Alibaba to bolster B2B presence in India to aid sellers on its platform

Alibaba is leaving no stones unturned to increase its foothold in the Indian sub-continent. The Chinese behemoth is partnering up with the likes of DHL and Delhivery to provide domestic and international logistics support to Indian sellers. There’s more. The company will also be offering financial aid in the country, through its partnerships with various prominent banks.

Alibaba personifies B2B and the scope possessed by this industry in the most relevant ways. A B2B or Business to Business platform basically caters to other businesses, which may range between small and medium in size, and provides them with products, services or information on a wholesale basis.

Alibaba brought an overhaul in the Chinese economy, when it began using its platform to provide merchants with access to International sellers and vice-versa. The Chinese giant is aiming for same in India now.

The partnership with DHL and Delhivery will be arrayed for the benefit of Indian sellers by providing them with domestic and international logistics support. Alibaba is not limiting itself to carting goods though and will also be offering financial aid through its tie-ups with Aditya Birla Group’s NBFC arm, IDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

While IDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra will be lending to sellers, merchants will be receiving most of the working capital support through Aditya Birla Finance. The program would be of particular significance to SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) and startups, who will be able to deploy Alibaba’s extensive network and reseller platform for their own purposes, while also receiving financial aid.

The initiative will be led by Vinay Bhartia, senior VP, who will be accompanied by Guru Gowrappan, global MD at Alibaba. The duo will be working to significantly ramp up the B2B capabilities Alibaba has in the country.

Speaking with The Times Of India, a person with information about the subject, said,“Their B2B platform has been around for years but they haven’t been able to make much progress scaling it. Now it seems they are seriously looking to focus on the B2B side by helping sellers with working capital and logistics.They’ll also bring in Chinese vendors onto the site as they have great depth in the merchant ecosystem back home.”