Authorized Global Channel Partner of Alibaba

JACK MA

Founder and CEO Of Alibaba Group

 G. L. BAJAJ

INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT AND RESEARCH

Approved by A.I.C.T.E., & Affiliated to Dr.A.P.J Abdul kalam technical University
Plot No. 2, knowledge Park 3, Greater Noida, Distt. G.B.Nagar, U.P., India Pin- 201310

A
SUMMER INTERNSHIP PROJECT REPORT

ON

CUSTOMER ACCOUNT HANDLING

& SERVICE PROVIDING FOR SMES
Submitted For

THE PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE AWARD OF DEGREE OF

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (MBA)

Under the guidance of: Submitted by:

NAME:- SALMAN AHMED
ROLL. NO.
SESSION:- 2018-2010
 DECLARATION
I here declare that this project project report “SALMAN AHMED” my won effort, to the best of
my knowledge and belief. It contains no content previously published or written by another
person except secondary data.

SALMAN AHMED
MBA 3rd SEM
ROLL. NO.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
With immense please I am presenting “Customer account handling & service providing for
SME’s, project report as a part of the curriculum of Master of business administration. We wish
to thank all the people who gave us unending support.

I express my profound thanks to Mr. Sanjay kumar verma Chief Branch Manager of Bajaj
Allianz, project guide and all those who have indirectly guided and helped us in preparation of
this project.

We also like to extend our gratitude to all colleagues of G. L. Bajaj institute of Management &
Research, Greater Noida. Who provided moral support, a conductive work environment and the
much- needed inspiration to conclude the project in time and special thanks to my parents who
are integral part of the project?

Thanking you

SALMAN AHMED
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter Description Page. No

1. Abstract

2. Objectives

3. About Alibaba

4. History

5. Business Model

6. Products & Services

7. Target Users

8. Payment Methods

9. Tech-Giants

10. About iTech

11. Membership of Alibaba

12. Opening Account & Product Posting

13. Research Methodology

14. Findings

15. Recommendations

16. Conclusion

17. Questionnaire

18. References
 Alibaba

A marketplace, a search engine and a bank, all in one.

Alibaba is China’s and by some measures, the world’s biggest online commerce company. Its
three main sites — Taobao, Tmall and Alibaba.com — have hundreds of millions of users, and
host millions of merchants and businesses. Alibaba handles more business than any other
e-commerce company.

One can think of it as a mix of Amazon.com, eBay and Paypal. Customers use Alibaba to shop
online, sell unwanted goods and make online payments. Alibaba has two retail sites: Taobao,
which features thousands of non-brand name products sold by smaller merchants; and Tmall,
which offers brand-name products sold by big merchants.

Unlike Amazon, which buys goods from suppliers and sells them to customers, Alibaba has
always acted as a middleman, connecting buyers and sellers and facilitating transactions between
them.

This Chinese B2B trading platform connects buyers in North America and Europe with suppliers
from China. Alibaba follows an aggregation of supply model (similar to other early B2B
players), helping to solve the pain of global sourcing.
 History
Alibaba Group was established in 1999 by 18 people led by Jack Ma, a former English teacher
from Hangzhou, China. From the outset, the company’s founders shared a belief that the Internet
would level the playing field by enabling small enterprises to leverage innovation and
technology to grow and compete more effectively in the domestic and global economies.

Jack Ma named his company on “Alibaba ­ Open Sesame”. Alibaba is a kind, smart business
person, and he helped the village. Alibaba opens sesame for small- to medium-sized companies.

During Late 90’s, Alibaba Group raised a total of US$25 million from SoftBank, Goldman
Sachs, Fidelity and some other institutions.

After Alibaba achieved profitability in 2001, it’s sister organization Taobao was founded as a
consumer e-commerce platform. Which further established TMall (TMall.com), a retail
website, to complement its C2C marketplace.

After about a decade since its inception Alibaba group also beta-launched eTao as a shopping
search engine.

