Alibaba.com Releases Digital Trends Report for E-Commerce in 2023

Company also unveils survey of small businesses and finds over a third of SMB owners turned to e-commerce to survive the pandemic

NEW YORK, Feb. 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Alibaba.com, one of the world's largest B2B e-commerce marketplaces, a business unit of Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA), today unveiled its predictions for key digital export trends in 2023 along with the findings from its 2022 small business survey for global suppliers within its Digital B2B Outlook 2023.

Alibaba.com is predicting that the coming year will see some enduring trends continue, like the rise of digital personalization and video marketing in B2B e-commerce. However, new trends in the B2B field such as real-time messaging are also taking shape.

Alibaba.com Digital B2B Outlook 2023 Key Findings

To help B2B sellers prepare for 2023, Alibaba.com experts have provided their predictions on the most significant trends in B2B digital exports, including:

"2022 brought significant challenges for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), brought on by volatile energy prices and soaring inflation," said Andrew Zheng, Vice President of Alibaba.com. "Digital selling provided an opportunity for these businesses to reach customers locally and globally without stretching operating budgets, but B2B sellers must stay ahead of digital export trends in 2023 to find continued success."

Emerging E-Commerce Trade Exports for the U.S.

The U.S. has many significant exports, but Alibaba.com identified five of the emerging B2B e-commerce-related exports on the rise in 2023. Those include:

The U.S. has begun to play a more prominent role in exporting mineral fuels and that doesn't appear to be a trend that will change in 2023. Outside of fuels, the other industries tend to be focused on increasing exports to markets such as Canada, Mexico, Europe, China, and Japan.

Small Business Survey for Global Suppliers

In addition to its digital trends, Alibaba.com shared findings from its Small Business Survey for Global Suppliers, a survey of approximately 1000 B2B suppliers worldwide aimed at better understanding the implications of operating MSMEs throughout economic headwinds and the pandemic. Key findings included:

• Businesses with the smallest number of employees were more negatively affected by last year's challenging market. In fact, 25% of survey respondents with under 10 employees shut down completely, whereas only 13% of respondents with over 250 employees had the same results.
• Small businesses got creative to keep sales up and survive the post pandemic pressures. Utilizing e-commerce was the top strategy for survival, with 36% of small businesses attempting e-commerce or digitalization throughout and directly following the pandemic. Many flocked to B2B e-commerce marketplaces and continue to utilize those resources in today's market. In fact, 54% of small businesses surveyed responded that B2B e-commerce platforms remain very important to their current operations.
• To capture more sales and increase customers, over a third (32%) of small businesses took to expanding sales channels in order to survive the pandemic's effects. Other tactics used included cutting expenses (13%), seeking support from local governments or institutions (11%) and investing in research and development to upgrade products (8%).

"Understanding how small businesses and B2B sellers have navigated the turbulence of the past few years helps us to better understand where they are going next," said Andrew Zheng, Vice President of Alibaba.com. "Sellers remain steadfast in the importance of e-commerce for their businesses and will continue evolving in 2023."

Alibaba.com received survey responses from over 1,000 B2B suppliers, a majority of which were from 10 countries representative of all inhabited continents. This group is made up of both latent customers and in-service customers, so the past or present use of Alibaba.com was the commonality among all respondents.

For more information regarding Alibaba.com or to schedule a press interview, please visit Alibaba.com or contact alibaba@finnpartners.com.

About Alibaba.com

The first business unit of Alibaba Group, Alibaba.com, is the leading B2B e-commerce platform for global B2B trading. We provide one-stop B2B trading solutions that cover the entire value chain of cross-border trade, including sourcing, payments, logistics, and fulfillment. With more than 200,000 suppliers of different types, including manufacturers and exporters worldwide, Alibaba.com hosts over 200 million products to more than 40 million active global business buyers in over 40 categories.

In today's complex and ever-changing business environment, Alibaba.com strives to empower global small to mid-sized enterprises to achieve digital transformation and seize global business opportunities.

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SOURCE Alibaba.com