Alibaba pushes AI tools to merchants wanting to tap overseas markets, as competition with Temu and Shein heats up
Alibaba International has launched a new campaign to promote its artificial intelligence (AI) tools aimed at helping merchants to tap overseas markets on Alibaba.com, in the latest push to expand cross-border e-commerce business.
The new campaign says Alibaba's generative AI tools can be used to "lower the threshold for entering into global trade" via its wholesale platform Alibaba.com. New joiners will receive information on about 50 prospective buyers within the first two months, according to the company.
Business-to-business platform Alibaba.com is part of Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group (AIDC). AIDC also includes retail-oriented platforms like AliExpress, Lazada, Daraz, Trendyol. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
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The new push comes as the e-commerce giant faces off against Temu, the overseas shopping app backed by PDD Holdings, and Shein, another popular shopping app that has been wooing Chinese merchants as the preferred channel to reach consumers across the world.
The new AI tools include a smart assistance chatbot and OKKI AI, a customer relationship management software-as-a-service platform.
Launched last November, the smart assistance chatbot helps to generate product descriptions and enable merchants to communicate with potential buyers in different languages. It is powered by multiple large language models (LLMs), including Alibaba's own Tongyi Qianwen.
The company launched OKKI AI In December and it is designed to allow merchants to automate their customer management, team collaboration and data analysis.
Over 12,000 merchants have subscribed to the AI-powered cross-border trade tools since launch, and products sold on the platform that have been optimised by AI and search exposure increased by 37 per cent, according to the company.
Alibaba's international e-commerce business unit grew 44 per cent year-on-year to 28.5 billion yuan (US$4 billion) in the December quarter last year, and China's e-commerce players are pivoting to overseas markets amid sluggish growth at home.
Elsewhere, ByteDance has been doubling down on its AI efforts in e-commerce. Its short video hit app TikTok has already launched e-commerce operations in several countries, including the US, and plans to invest billions of dollars in Southeast Asia over the next few years, according to CEO Chew Shou Zi.
Meanwhile, budget shopping platform Pinduoduo has ramped up hiring of AI professionals with salaries of up to 60,000 yuan per month for positions such as LLM developers.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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