Alibaba’s overseas business has new developments.
Recently, at the Web Summit, Europe's largest technology summit, Alibaba International launched Accio, the world's first AI search engine in the B2B field, which is open to global merchants and officially entered the current hot AI Search track.
Zhang Kuo, president of Alibaba International Station, said that Accio includes three major modules: "AI-driven search", "AI-reconstructed product encyclopedia page" and "end-to-end e-commerce platform".
It is understood that Accio is the third AI product released by Alibaba in the B2B field after OKKI AI and AI Business Assistant. The main interface of its interface is a dialog box, which is similar in form to OpenAI’s SearchGPT, Silicon Valley star product Perplexity and other AI native searches. More like.
From a functional point of view, Accio can meet the needs of many overseas merchants. It can accept users' questions in "vernacular". The supply side links the Alibaba International Station platform with various independent stations, third-party e-commerce websites and offline factories around the world. etc., and be able to output professional, specific and organized content.
In recent years, Alibaba's overseas business has developed rapidly. Alibaba International has continuously updated its technology applications and launched translation large-model products. B2C products represented by AliExpress are also very popular overseas.
Together with Pinduoduo's Temu, SHEIN, and Douyin's TikTok Shop, China's cross-border e-commerce "Four Little Dragons" are rapidly expanding around the world while updating their models and launching subsidy activities to provide convenience for consumers and merchants. In the "Black Friday" of 2023, the international e-commerce giant Amazon also extended the promotion time.
In the fierce competition, blindly pursuing low prices and cost-effectiveness cannot ensure a platform's success. If you want to stabilize the market, you must be more efficient than your opponents.
Therefore, Alibaba Overseas must deploy AI in multiple dimensions and start a battle for efficiency.
1
AI search engine Accio,
What does it mean for merchants?
Accio, which means "flying" in Latin, is also the "summoning spell" in Harry Potter. Wizards can summon distant objects to their side by saying "Accio+item name".
But initially, its name wasn't Accio.
According to LatePost reports, in early April this year, at a monthly management meeting of Alibaba International Station, Accio was also called Alibaba International Station’s “Buyer AI Agent” project, which refers to the use of AI to understand and generate natural language. With the advantage of capabilities, it has become an AI assistant for overseas buyers on Alibaba International Station, helping to simplify trivial purchasing steps.
However, Alibaba Overseas CEO Jiang Fan believes that the "Buyer AI Agent" cannot just be used as a chat robot. He hopes that the project team will break through the existing product framework and "make an AI-native product."
At this point, the positioning of the "Buyer AI Agent" project has changed to a "conversational AI search engine".
It is understood that Accio has solved the problems of many overseas buyers who "don't know how to ask questions" and "how to accurately search according to their needs." Users can use "vernacular" to ask AI questions and put forward requirements.
For example, typing "I want to build a ski resort in Dubai", Accio will tell the user to build "snow trails" and purchase "snowmaking machines". At the same time, in order to ensure the safety of ski resort tourists, Accio will also recommend purchasing safety equipment such as Necessities such as nets and helmets.
Accio also provides users with AI filtering capabilities. For example, details such as the power level of the "snowmaking machine", installation mode, consumables used, shipping location, supplier's goodwill, etc. will all appear in the filtering options.
According to Alibaba International, Accio will actively sort out and understand what users really want through multiple rounds of dialogue, and use professional B2B industry knowledge to dissect needs, research the market, and give suggestions to more accurately screen suppliers and recommend products. , providing users with one-step intelligent procurement services.
From the supply side, Accio not only links to the Alibaba international website platform, but also links to various independent websites, third-party e-commerce websites and offline factories around the world.
Zhang Kuo, president of Alibaba International Station, revealed that by the time of launch, the volume of goods covered by Accio had expanded to hundreds of millions. However, Accio will stratify global supply based on service capabilities. Since the supply on the Alibaba International Station platform has complete fulfillment capabilities, it will be in the first echelon.
According to LatePost reports, Accio has also added multiple cross-validation mechanisms such as multiple data sources and timeline dimensions to ensure the accuracy of product information. These commodity and transaction data can help Accio reduce large model hallucinations - even the most advanced AI models cannot completely avoid serious nonsense.
In the final result presentation, Accio does not simply output links, but uses AI to integrate product information, which is equivalent to letting AI write a more understandable "encyclopedia" page for each product, and remind Important information such as the user's minimum purchase quantity, price changes for different purchase quantities, applicable site standards, etc.
Alibaba International revealed that it expects that with the almost automated procurement search method provided by Accio, more new entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprise owners can quickly start global trade.
It is reported that some of Accio's capabilities have been launched in grayscale in the "Find Factory" module of Alibaba International Station. Alibaba International revealed that the conversion rate from user search to purchase has increased by 20%-30%.
