Alibaba continues to roll out latest features and functions it thinks will proceed to drive more sellers to its B2B marketplace.
Today at Co-Create, Alibaba’s second annual user conference in Las Vegas, the corporate unveiled two latest features:
- An updated sourcing tool enhanced by artificial intelligence.
- A co-branded bank card with Mastercard and prolonged financing.
The brand new sourcing tool, AI Sourcing Agent, will provide more accurate search results for global suppliers and product searches, Alibaba says. Meanwhile, the brand new AI tool gives users the possibility to make use of natural language queries of their searches on Alibaba.com, making the query seem more like a daily conversation.
Alibaba owns the world’s two largest online marketplaces by gross merchandise value (GMV), Taobao and Tmall. Taobao ranks No. 1 within the Global Online Marketplaces Database, Digital Commerce 360’s rating of the biggest such marketplaces by GMV. Tmall ranks No. 2. Each operate in China.
Alibaba highlights latest B2B marketplace AI features at Co-Create
Other features help sellers make faster product sourcing decisions through a series of “agent” suggestions in real-time. Additionally they have more detailed product comparisons with information on each supplier and their quotations.
“We proceed constructing a worldwide network of diversified suppliers and making global sourcing simpler,” says Alibaba.com president Kuo Zhang.
About 30,000 businesses on the B2B marketplace use Alibaba’s AI tools to extend product exposure in targeted markets. Sellers on the marketplace say the practice helps them grow, even with limited internal staff.
Alibaba can also be rolling out latest payment options. The Alibaba.com co-branded bank card with Mastercard offers buyers an option of either 3% cashback or 60-day interest free payment terms, subject to a complete spend limit of as much as $40,000 per 12 months.
A newly launched buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) program now allows sellers entrepreneurs to separate payments into three or 4 installments over six weeks using Afterpay, PayPal or Klarna.
About 30,000 businesses on the marketplace use Alibaba’s AI tools to extend product exposure in targeted markets. Sellers on the marketplace say the practice helps them grow, even with limited internal staff.
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