Alibaba.com wants to move offline trade shows like CES into the online world

Alibaba Group Holding found success with its Taobao e-commerce platform in China in large part because the company modelled its online shopping experience after offline wholesale markets. Now, it is trying to do the same for Alibaba.com, the platform that connects both suppliers and buyers in the business world, by digitising trade shows.

Alibaba.com is the original online platform set up by co-founder Jack Ma, together with 17 others, back in 1999. In recent years, the company has been striving to provide solutions for both buyers and suppliers to better connect – ranging from in-app language translations, video-calling functions, international payment methods and even virtual reality tours of factories, so that business customers can complete the whole ordering process within the Alibaba.com app.

New York-listed Alibaba is the parent company of the South China Morning Post.

The platform now has 170,000 suppliers, with millions of buyers around the world using Alibaba.com to find the factories they need. Its most recent feature aims to help bring trade shows – traditionally large scale, offline events – into the online sphere.

“A couple of times each year people build physical trade events … and if you don’t get on the plane and go, you’re left out,” said John Caplan, head of Alibaba B2B in North America in an interview on the sidelines of last week’s CES trade show in Las Vegas.

Buyers using the Alibaba app can tap into the CES trade show and see the different exhibitors listed as well as short videos from suppliers giving an introduction to their CES booth and on-the-spot product demonstrations.