Updated On: 13th September 2023
What is Alibaba.com?
Jack Ma (a former school teacher) and his 18 tech pioneers had a dream of building a B2B Online marketplace that connected Chinese manufacturers, retailers, distributors to buyers worldwide. They created Alibaba – a globally connected and competitive ecosystem where more manufacturers attracted more buyers, and vice versa. Soon, Alibaba became a household name in China, generating significant traffic on the website both from within China as well as around the world.
Launched in 1999 by Jack Ma, Alibaba is the world’s largest B2B Online marketplace headquartered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang China. It connects over 200K suppliers with 10 million+ buyers in 200+ countries selling 200M+ products from 5900 product categories, as shared on alibaba.com.
These days, many companies’ models are not “B2B” – they are “B-whatever-the-analysts-want-you-2-B.” If you stay focused on members then you will succeed in the long run.
– Jack Ma
Digitalization, Shift in consumer shopping preferences, and new growth avenues – there are several factors contributing to the rapid growth in the B2B eCommerce market. According to a report by Precedence research, the global B2B eCommerce market was valued at $11.54 trillion in 2024 and is expected to reach $60.62 trillion by 2034 growing at a CAGR of 18.04%.
We are witnessing new trends with long-term implications transforming the B2B eCommerce industry. Some of the most popular trends are listed below:
Source: McKinsey Digital Survey
Despite a slightly delayed adoption to eCommerce as compared to B2C businesses, the B2B brands are now increasingly vying for digital channels to boost sales. And, Alibaba.com – the leading B2B eCommerce marketplace with millions of active users, higher Gross Merchandising Volume (GMV), and rapidly increasing aggregate revenue is a perfect platform to scale.
Apart from Alibaba, there are many other popular B2B marketplaces leading the digital landscape. Below we have listed the top 4 B2B marketplaces other than Alibaba:
And more.
In 1979, the Chinese government implemented free-market reforms (an open market) opening up foreign trade and investment opportunities in the country. This potentially untapped large pool of workers to foreign businesses, thus making China a popular offshore destination for manufacturing firms. But, rigid Chinese investment policies meant that companies looking to make use of such opportunities should form a joint venture with Chinese partners. While the policies were intended to help Chinese retailers and entrepreneurs, developing such long-lasting relationships was difficult because
With Alibaba, Jack Ma and his team created a smart, reliable, & interconnected B2B ecosystem for Chinese businesses to interact and perform business operations with foreign traders. In return, Alibaba earns its revenue from offering annual subscriptions for sellers.
Essentially, Alibaba is a one-stop destination for global enterprises connecting B2B suppliers with buyers worldwide looking for wholesale products. For instance, a business can identify and connect with a manufacturer on Alibaba to produce and ship goods to the destination with ease. Since it is a B2B online marketplace, the most popular items are those that can be produced in bulk and sold wholesale to companies looking to replenish inventory. From apparel to electronics, Alibaba brings more than two hundred million products in 5940 major categories from wholesalers, manufacturers, and suppliers worldwide.
Choose suppliers from various regions to source customized products or trade services. Alibaba has over 200,000 active suppliers in 6,082 industries to help businesses discover new opportunities. The global sourcing marketplace has Chinese suppliers offering products at extremely low prices catering to businesses worldwide.
Alibaba acts as an intermediate between sellers and buyers charging commission to vendors on each transaction. While commission per transaction is an important revenue channel for Alibaba.com. This isn’t the only revenue channel through which they earn. The marketplace earns revenue from leveraging subscription plans, know as Gold membership plans.
Alibaba offers two supplier membership plans – Free and Gold. Under the free membership plan, sellers are not verified and can only list up to 50 products. On the other hand, Gold Supplier is a premium membership for suppliers to easily promote their products and maximize ROI. All Gold suppliers must pass a rigorous verification process by third-party agencies to earn a verified badge that generates trust. Moreover, all Gold members pay a commission fee per transaction.
Alibaba offers multiple seller plans for businesses to become Gold members and reach millions of B2B buyers globally. There are separate pricing plans for every country. For instance, there is – Basic ($166/mo) to Verified Supplier ($1,833 /mo) for sellers in the US. Similarly, this varies for sellers in the UK. While the plans and pricing may differ, all plans include several platform features (such as unlimited products, access to trending keywords, reporting tools, etc), customer service, and support for onboarding.
There are many reliable ways to create a website like Alibaba. Depending upon your requirements, you can choose one that suits you best.
While a readymade B2B eCommerce platform significantly reduces launch time yet, you must identify and choose the right platform that clearly aligns with your business strategies. There are many key parameters that can be considered during the selection process. Below we have listed a few essential considerations for business owners:
1. Scalability: Amid consistently changing consumer behavior, evolving technological parameters, and accelerated digitization; it is important to choose an eCommerce platform that ensures scalability and long-term growth. Scalability in B2B means staying future-ready with access to the right resources, to automate processes and swiftly accommodate growing demands.