Alibaba raised $21.8 billion in its debut, making it the biggest U.S.-listed IPO in history after the
IPO of credit card processing company Visa in 2008.
 Business Model
The initial business model of Alibaba was simple ; a facilitate a 24/7 meeting platform for
suppliers and buyers around the world. From the start Alibaba did not just connect Chinese
suppliers with international buyers, but it had the goal of connecting all importers and exporters
around the world to each other. Although other B2B websites have always said “You cannot
have a global company out of china , it makes no sense.”. From the very beginning Alibaba was
, “the first global Internet emerging from china.”

In more technical terms three of the most prominent business models employed by Alibaba are:
B2B, C2C and B2C.

B2B:

Alibaba.com Limited the primary company of Alibaba, is the world’s largest online
business-to-business trading platform for small businesses.

Founded in Hangzhou in eastern China, Alibaba.com has three main services. The company’s
English language portal Alibaba.com handles sales between importers and exporters from more
than 240 countries and regions. The Chinese portal 1688.com was developed for domestic
business-to-business trade in China. In addition, Alibaba.com offers a transaction-based retail
website, AliExpress.com, which allows smaller buyers to buy small quantities of goods at
wholesale prices.

According to some e-commerce analysts. Alibaba is probably the one organization in the world,
which has been able to successfully provide a hassle free platform to small to medium sized
businesses to carry on over the internet.

C2C:

Taobao, is Alibaba’s yet another portal, which utilizes consumer-to-consumer model similar to
eBay. Taobao.com is China's largest shopping website, and tmall.com, which offers a wide
selection of branded goods to China's emerging middle class. It features thousands of non-brand
name products sold by smaller merchants

With around 760 million product listings as of March 2013, Taobao Marketplace is one of the
world’s top 10 most visited websites according to Alexa.

B2C:

In 2008, Alibaba Group also established another online website Tmall, to compliment it’s C2C
market. Although Tmall is mainly a business-to-consumer platform is known for offering
brand-name products. The two sites (Taobao.com and Tmall) are hugely popular, and
collectively account for more than half of all parcel deliveries in China. According to The Wall
Street Journal, their combined transaction volume in 2012 topped one trillion yuan ($163
billion), more than Amazon and eBay's revenue combined.

Tmall marketplace is China’s largest business-to-consumer (B2C) online-shopping venue. The

site allows visitors to quickly view vendor fees, required deposits and other factors associated
with operating a Tmall storefront.
 Products and Services
Alibaba provides a wide variety of products and services through its various online portals. Some
of these are:

● Apparel, Textiles & Accessories

● Auto & Transportation

● Electronics

● Electrical Equipment , Components & Telecom

● Gift, Sports & Toys

● Health & Beauty

● Home , Lights & Construction

● Jewelry, Bags & Shoes

● Machinery, Hardware & Tool

● Metallurgy, Chemicals, Rubber & Plastics

● Packaging, Advertising & Office

● Online marketing

● Cloud Computing

● Logistics Operations

● Electronic Payment Services

Alibaba is one of those online resources which claims a “Get everything and anything”
availability. A consumer can literally buy products ranging to simple toys to automobiles. Hence,
Alibaba is proving to be a one-stop platform where a consumer can choose among a wide variety
of options.
 Target Users
Alibaba Group primarily operated within China, where e-commerce is synonyms to Alibaba. But
within last decade Alibaba has expanded to almost all the corners of the world, consisting its user
base from about 190 odd countries.

Alibaba has been turned into a global organization but still holding China as it’s major focus.
Almost 75% of China’s e­commerce market is dominated by Alibaba. China has 560 million
internet users - twice as many as the U.S. - who spend an average of 20 hours a week online.

Although to get a hold on other emerging markets Alibaba Group has also established offices
in the U.S., U.K., India, Japan and Korea.

Apart from small-to-medium businesses Alibaba group also provides online platform
to individual customers through its parent websites Tmall.com and Taobao.com.
 Payment Methods
Actually Alibaba Group has it’s own payment solution named as Alipay, is a third-party online
payment platform with no transaction fees. Other than that, Alibaba also offers many ways to
pay suppliers. Six most commonly used ways are Telegraphic Transfer(TT)/Bank Transfer ,
Letter of Credit, DA/DP, Western Union, PayPal and Escrow. Buyers are advised to consider
each option carefully before committing to one.

S.NO Methods Conditions Description

1. 30% Upfront TT For buyers: 2.5 Since many factories need money in
out of 5 stars advance to buy material for production,
For suppliers: 30% Upfront TT is a common payment
4.5 out of 5 stars term for suppliers, especially when dealing
with an unknown buyer.
2. 100% Upfront TT For buyers: 1 The supplier gets full payment before
out of 5 stars production starts. This payment method
For suppliers: 5 bears the same risk as Western Union and
out of 5 stars is not recommended when dealing with an
unknown supplier.
3. 100% Backward TT For buyers: 4.5 If being paid after pre-shipment
out of 5 stars inspections, it is suggested to use trade
For suppliers: 2 terms of FOB. If being paid after receipt of
out of 5 stars merchandise, it is nearly 100% reliable for
buyer cause buyer can cover the whole risk,
however, on the opposite, suppliers are not
willing to accept this way due to big
potential risk of dispute or fraud.
4. Letter of Credit For buyers: 4 Highly recommended for transactions that
out of 5 stars are US $20,000 and above because the
For suppliers: 4 bank guarantees the transaction. But
out of 5 stars complex procedures and high threshold of
registered finance may prevent some SMEs
from being involved.
5. Western Union For buyers: 0 Not recommended when it comes to paying
out of 5 stars suppliers if the payment is not protected by
 For suppliers: 5 escrow on a transaction made online
out of 5 stars through AliExpress. However, it's useful
when transferring money to known
individuals such as family members.
6. Paypal For buyers: 5 A popular payment method for buyers as it
out of 5 stars presents a much lower risk to them.
For suppliers: 3 However, it is less popular with suppliers
out of 5 stars due to difficulties in money withdrawal,
high tax rates and uncertain claim of charge
back from some notorious importers
7. Escrow For buyers: 5 Money is only paid to the supplier after the
out of 5 stars buyer confirms satisfactory delivery of
For suppliers: 3 his/her order. A safe way to buying and
out of 5 stars selling online because Escrow protects both
the buyer and supplier.

In terms of innovation, Alibaba is introducing a new secure mobile payment method as it gets
ready for its IPO.The Chinese e-commerce giant will get ahead of its competitors Amazon,
Google and Paypal with an innovative and secure method of payment using fingerprints instead
of passwords.

“The biometric technology, including encryption and authentication managed by Huawei,

will allow mobile users to confirm payments for a wide variety of goods and services with their
smartphones simply by swiping a digit instead of entering a lengthy code,” the company says
on its blog.

Huawei, the world’s third­largest smartphone vendor by shipment volume , will also employ
high-level encryption and verification to ensure only approved third-party applications, such as
Alipay Wallet, are allowed to access the fingerprint information for transactions.

It’s worth remembering that Alibaba is a pretty safe platform to purchase on. Not only do you
have the standard protection that your payment provide gives, but Alibaba hold mostly all
payments in Escrow until the buyer confirms they’ve received the goods and they’re as expected.
Until the buyer confirms receipt the seller doesn’t receive the funds.

Alibaba also offers some tips for shipping methods:-

● Using express companies such as FedEx or DHL
You can open the shipment in front of the delivery person. If the item is not what you
ordered or if the item is defective due to handling, you have the right to return it to
the delivery person.

● Using sea freight shipping method

If the item that you received is not what you ordered, do not clear customs! You can
always request for a customs officer or a third-party inspection company to conduct an
onsite inspection before being issued a customs clearance certificate. If you only inspect
the delivery after customs clearance, you might encounter legal hurdles should you
decide to dispute the delivery.
 Comparison of Alibaba with Other
Tech-Giants
Alibaba is really a technology company that serves retail customers and controls 80% of the
Chinese e-commerce market.Alibaba will compete most directly with on-line retailers like
Amazon, EBay or Zalando in Europe, Rakuten in Japan, Kobo in India, Wuaki in Spain and
other major on-line providers with strong presence in their home and adjacent markets.
Take market capitalization, or the total value of available shares times the value of a
single share , Alibaba’s market capitalization value is estimated at $155 billion. That number
makes it look pretty small compared to the top three US tech giants: Apple ($593 billion),
Google ($400 billion), and Microsoft ($378 Billion). But it compares nicely to Amazon, which
also has a market cap in the $150-billion range. And it’s growing.

Fig : Revenues of various famous Tech-giants

The comparison is not exactly apples­to­apples. Alibaba’s business model is similar to that of
Ebay, in that it is a middleman coordinating sellers and buyers. Alibaba doesn’t house and
manage any products itself.

“Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV), the metric the company likes to highlight, is the total
sum of goods and services transacted on all its sites.”

In 2013, Alibaba hosted GMV of $248 billion in transactions last year. That’s more than
Amazon and eBay managed to do — combined. And while Amazon takes home a lot more
revenue than Alibaba from its fewer transactions, Alibaba takes a much higher net income from
its revenue than Amazon. Alibaba now takes home 80 percent of its revenue as profit.
Alibaba’s revenue is the cut it takes out of each sale. In comparison, Wal­Mart’s nearly $250
billion in revenue represents the total value of all the goods purchased along with its built-in
margins.This shows how complicated it is to value Alibaba.

To really understand how big a deal Alibaba is you’ve got to understand the growth of China’s

e-commerce economy and the stronghold that Alibaba has on it.

China has over 618 million internet users and they’re spending lots of money. That’s twice the
population of the United States, but only half China’s total population. So there’s lots of room
for growth in a sector that’s already exploding. In 2010, China’s e­commerce market was $74
billion dollars. In 2013, it was $295 billion. By 2017, it’s estimated to reach $713 billion.

And Alibaba is cashing in big time. It controls 80 percent of online sales. Even though it’s not
yet putting up the gross revenue numbers of Amazon and Apple, its 80 percent control of the
market and 80 percent profit take from its revenue adds up to a huge, massive, crazy, growing
amount of money.
 iTech Ecommerce LLP

Khalid Isar
Founder and CEO of Itech Ecommerce (LLP)

Started with becoming the largest channel partner of ecommerce giant – ‘Alibaba.com’, iTech
Ecommerce LLP eventually bootstrapped to rebrand the product and services of Alibaba and
enabled businesses of Indian SMEs to extend their reach to the right audience with the aid of
latest technological developments. It made ecommerce and IT aspect a lot more simple, cost
effective and interactive.

We are progressive in our approach be it products, services & processes. We diligently study all
plausible aspects of a business to provide the best consultancy. Keeping a strong roadmap into
introspect, iTech Ecommerce LLP envisages a big scope for future in blending its automated and
integrated technologies of e-commerce with the Marketing and Advertisement of SMEs through
integration with internet.

We’re looking to cater immersive experiences by exploring the scope and possibility of I.T.
based solutions for ecommerce, while revamping the whole market sphere by venturing our
emphatic dream to undertake the untouched segments of the current Indian market and
transforming it into real.
 Since the inception iTech Ecommerce LLP has been one of the largest channel partner of
Alibaba.com leading its operations in India. Headquartered at Noida with regional offices and
presence at Ahmedabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Jalandhar, Jaipur, Surat and other metro and non-
metro cities across India, iTech Ecommerce focus and energize on success of Indian SMEs. Our
depth and breadth of past experience with its ex-Alibaba.com management & leaders gives us
unique perspective and edge to prevail. iTech Ecommerce provide solutions to suit small,
medium and enterprise level businesses with technology at our disposal with bespoke
functionality

Integrated with Alibaba, iTech Ecommerce facilitates high conversion ecommerce for Indian
SMEs, harnessing the limitless potential of internet attracting the buyers globally while nurturing
them through experience and seasoned professionals. iTech Ecommerce deploys wide range of
creative and impactful digital solutions to online businesses maximizing their returns including
value added services and specialized training to SME’s.

