Alibaba to boost the SME sector in India, too get small companies onboard

It’s a good news for Indian SME sector. Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba group’s business-to-business arm, Alibaba.com, may soon enter into strategic tie-ups with SMEs in India.

According to a report by ET, India is considered to be the largest overseas market for Alibaba.com in terms of sellers, second only to its home market China.

"India is our key market and only when we have the local channels will we be successful here," said Timothy Leung, head of global business development at Alibaba.com in the report.

It should be noted that currently there are 4.5 million registered users from India with the world’s largest ecommerce company, which makes it the second-highest paid users on the platform after China.

Interestingly, Alibaba.com has launched a reseller programme in India, which is aimed at partnering with companies that work with SMEs to encourage their clients to join Alibaba as sellers. Such partner companies will get a commission for sales done by the SMEs they introduce.

The reseller programme is already active in China and other Asian markets including Malaysia, Vietnam and Turkey. "India is higher potential but also more complex, so we have to get our model right," added Leung.

In India, Alibaba has already tied up with two companies or partners - Sokrati, a digital media startup focused on SMEs, and transit-focused advertising company TDI. The company also plans to hold an event, which will bring together 40-50 potential resellers next week.

"Getting SMEs listed on Alibaba with a single click is the kind of integration that we are trying to do," said Sokrati cofounder and CEO Ashish Mehta. Alibaba has already started receiving expression of interests from a number of companies in the SME sector.

(Image credit: Indiatimes)