Qin Fen, the head of the Alibaba International Station Industry and Merchant Business Department, recently stated in an interview with media such as Interface News that the overall growth rate of Alibaba International Station GMV this year is around 20%, and the number of overseas users has increased by more than ten points.
Compared to the rapid growth of 80% or even 100% a few years ago, the GMV growth rate of Alibaba International Station has experienced a significant decline. Qin Fen evaluated this year's growth rate with the words "steady". He said that in the past few years, the pandemic has caused global supply chain disruptions, and China has benefited from foreign trade dividends. That was an "abnormal" period, and today the industry's growth rate is returning to a stable and healthy state.
As the foundation of Alibaba's global business, the international station positioned as a cross-border B2B was Alibaba's earliest business segment since its establishment in 1999. After the growth rate returns to normalcy and enters a stable period, the overall actions of this year's international station are focused on refined operations, such as targeting different categories in different countries. The construction of e-commerce infrastructure, including cross-border logistics, finance, and technological efficiency improvement, is also a key direction for this year's international station.
Starting from the second half of this year, Alibaba International Station has launched localized operations. At the end of October, it launched the North America Pavilion, Europe Pavilion, and Southeast Asia Pavilion, accurately matching the local needs of key country markets with the categories of platform merchants. In addition, Alibaba International Station also provides cross-border logistics support for foreign trade enterprises based on the characteristics of different markets.
Qin Fen mentioned that the business growth rate in the Latin American region of the International Station this year is very fast, and the growth rates in Mexico and Southeast Asia are also starting at a fast pace. As traditional trading powers, the United States and Europe have maintained a stable but rising state.
However, from an industry perspective, in the past year, competitors have been vying to enter the cross-border e-commerce arena, and overseas e-commerce has faced fierce competition. Platforms such as Temu and TioTok have fully embraced full hosting and achieved impressive performance. Qin Fen told Interface News that from a physical perspective, today's competition is undoubtedly much more intense than the previous two years, which is an objective situation.
"But the key issue still depends on your own value and why others choose you." Qin Fen believes that the fully managed cross-border e-commerce form may have a higher degree of connectivity and higher transaction density. However, currently, the operating category width of these platforms is still far from that of international stations. International stations also have a lot of customized and service content in their business, not just pure sales in the To C market, Therefore, full custody may not be suitable for To B's business.
This is also a challenge faced by To B cross-border e-commerce, as B-end business is not as sexy as C-end business, with lower transaction density and communication frequency among merchants. "Although the order density at the international station may not be as high, how can we help sellers improve service certainty and make this profit? This may be exactly the core competitiveness of the international station," Qin Fen said.
In this competitive environment, Alibaba International has identified its strategic focus for 2024 as AI e-commerce and ensuring certainty around buyers.
In the strategy of the entire Alibaba Group, AI has been repeatedly mentioned as a key word this year. After the new CEO of Alibaba Group, Wu Yongming, took office, he confirmed the strategic focus of "AI driven". Among them, in the field of international e-commerce, AI has taken the lead in landing.
The core application of AI in e-commerce is to match "buy" and "sell" well. Currently, the international station is on the seller's side, and the three business scenarios of reply, inquiry, and data analysis have been fully AIized. For example, the AI foreign trade application, Business Assistant, and OKKI AI tool launched on Alibaba International Station this year. But there are still many innovative scenarios on the buyer side, such as product matching. How to significantly reduce user selection costs is a very core strategy for Alibaba International Station in the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
User experience is also a key direction for Alibaba International Station next year. Qin Fen stated that international stations need to stand from the perspective of users and upgrade more deterministic transaction experiences, such as country specific operations and deterministic logistics routes.