iTech Ecommerce has established itself as The Best Global channel partner of Alibaba.com in
India and successfully servicing more than 3000 plus Customers across pan India. Core mantra
of iTech remains “ Facilitating SMEs to Grow Their Business BIG”

Our Core Strength

With having more than 150 seasoned professionals, who are directly involved in Client Servicing
across Pan India, iTech Ecommerce focuses the energy on the servicing and success of its
customers. iTech ecommerce is able to serve the customers in the best possible manner and able
to resolve the customer’s problems within stipulated timeframe with dedicated Team of
following verticals.

 Customer Service
 Sales
 Sales Support
 Technical Assistance
 Customer Compliant

When other service providers find the problems of customer’s too complex, iTech Ecommerce
thrives at solving the same. iTech Ecommerce invests in people who have the ingenuity and
creativity to deliver impactful services that shape our customer’s success. The very fabric of
iTech is built on integrity, competence, and innovation.
 iTech Value Added Services
As part of other value added services and initiatives, iTech ecommerce also expertise in
delivering the followings –

 Web Site designing & development

 Ecommerce Website & Solutions
 Digital Marketing
 Web Hosting
 Mobile apps
 SEO & Search Marketing
 Custom Applications

When other service providers find the problems of customer’s too complex, iTech Ecommerce
thrives at solving the same. iTech Ecommerce invests in people who have the ingenuity and
creativity to deliver impactful services that shape our customers’ success. The very fabric of
iTech is built on integrity, competence, and innovation.

Mission & Vission

Harnessing the Power of E-Commerce bundled with other value added services and Open up A
World of Opportunities for SME’s to grow their Business Globally.

 Customer Service
 Sales
 Sales Support
 Technical Assistance
 Customer Compliant
When other service providers find the problems of customer’s too complex, iTech Ecommerce
thrives at solving the same. iTech Ecommerce invests in people who have the ingenuity and
creativity to deliver impactful services that shape our customers’ success. The very fabric of
iTech is built on integrity, competence, and innovation.
What We Do
iTech Ecommerce provide digital solutions & services to suit small, medium and enterprise level
businesses with technology at our disposal with bespoke functionality. Leveraging the power of
e-commerce, iTech Ecommerce is missioned to change the face of the e-commerce for Indian
SMEs, with international solutions and intuitive software to match. We help businesses attract
buyers, while nurturing them through marketing into sales funnel. We build effective ROI-based
marketing campaigns that help B2B organizations achieve core business objectives.
Awards & Achievements
We Believe that “A dream becomes a goal when action is taken towards its achievement”

Best Channel Partner For The Quarter-2017 GSD FY2018 Excellent Service Team
Global Top 1 Alibaba India Top 1

FY2018 Oversea Partner GSD FY2018 Token of Appreciation Towards

New GGS Revenue Top Partner. Contribution For The Promotion
Alibaba 2017 FY Excellent Partner of GGS Renew of Indian Handicrafts
 GLOBAL GOLD SUPPLIERS

PRISES

BASIC STANDARD PREMIUM

109814rs 232932rs 464920rs
Documents Required For Alibaba Membership:-
 Import and Export Certificates
 GST (Goods and Services Taxes)
 Pen card ( company or Owner )
 Telephone or Mobile Bill
 TAN Number

The basic Perimeter of Alibaba Platform Are:

 Daily login to your account (Alibaba Account).
 Product upload with full Specification.
 To be active on a list of Suppliers.
 Response to enquire to 24 to 48 Hours.
 How to Sell Your Products on Alibaba

(1) Create an Alibaba account to get started.

(2) Click “Join Now” to become a member for free.

(3) Enter your location, contact information, email address, and create a
password in the registration form.
(4) Click “Create My Account”

(5) Enter a product name and product keyword.

(6) Select a product category to help Alibaba categorize your product,
making it easier for potential customers to find it.

(7) Enter a brief description that will help users find and better understand
what your product is.
(8) Click “Next”.