2. Personalization: A customizable platform helps deliver tailored experiences to your customers, propelling growth. For instance, the ability to personalize and offer customer-specific pricing or restrict access to hide bulk pricing for guest customers improves the user experience. A customizable platform ensures personalization, improves branding, and greatly increases user engagement leading to more conversions and repeat customers.
3. Ease of Use: Processes in B2B commerce are often complex involving bulk transactions, partial payments, recurring business orders, and more. This is why most B2B platforms offer several advanced features (such as Request for Quote (RFQ), Bulk discounts, etc) to streamline negotiations and facilitate B2B transactions. While these features do add value, they shouldn’t come at the cost of convenience.
4. Flexible Payment Options: Unlike traditional B2C commerce, the transactions in B2B trades are much higher. These transactions often involve bulk purchases on a recurring basis instead of once-off smaller purchases. Hence, the ability to pay partially and via preferred payment method (including COD) is a must-have feature for a B2B eCommerce platform.
5. Trusted and Reliable: A trusted and well-recognized eCommerce platform is one that is widely popular among entrepreneurs, SMBs, as well as large-scale enterprises. Often the quality of projects delivered, worldwide clientele, and ratings on popular review sites can be a good indicator to help you decide. Look for reviews on sites like G2/Capterra, browse through their existing/past projects, and check for complete details on the platform before making an investment.
6. Essential B2B eCommerce features: Minimum order quantity, bulk pricing/discount feature, Request for Quote module, and multiple payment options are some of the essential eCommerce features for a B2B marketplace. Before you decide on your B2B marketplace solution, make a checklist of all essential eCommerce features on your selected platforms and compare. This will give you a better idea.
For more information on how to choose an ideal marketplace platform, check out our guide.
Suggested Read: Best 10 B2B eCommerce platforms in 2024
Since we are talking about Alibaba here, it is important to discuss and evaluate the top eCommerce features for a B2B eCommerce marketplace. Below we have listed some of the must-have features to create a website like Alibaba.
Millions of B2B brands are eyeing opportunities in the digital space to capture the growing eCommerce market segment with a global valuation exceeding trillions of dollars. The potential opportunities are tremendous for a B2B marketplace looking to start/scale operations. Choose Yo!Kart B2B Marketplace Software – a turnkey, secure, and feature-rich B2B eCommerce platform to launch a scalable B2B eCommerce website like Alibaba. The multi-vendor platform powers many popular B2B marketplaces like UNI Diamonds, Bozinga.com, and more.
Q1. How to Build a Website Like Alibaba?
Ans: You can create a B2B Online Marketplace like Alibaba quickly and effectively with readymade software such as Yo!Kart B2B. It is one of the best B2B multivendor platforms designed to build a website like Alibaba that thrives.
Q2. Is Alibaba a multivendor marketplace?
Ans: Alibaba is a multivendor eCommerce marketplace with separate storefronts for multiple businesses to list and sell their products to other B2B buyers.
Q3. How is Alibaba different from Amazon?
Ans: While Alibaba.com is a B2B marketplace where businesses sell to other businesses, Amazon.com is a B2C marketplace where multiple sellers list and sell their products to end-users. Also, Amazon Business is a B2B marketplace by Amazon and is similar to Alibaba.
Q4. What is the difference between Alibaba and Aliexpress?
Ans: Alibaba is one of the world’s largest B2B wholesale eCommerce marketplace. It has over 200K suppliers with 10 million+ buyers in 200+ countries selling 200M+ products from 5900 product categories,
AliExpress, on the other hand, is one of the leading B2C eCommerce marketplaces just like Amazon or eBay. Buyers around the world can find quality goods at affordable prices.
Both Alibaba and AliExpress are a part of Alibaba Group.
Q5. How much does it cost to build an app like Alibaba?
Ans: Alibaba includes all essential eCommerce features such as minimum order quantity module, in-built CRM, Multilingual feature, multiple Payment methods, flexibility to integrate new APIs, and more. Building an app like Alibaba needs all these modules and integrations which requires hundreds of thousands of development hours. Also, costs may range anywhere between hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars as per business requirements.
It is recommended to choose a readymade solution like Yo!Kart B2B to create a website like Alibaba under the budget.
Q6. What business model does Alibaba use?
Ans: Alibaba uses a B2B business model. Such an eCommerce platform is launched by an intermediary party like Alibaba. This then invites third party businesses to sell to other businesses. While the intermediary manages the marketplace and other support eCommerce operations like finance, taxation, accounting, marketing, and others.
Q7. Can i start a business like Alibaba?
Ans. Yes, there are turnkey solutions available, that can allow you to launch a B2B marketplace just like Alibaba. Yo!Kart is a leading example, that gives entrepreneurs to enterprises, rich features to build modern B2B marketplace platform.
Q8: What are the other popular platforms similar to alibaba? Is yo!kart flexible enough to build a platform similar to them?
Ans: Other B2B eCommerce platforms similar to Alibaba are:
Yes Yo!Kart is flexible enough to power any of these businesses: