took advantage of the fast and easy entry into the Chinese market. It
established fast the shops than its competitors. The company emphasized transparency and a
close relationship with its customers. Through close relationships with customers, buyers trusted
the company than any other competitor company. It is one of the most trusted companies in
China because it has been able to deal with online purchase problems. The company has secure
and easy payment channels and therefore it is the most trusted company in China (Zheng, 2013
p.688). Unlike other competitor companies in China, Alibaba Company has designed a robust
search that eases its use. In addition, this strategy ensures consumer-friendliness. The company
has taken advantage of building customers' closeness in China. The Alibaba Company has
established the economic of scale in China hence being a competitive advantage. The Company
is able to attract a large number of customers and vendors as compared to its competitors.
Comparing Alibaba Company and other competitor ones, Alibaba have gained a lot of trust not
only IN China but also in other parts of the world (Caudle, 2014 p.417). It has a wide range of
customers having a bigger economic scale. It has been able to sell so many commodities in many
parts of the world simply because it is recognized as the most trusted company. Through the
economic scale, the company has been able to offer large scale products in low prices possible.
This is one of the factors that have made the Company more unique than its competitors.
Question 3
Alibaba has made its website so easy to be used by the customers. Most of the business
and customers require a website that provides all the goods and services demanded on the main
page. This is one of the unique features of the Alibaba company website that make it more

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE STRATEGIES 4
preferred and motivating the customers and business. The people who designed the Alibaba
company website focused on the interests of the customers and business. The home page of the
company website is designed in such a way that the required goods and found without strain. The
customers and businesses can obtain and buy goods from the website without getting into deep
research of the same goods (Tian, 2015 p.253). The company has designed other websites that
offer free buying without commission imposed on the purchase of the Alibaba products. The
other factors that enable the Alibaba Company customers and business to be motivated are low-
cost online transactions. The company majorly values the needs and demands of the customers.
The designers of the Alibaba Company make sure that the home page of the website contains the
products and services demanded by the customers and business. Unlike other companies, the
customers can get the goods and their features from the website at glance. This is one of the
unique features that motivate so many customers to shop with Alibaba Company in China. By
using easy websites to use, the Company has attracted so many customers and businesses (Chen,
2016 p.123).
Question 4
The Alibaba Company converts internet users and online shoppers who are non-Alibaba
company customers into potential customers through a number of ways. The company makes
sure that it is one of the trusted online shoppers in China. It ensures that the goods and services
offered by the company have counterfeit effects. The quality services and good is one of the
major factors that the company considers to makes sure that it satisfies the needed and demands
of the customers. The satisfied customers leave positive feedback in their website product
reviews. The non-company customers may go through the comment and impressed by the
positive reviews, they turn to be company customers (Collis and Hussey, 2013 p.38). This is one
area where the Alibaba Company make sure there that the customer services is given the priority.
It offers low cost by shopping through their website to make sure that more customers are
attracted to this small transaction cost (Sundaresan, 2013 p.80). Unlike other expensive
competitor companies in China, Alibaba offers minimal transaction costs for the commodities
sold through its website. They ensure that there is security in online transactions for the
satisfaction of customer needs. They ensure that online payments are secured to avoid scam and
fraud transactions through their company websites. Customers are attracted to online businesses