(9) Add product details by selecting the relevant checkboxes next to

“Product Status”, “Application”, and “Type”.
(10) Enter your product’s brand name, model number, and place of origin, if
any.

(11) Upload an image of your product by select “Browse” to choose an image

from your computer or click “Select from Photo Bank” to get a
previously uploaded image stored on Alibaba.
(12) Enter a detailed description that will provide potential customers with all
of the relevant information they may want when considering purchasing
your product.

(13) Select the payment and shipping terms that best suit your needs. This
is where you will select how customers will be able to pay for your
product, the minimum order quantity, and the price per product.
(14) Select the production capacity, estimated delivery time requirements,
and packaging details. This will help buyers get an idea of your delivery
services and whether or not you can meet their requirements.

(15) Click “Submit”.

(16) Create a Company Profile by entering your Company Name and
Company Address.

(17) Select a Business Type and fill in what Products/Services you sell.
(18) Create a Member Profile by entering your Gender and Contact Address.

(19) Click “Submit” to submit your product listing to the Alibaba approval
process.
 Research Methodology
The research has been carried out pursuing the avenues of both primary and
secondary sources.

Primary Sources of Data:

1. Open ended discussion of the following Alibaba personnel was carried out:

● Mr. Sambhav Yadav, Senior Sales Manager, itech Ecommerce LLP.

● Ambika Thakur, HR Business Partner at iTech E-commerce LLP.
● Mohd Abuzar Accountant at iTech Ecommerce LLP.

2. A number of Alibaba (itech Ecommerce) staffs ( Manager’s, salesmen ) who were on duty
were interviewed.

3. A B2B survey was carried out covering a total of 10 customers of Alibaba. These customers
were given a questioner designed for this survey.

Selection criteria of the customers:

● Regular consumers
● Trustworthy consumers
● Knowledgeable consumers about the industry.

Secondary Sources of Data:

1. The website of “Alibaba” and the Facebook page of “Alibaba” were used to collect some
basic information regarding the organization.

2. A few online articles regarding Alibaba were consulted to view expert opinions as well as
perceptions of customers regarding this chain.

3. Annual reports of the company were also consulted to gather necessary information
including some financials.
 Findings

● Some of the important findings in Alibaba.com were that most of the suppliers were very
reluctant to spend money on the online promotions of their products.

● They have a very good knowledge of the online promotional tools which are prevalent in
the market and they are interested also.

● They are also aware of the other competitors in the market like IndiaMart,Tradeindia.com,
etc.

● Most importantly they have enough faith on Alibaba.com and they are very much
interested in promoting their product through the Alibaba as they know the number of
clients in Alibaba.com is very high.

● They are also in the belief that if they want to promote their business globally, online
promotions are necessary.

● The suppliers are also in the opinion that print media, trade fares are very much
beneficial in the online promotion activities.

● During the interaction with the suppliers, it was very much clear of the fact that the
service rendered by Alibaba.com is of supreme quality and they want to be the client of the
company.
 Recommendations
For an effective online promotional marketing strategy for a manufacturer,
there are some recommendations which need to be followed so as to increase
the revenue of the company.

Registrations at B2B Market Places:

Leveraging services of an online B2B marketplace opens up numerous doors of opportunities. It
offers both options for registrations –free and paid. The latter offers additional features to
enhance business prospects. To gain maximum exposure manufacturing companies should
register at many online B2B marketplaces as possible and be visible to buyers visiting from
across the globe.

Build a Website:
A website that covers complete product and company information along with client testimonials
has become a prerequisite for manufacturers looking for web presence. Updating the product
catalogue and other latest happenings such as trade fare participations at regular intervals is also
essentials to keep the customers and visitor’s interest. The company must be prompt in replying to
business queries from buyers over email or phone.

Search Engine Optimization:

A specialized company needs to be engaged to undertake the SEO activities for your company.
Also the manufacturer firms should register themselves at Google Local, Google Maps, and
similar services across all search engines, both major and minor.

E-mail Marketing:
A concrete database of the target customers from a reliable source should be obtained and send
mailers using a service that gives detailed statistics of its rate, click through, etc.