However, the current Accio function is not perfect yet. Zhang Kuo also said at the conference: "The currently launched version is still a 'semi-finished product' and only includes 10% of our imagination of the B2B business form in the AI era. It will continue to grow rapidly in the future." iteration.”
But the launch of Accio means that Alibaba International has officially started using AI to fight for efficiency.
2
Conquering cities overseas
Alibaba will also rely on AI to fight for efficiency
As overseas business enters the 4.0 era, more and more Chinese industries are expanding their reach into overseas markets.
Alibaba has also increased its investment in overseas markets. It not only strives for cost-effectiveness on the C-side and competes with other cross-border e-commerce "Three Little Dragons" for buyers, but also strives for efficiency and competes for sellers on the B-side.
At the beginning of 2023, AliExpress, Alibaba's main overseas B2C e-commerce platform, has covered more than 200 countries around the world, which also means that AliExpress has entered a new stage of expansion.
An obvious phenomenon is that in the second half of 2023, AliExpress's actions towards "sellers" have become more frequent, and because it and Alibaba International Station are both Alibaba's overseas businesses, it is providing supplier channels for merchants and assisting merchants to make more purchases. There are many measures to facilitate overseas trade services.
For example, it announced simultaneous investment promotion for Double 11 and Black Friday, launched "global five-day delivery", launched tax payment services in Brazil, etc.
Under this situation, Alibaba International Station has become the "main rear area" that "replenishes blood" for overseas sellers.
Judging from the current layout, the AI applications launched by Alibaba International Station have also received praise from many merchants.
For example, some people in the foreign trade industry said that it used to take more than a month for one person to upload links to 100 products, but through the AI business assistant, more than 100 products can be uploaded in a week; using the AI intelligent reception function of the AI business assistant , which can help salesmen receive customers and greatly shorten the average reply time of salesmen.
In addition, Alibaba International Station also hopes to start using AI from the business it is most familiar with to further improve the efficiency of B2B trade.
Alibaba Research Institute has released a survey saying that on the e-commerce platform, about 30% of the merchants surveyed have used generative AI, and more than half of the merchants who have used generative AI think it is effective.
It is understood that Alibaba International has released three AI products in the B2B field. In addition to Accio, there are also AI Business Assistant 2.0 and OKKI AI, covering platform suppliers, non-industry suppliers, overseas buyers and other groups.
OKKI AI assists foreign trade novices in communication and polishing, picture source Alibaba International Station official WeChat public account
Among them, AI Business Assistant 2.0 will identify the needs of buyers around the world in real time, automatically adjust priorities, optimize expressions, and show buyers product pictures, titles, and introductions that better meet their needs, making the products more attractive; OKKI AI can help Foreign trade business personnel polish emails to improve the response rate of major customers.
Alibaba International said that starting from search, the core entrance of B2B trade, to supplier delivery, reception, marketing and compliance operations, B2B, Alibaba's earliest business, is fully using AI to reshape global trade.
In addition to its efforts in AI applications, Alibaba International Station has also launched a semi-managed business to provide merchants with marketing, logistics and other service support.
It is understood that Alibaba International Station semi-custodial service is a contract fulfillment and hosting service for cross-border B2B business. It will provide merchants with exclusive marketing activities, door-to-door logistics fulfillment, reverse return services and other operational hosting solutions, allowing merchants to focus on production and sales and reduce the cost of going overseas. threshold.
Under this service, merchants only need to be responsible for product delivery, pricing, sales, and scheduled delivery, while a series of fulfillment services including cross-border logistics, fund collection, and package sales will be handled by Alibaba International Station. Moreover, there are no mandatory price requirements for semi-managed products on the international station, and merchants can set their own prices and market themselves.
In addition, Alibaba International Station will also provide a series of marketing resources and scenarios around semi-managed services, including search recommendations, exclusive tags, exclusive scenarios and resources, etc.
For example, the products currently participating in semi-managed products are all labeled "Alibaba Guaranteed", and the accurate delivery time, fixed price, and after-sales guarantee are clearly marked to attract buyers.
Today, Alibaba’s overseas business is progressing smoothly.
The second quarter report of 2024 shows that Alibaba International Digital Business Group achieved revenue of 29.29 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 32%.
At the same time, judging from the financial report, Alibaba’s overseas e-commerce is still in a period of huge investment in infrastructure construction and market cultivation.
Alibaba stated in its second quarter report of 2024 that the expansion of Alibaba International Digital Business Group's losses was mainly due to increased investment in AliExpress and Trendyol's cross-border business, and was partly due to the substantial operating losses caused by improvements in Lazada's monetization rate and operating efficiency. offset by reductions.
Now, Alibaba International has launched the first AI search engine in the B2B field. It will also start a battle for efficiency and achieve cost reduction and efficiency improvement with multiple models running in parallel.