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE STRATEGIES 5
that have secure transaction means (Pagh, 2010 p.1). Alibaba is one of the Companies that offer
strong online security; many non-customers choose to start shopping with them hence becoming
part of the Alibaba company customers.
Question 5
Despite Alibaba Company having so many competitors; it has been one of the successful
online marketplace companies. The emergence of the internet has been a major booster of the
economy in the supply chain field. For a long period, the flow of information has always been a
major factor under consideration for the success of any business (Croom, 2012 p.55). It also
ensures that value-adding services like warehousing, clearing of customers, transportation, and
validation of quality measures within the company (Sinha, 2016 p.71). The company has utilized
the internet for marketing its goods and services. To avoid competition from other companies,
the company has made sure that customers are satisfied with the online transaction. The
Company has made sure that the online transaction is always secure to avoid the issues of fraud
activities.
Question 6
Although Alibaba Company dominates both B2C and B2B e-commerce marketing, there
some differences between the two. Taking an example of Taobao Alibaba Group Company, B2B
is related to the selling of the services and products to Alibaba Company to other businesses (Li,
2013 p.2034). The Taobao Alibaba Group has been using this business to the business
framework to close the sale length between the Alibaba Company and other businesses. The B2B
involves a mode of the decision making processes that are characterized by the need for more
than one business. In the B2C strategy, Taobao Alibaba Group has involved the selling of the
products to one individual consumer (Eid and El-Gohary, 2013 p.31). The products are sold from
the Alibaba Company direct to the target customers by one person. The cycle of the B2C is
shorter than B2B because the customers purchase the items on spot. The B2B selling as seen in
Taobao Alibaba Group does not involve more than one person making the decisions unlike in
B2B where decisions are made by a group of people.
Conclusion

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE STRATEGIES 6
The report has discussed some of the services offered by the Alibaba Company. It has
discussed how the company may attract non–company customers to be part of their customers. It
has discussed some of the motivations that businesses and customers have to short with Alibaba
Company. Moreover, the report has addressed how the Alibaba Company can be successful
despite many competitors. Finally, the report has addressed the differences between B2B and
B2C concerning Taobao Alibaba Group.

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE STRATEGIES 7
References
Agarwal, J. and Wu, T., 2015. Factors Influencing Growth Potential of E‐Commerce in
Emerging Economies: An Institution‐Based N‐OLI Framework and Research
Propositions. Thunderbird International Business Review,57(3), pp.197-215.
Blumer, H., 2016. Research Purpose, Aim and Questions. In Internal Communication in
Bangladeshi Ready-Made Garment Factories (pp. 49-50).
Spina, G., 2013. E-business strategy: how companies are shaping their supply chain through
the internet. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 23(10), pp.1142-
1162.
Zheng, J., 2013. Impact of e-business on perceived supply chain risks. Journal of Small
Business and Enterprise Development, 20(4), pp.688-715.
Caudle, S.L., 2014. Qualitative data analysis. Handbook of practical program evaluation, 2,
pp.417-438.
Tian, Y., 2015. Relationship Flexibility in a 3PL Context: Impacts of Network
Embeddedness, Guanxi, and Explicit Contract. Journal of Marketing Channels, 22(4),
pp.253-264.
Chen, K., 2016. Counterfeit as a Challenge to Chinese E-Commerce Platform—the case of
Alibaba. (p.123-143)
Collis, J. and Hussey, R., 2013. Business research: A practical guide for undergraduate and
postgraduate studentsp.38-42.
Pagh, J.D., 2010. Supply chain management: more than a new name for logistics. The
international journal of logistics management, 8(1), pp.1-14.
Croom, S.R., 2012. The impact of e-business on supply chain management: an empirical study
of key developments. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 25(1),
pp.55-73.
Sinha, D., 2016. System Dynamics Simulation of a Supply Chain Intelligence Model.
Innovative Solutions for Implementing Global Supply Chains in Emerging Markets, p.71.
Li, J., 2013. User acceptance of software as a service: Evidence from customers of China's
leading e-commerce company, Alibaba. Journal of Systems and Software, 86(8), pp.2034-
2044.

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE STRATEGIES 8
Eid, R. and El-Gohary, H., 2013. The impact of E-marketing use on small business enterprises'
marketing success. The Service Industries Journal,33(1), pp.31-50.
Sundaresan, N., 2013. Sales Mechanisms in Online Markets: What Happened to Internet
Auctions? (No. w19021). National Bureau of Economic Research, pp.80-97