Build Trust:
Online marketing is mainly based on trust. You can capitalize on mechanism which bridge the
trust gap associated with the online medium and enhance your credibility. Alibaba.com has a
business verification service ‘Trust Seal’ and that needs to be used in a very fair way to obtain
the customer’s trust.

Social Media Marketing:

It is a powerful tool to speed the word about your company and increase network possibilities,
social media, holds immense potentials. Sending regular update messages in your LinkedIn
network, updating company’s products at various blogs, uploading product pictures on photo
sharing sites. putting product videos on all video sharing sites like You Tube, placing company
presentations and documents on document sharing sites, such as Slide shares, Scribd etc can
improve the supplier’s perceptions over the online promotional products.
 Conclusion

1. They have a very good knowledge of the online promotional tools which are prevalent in the
market and they are interested also.

2. They are also aware of the other competitors in the market like indiamart.com, tradeindia.com,
etc.

3. Most importantly they have enough faith on Alibaba.com and they are very much interested in
promoting their product through the Aliibaba.com as they know the number of clients in
Alibaba.com is very high.

4. They are also in the belief that if they want to promote their business globally, online promotions
are necessary.

5. The suppliers are also in the opinion that the other Available Resources of the internet are very
much beneficial in the online promotion activities.

6. During the interaction with the suppliers, it was very much clear of the fact that the service
rendered by Alibaba is of supreme quality and they want to be the client of the company.
 Questionnaire
1. NAME

______________________________

2. Email Address

______________________________

3. Phone No.

______________________________

4. Country You Live in

______________________________

5. City

______________________________

6. Name of your company if you have

______________________________

(a) Which ones of the following categories are you interested in sourcing at Alibaba.com?
Check all that apply.

Agriculture & Food

Bags, Shoes & Accessories
Electrical Equipment, Components & Telecom
Gifts, Sports & Hobbies
Health & Beauty
Jewellery
Essential Oil
Spices
Handicraft
Other:
(b) What is your MAIN purpose of using Alibaba.com? Mark only one oval.

Shop products
Look for the latest market/product information for my business (e.g.
popular products, price trends, etc.)
Search for suppliers
Other:

(c) Which of the following BEST describes your purpose for shopping products on Alibaba.com?
[Please select one.]

Shop for business purposes only

Shop occasionally for personal purposes
Shop for both business and personal purposes. I spend equal time on both.

Other:

(d) Which of the following best describes your sourcing attitude on branded products? Mark only
one oval.

I always source branded products

I sometimes source branded products
I didn't source branded products before but am planning to in the future
I am not interested in sourcing branded products

(e) How many years have you been involved in international trade? [Please select one.] Mark only
one oval.

Less then 1 year

1 to 2 years
2 to 3 years
5 years more
(f) Which of the following BEST describes your business? [Please select one.] Mark only one oval.

Manufacturer
Import/Export Company
Wholesaler/Distributor
Online Retailer
Offline Retailer
Large Supermarket/Hypermarket/General Merchandise Store

(g) How many employees are there in your business (including yourself)? [Please select one.]
Mark only one oval.

2 to 4
5 to 9
10 to 49
50 to 100

(h) What is your role in the company? [Please select all that apply.] Mark only one oval.

I am the owner
I am the general manager/director.
I am the purchasing manager.
I am a purchaser/merchandiser/purchasing assistant

Other:

(i) Which B2B portal you preferred to generate your business? Mark only one oval.

India-mart
Alibaba
Trade India
Amazon Business
Go4world business
Jim Trade

Other:
(j) Have you ever used any portal for your product's Promotion? Mark only one oval.

Yes
No

(k) How did you know about Alibaba.com? Mark only one oval.

Internet
News paper
Exhibition/Trade shows
Magazines
Other:

(l) How often do you purchase? Mark only one oval.

Weekly
Monthly
Quarterly
Annually

Other:

(m) What benefits do you look for when you purchase? Mark only one oval.

Price
Durability
Comfort

Other: