Q&A: Alibaba.com director talks tariff troubles, new ventures, and AI tools

Alibaba.com has been zeroing in on its support for small and medium businesses (SMBs) of late despite ongoing tariff turmoil.

A new venture is a recently announced Dragons Den-esque competition for UK and European SMBs to pitch their product ideas over several weeks. This will culminate at its ‘Co Create’ event in London later this year.

Finalists will pitch their ideas live on stage in front of a panel of industry leaders and investors, and will be judged on “innovation, feasibility and market potential”.

Now serving 50 million active buyers, 200,000 suppliers, and customers from more than 200 countries and regions, the marketplace is leveraging AI tools and other new features to support global businesses of all sizes.

But as tariffs continue to cause havoc for global trade, Retail Week speaks to managing director of Alibaba.com France, Michelle Lau, about how Alibaba.com is mitigating this, along with European expansion, AI for business growth, and its new competition for small businesses.

How are you expanding your reach into the European market?

“We are reinforcing our initiative in Europe and in the UK in particular and in order to support local buyers, we need to have a strong supply. Since the beginning of our financial year this April, we now have five times more products from Europe present on our platform. This is really encouraging, because we know that in Europe, and especially in the UK, there is a very strong demand for regional and local supply. There’s also encouraging results from the buyer’s side, as across Europe there has been a 38% growth in the number of paid buyers this financial year.”

How are tariffs impacting buyers and sellers on Alibaba.com?

“As a global platform, we cover users and sellers from different regions around the world. What happened with Brexit or tariff policies in the US definitely have impacted certain countries or people who are working with certain markets, but I think the advantage of working with a platform like Alibaba.com, is that there’s always an alternative and we encourage companies to make use of this global network so that they can diversify and reduce the risk. It’s a platform that provides a lot of flexibility and agility for companies, because they can immediately digitally sell or open to new markets in order to optimise their supply chain.

“You don’t need to have staff who speak a particular language, because everything is translated as all the markets are accessible. I think that’s really the advantage of being a digital and global platform of global trade. And of course, that would provide more access to SMBs and new growth opportunities, not only to reduce the risk.”

“We already have one million B2B buyers using it actively, and believe that the tool is going to revolutionise the B2B trade process and support more SMBs”

Can you explain more about your Dragons Den style venture – Co Create?

“Co Create is a concept and campaign that we launched in the States two years ago and this year we’re bringing it to London. We have an agenda where we can share a lot of product and marketing insights for people who want to know about product innovation and supply chain solutions.

“Co Create is one of our key initiatives to actively support the global SMBs, especially product based startups. When they have a good idea and want to launch a product, we let them know that launching a business is actually not that complicated. We’ve launched a global campaign to encourage SMB startups and product creators to join. They can test and use our tools and enjoy the very strong visibility that we’re offering. So we’re putting a one million prize pool together for both the US and Europe for 100 finalists who are going to pitch live at both events and win part of this prize pool. 

“Also from June to November in Europe, we’re going to have a series of training and mentor sessions published on our social channel to support SMBs on how they can optimise product creation, product development, and have a higher chance of getting on stage.”

What part does AI play for Alibaba.com?

“Last year, we launched our standalone AI-powered search engine called Accio. The reason we are capable of matching 200,000 suppliers with 50 million buyers is that we have invested a lot in the search function. For example, if a customer wants to launch a new jewellery line, Accio can provide product insights and market insights based on public data and our B2B expertise.

“They can fine-tune their product search and we can provide them with matching suppliers and compare offers. The tool is in a natural language, and is more conversational and very specialised in B2B trading. It’s a free tool that can create better data-driven decisions while also being highly digitised for companies to optimise margins, product launches, and to find the best suppliers.

“We already have one million B2B buyers using it actively, and believe that the tool is going to revolutionise the B2B trade process and support more SMBs. We’re improving this tool with new features coming up as we get more equipped with the data and current features.”