Western Union shakes hand with AliExpress.com

Right when Paypal and AliExpress announced separation, Western Union, a known name in payment transfer services worldwide, has shaken hands with Alibaba Group. With this agreement, buyers by using Western Union on AliExpress.com can make cash payments to the suppliers from around the world.

Escrow as mentioned on AliExpress.com

Western Union and AliExpress expect it to become a key payment platform option in emerging or otherwise under-served markets such as Latin America, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa where entrepreneurs have limited payment options and rely on cash transactions to sustain and grow their businesses, said a statement.

...Continue reading Western Union shakes hand with AliExpress.com

PayPal Broke Up with AliExpress

PayPal will stop its services as payment gateway for AliExpress from August 3, 2010. Aliexpress is a wholesale marketplace for small businesses launched by Alibaba.com. These two giants had old cooperation which is now going to end.

Immediate plan of using substitute has not been announced by AliExpress yet as the departure of PayPal can greatly impact AliExpress' business as well as their exploration in overseas markets. This leading online payment platform has been playing an important role in the business growth of AliExpress since the Alliance of Alibaba and eBay last year.

PayPal are the most frequently-used payment services with over 84 million active accounts, more than 220 million clients in 190 markets and 24 currencies all over the world. So cooperating with PayPal for AliExpress was significant in real time transaction online.

The cooperation termination between PayPal and AliExpress allows for great challenges and opportunities for other B2B platforms in China to boost their business and catch the eyes of more and more customers worldwide.

Alipay, an Alibaba Group company for online payment processcing is growing rapidly in China but it still have a long way to go to make its mark in the global market. PayPal seperation can impact many SMEs in China as their buyers feel it comfortable to use paypal as compare to other payment transfer methods.

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Chinavasion Advice For Alibaba AliExpress - 5 Warnings

China B2B portal Alibaba.com, a b2b marketplace, has launched AliExpress, a shopping system aimed at small and medium-sized eBay resellers and online vendors. Wholesale electronics company, Chinavasion warns resellers that they can still be taken for a ride and offers them the tools to stop that happening.

Famous wholesale marketplace in China, Chinavasion has published a five-point guide for buyers to help them avoid being dodged by the suppliers on AliExpress, a new Alibaba.com wholesale website, launched in Aug 2009.

According to Chinavasion's PR Manager, Rose Li, AliExpress is aimed at smaller to medium sized sellers and adds a limited degree of security for people who source from Alibaba.

"The main Alibaba.com is essentially an advertising website: no deals are transacted. AliExpress is different. It's e-commerce with international shipping, and that's 100% new business territory for the Alibaba group."

The AliExpress wholesale website guaranteeing order fulfillment under an escrow arrangement. Alibaba is using Alipay as a the primary source of payment method. Alipay is already a widely used payment mehtod in China for transactions on its C2C website, Taboao.com

Chinavasion's Rose Li warned while the Alipay Escrow system might guarantee that resellers get something delivered they will still need to stay on their toes.

"Will buyers get what they want from AliExpress? Each supplier you find in AliExpress will have their own concepts of acceptable quality and speed. Since the goods are neither sold nor shipped by Alibaba themselves, the burden will still fall to the buyer to investigate and test each and every different supplier in the system before trusting them with orders."

In an effort to prevent resellers from being fleeced by sellers on AliExpress Chinavasion has put together the top five things to check for to prevent being taken for a ride by AliExpress suppliers, which can be read at tinyurl.com/AliExpress-Review for free.

As the first company to offer an online wholesale and dropshipping service online Rose Li said Chinavasion wanted to remind resellers what to look for when sourcing from China.

"We would like to offer our site Chinavasion.com as a price comparison for people shopping online through AliExpress. We are confident we offer a more user-friendly experience without the need to worry about quality, speed, or trust of unknown Chinese suppliers."

ChinaVasion published 5 warnings for buyers to be aware of AliExpress inexperience wholesale marketplace.

1. Warning Sign 1, They Offer Everything From Baby Shoes To Butt/Bum Massagers
2. Warning Sign 2, They Don’t Answer, Or Are Slow To Answer Your Pre-Sale Contact
3. Warning Sign 3, They Are Located In Fujian
4. Warning Sign 4, They Don’t Use The Same Name Or They Use A Name Without A Location
5. Warning Sign 5, They Claim To Sell Brand-Name Products

You can read more about the ChinaVasion VS Alibaba Express on CHinaVasion website news.

Alibaba Launched China Wholesale Website "AliExpress"

Shenzhen, Guangdong, Aug 20, 2009 one of the largest B2B marketplaces, Alibaba.com Limited (HKG:1688) launched a new service called 'AliExpress' - modelled on existing Chinese B2C ecommerce portals.

China Wholesale (http://www.chinavasion.com/) market veteran, Chinavasion.com congratulated Alibaba on their launch:

"AliExpress is an example of a large public-listed company fearlessly diversifying into unfamiliar waters," said Rose Li, Chinavasion.com Public Relations Spokesperson. "As the first website to offer direct-from-China wholesale, Chinavasion.com would like to wish Alibaba the best of luck in their new startup."

Chinavasion was the first company, in 2005, to offer wholesale electronics sent from warehouse stock in China to international buyers. I will cover ChinaVasion in later.

Alibaba,com enables Chinese sellers to advertise to buyers, with 8.6 million registered users, but the AliExpress website is a fresh launch in the style of a dot-com startup.

The new AliExpress website is found on the main Alibaba.com domain, but represents a major departure from Alibaba's core business, according to Chinavasion's Rose Li:

"The main Alibaba.com is essentially an advertising website: no deals are transacted. AliExpress is different. It's ecommerce with international shipping, and that's 100% new business territory for the Alibaba group."

Chinavasion's Rose Li drew a clear distinction between the AliExpress service and Chinavasion:

"Chinavasion is a true wholesaler. Products advertised on Chinavasion.com are all real products in our warehouse stock. Products advertised on AliExpress, on the other hand, are from thousands of different small Chinese suppliers and are not guaranteed to be in stock."

According to the statement on AliExpress website, Alibaba will guarantee order fulfillment under an escrow arrangement. This will be the first international test of Alibaba's proprietary AliPay online payments system, already widely recognized within Mainland China as a payment method for the Alibaba group's eBay-style auction website Taobao, and a would-be competitor to eBay's Paypal system.

What is unclear, commentators point out, is whether Alibaba will take a leaf out of Paypal and EBay's book and provide strong buyer guarantees. Chinavasion's Rose Li commented:

"Will buyers get what they want from AliExpress? Each supplier you find in AliExpress will have their own concepts of acceptable quality and speed. Since the goods are neither sold nor shipped by Alibaba themselves, the burden will still fall to the buyer to investigate and test each and every different supplier in the system before trusting them with orders."