Melbourne IT has signed a reseller agreement with B2B e-commerce company Alibaba.com. The agreement lets Melbourne IT expand the range of online services it offers to its small and medium business customer base in Australia and New Zealand.
Melbourne IT provides domain names, web sites, email marketing and search engine optimisation. Theo Hnarakis, Melbourne IT CEO, says the Alibaba.com service will add to the online toolkit already offered to small and medium businesses.
“This alliance will allow us to help our customers tap into overseas markets by leveraging the extensive B2B network that Alibaba.com has established in key supplier markets like China and buyer markets like the US.
“In many ways it is like being on display at an international trade show 24/7, with buyers from around the world looking at your goods, without you ever having to leave your office.”
Melbourne IT will be selling Alibaba.com’s TrustPass service, which is a paid membership package.
The TrustPass offering incorporates third-party verification and authentication of the seller’s business. Alibaba.com claims that more than 85% of buyers in the Alibaba.com marketplace only trade with TrustPass-verified sellers.
Alibaba.com provides three online B2B marketplaces that connect buyers and sellers from around the world – an English-language marketplace (alibaba.com), a Chinese-language marketplace (alibaba.com.cn) and a Japanese-language marketplace (alibaba.co.jp). It claims to have 36 million registered users globally across more than 40 industry categories and 5000 product categories.
“In this time of economic downturn, it is crucial for SMBs to diversify their markets,” says Arthur Chang, vice president, global sales of Alibaba.com.
