According to the reliable sources, if no unexpected events occur, the new foreign trade B2C platform should be pushed on the line by Alibaba this month, and the network platform will have no difference with Dhgate and EBAY basically. Users can transact directly in the platform, and then Alibaba charges the commission, etc.
It is obvious that Alibaba will not pay attention to DHgate and other related platforms, and its imaginary is EBAY, or even Amazon. However, whether this new platform can go far in the end or not is still unknown. Want to go ahead of EBAY? Maybe that is only just wishful thinking of Alibaba.
As the article previously written by ME said, “ Foreign Trade B2C + Made in China + World Market”, the new mode of foreign trade export is a realization of value by enhancing the promotion of “Made in China”. Launching small wholesale and retail trade B2C platform timely to meet the demands of customers by Alibaba should be affirmed, as the future foreign trade export enterprises will be used to do small orders.
However, there are many bottlenecks in the core in process of the new foreign trade Alibaba B2C platform development, which hinder their development seriously. Here are some as follows.
No.1, facing the enormous costs, it is difficult to coordinate the relationship between Alibaba.com and the new foreign trade platform. As to Alibaba, the major difficulty it need to face is not from competitors but from its own. That is, how to coordinate the relationship with the 70 percent of its total revenue of Alibaba. For the membership of Alibaba who have paid the annual fee, it comes out a new platform, and this platform has not only the lower assign costs, but also can achieve online transactions. Obviously, the new platform will be more clearly competitive. This means that the two platforms of Alibaba constituted a competitive relationship. If Alibaba promote the new platform, then it means it needs to give up the income of membership fee in another platform, this seems to be a tough choice. Of course, it is most likely that the new B2C platform independent from the trade B2C platform finally, and the two platforms develop themselves independent.
No.2, it is difficult to make a breakthrough in search engine optimization so that to attract enough low-cost buyers. Assuming that if Alibaba’s new B2C platform separates from its B2B trade platform in the end, then perhaps the most important issue is how to attract enough overseas buyers? We know that even if eBay, such a strong global company, most of its users is from search engine, and majority of which comes from search engine optimization. A new platform wants to make a breakthrough in SEO in a short time, or even similar to the brilliant of alibaba.com, this is not realistic.
No.3, Fake issues will be the third core bottleneck the platform will be encountered. If broaden the examination of goods in this platform, the trading volume will increase significantly, but it is easy to be sanctions by paypal (in the international market it is not realistic to bypass PAYPAL). However, if strengthen the goods on the platform, it would result in a substantial decline in trading volume, and a large number of sellers will be lost to other platforms. As a result, this will be a difficult choice.
No.4, It can be foreseen that the biggest problem the new foreign trade B2C platform will be encountered is from the attack come from these refined B2C platform, such as lightinthebox.com and epathchina.com. Such website will gradually erode its market share.. That is to say, the future B2C trade platform will be the world of these sub-platforms.
