Alibaba.com Seller Ecosystem and Decision-Making Observation

Goals

• Observe seller e-commerce strategies and Alibaba.com strategies to summarize seller types and assess how seller behavior affects the foundational experience.

• Deeply analyze seller behavior to identify issues and potential directions that influence foundational experience strategy.

About This Document

• The insights and summaries in this document are based on interviews with 12 sellers from Shenzhen and Yiwu. The sample includes both top and mid-tier sellers on Alibaba.com. Detailed seller information is included in the appendix at the end.

• As the sample size is limited, and information about seller decisions and behavior mainly comes from self-reported statements and our backend login-free observations, there may be inaccuracies or bias in factual descriptions or judgments. This document is intended only for reference by the buyer-side teams.

• The analysis of sellers’ decision-making models and operational methods is limited to aspects related to Alibaba.com / online cross-border e-commerce platforms and may not represent the sellers’ entire business operations.

• For detailed interview content, please refer to the “Shenzhen Seller Interview Records — Details” document.

Seller Ecosystem Observations

Sellers’ Common Priority: Cost Reduction

• Sellers naturally operate using first-principles thinking, focusing on the most direct factors affecting revenue. Regardless of scale, they are extremely sensitive to input–output ratios of resources and capital. Their core metrics are directly tied to order generation — exposure, TM, and conversion — where the upper limit of conversion depends on traffic volume. Hence, sellers naturally spend more time and energy acquiring traffic, making “lowering traffic cost” their top goal.

  • In our interviews, most sellers said they monitor data from Direct Train and other inquiry/conversion-related indicators daily, adjusting promotion strategies accordingly.

• Currently, Alibaba.com’s foundational experience has many weak spots, especially in controlling and operating organic traffic. The ROI of improving product quality for organic traffic growth is far lower than directly obtaining controlled traffic (e.g., purchased exposure, or algorithmic boosts from platform events). Thus, regardless of size, under cost pressure, sellers always prioritize “reducing traffic cost,” trying to gain more controlled traffic within the platform’s mechanisms — even resorting to data manipulation to obtain more traffic.

  • Some sellers said they abandoned Alibaba.com because improving traffic and conversion is almost entirely dependent on paid traffic.

  • Some leading sellers operate multiple storefronts and use offline order transfers to boost store ratings and fabricate reviews and traffic.

• Since Alibaba.com profits heavily from selling premium controlled traffic, there is a natural trade-off between “selling premium controlled traffic” and “providing premium organic traffic for free.” As a result, organic high-quality traffic only accounts for a small portion of what sellers can access. Therefore, sellers’ optimizations of product/store and user interaction to increase traffic efficiency often diverge from the directions that improve user experience or align with platform goals — one of the root causes of PDP and foundational experience issues.

  • Some high-quality sellers explicitly stated they quit the platform because they refused to pay for traffic.

  • Many operators and business owners said the ROI of paid traffic has dropped, or that rising ad costs forced them to use fake pricing to attract more traffic.

Sellers’ Interests and Platform Experience Are Not Naturally Opposed

• Seller and user experiences are not inherently at odds. In fact, most sellers trust and rely on platform-provided data and rules for optimization and decision-making.

  • Most sellers — especially small and mid-sized ones — rely heavily on platform rules and scoring systems to optimize their titles or images.

  • In larger firms, performance metrics (provided by Alibaba.com) are directly tied to how the responsible managers are evaluated.

• Sellers’ pursuit of efficiency is consistent — and this drive can be guided or educated to align with the platform’s efficiency goals.

  • Multilingual sales staff are expensive; owners aim to increase direct-order users to cut costs. When rules are reasonable, the optimal seller solution is to expose accurate, trustworthy information.

  • Business owners also want to filter and nurture large/customized buyers effectively; expressing customization needs clearly is an essential step where tool support is required.

Seller Partners’ and Platform’s Priorities Differ

• Seller partners are evaluated mainly by merchant-side performance, so they tend to guide merchants to open multiple stores for more traffic instead of improving product-level operations.

• Since merchant partners’ incentives are tied to renewal rates, they are naturally aligned more with sellers than with user or platform experience.

Sellers’ Decision-Making Model

• Sellers need policy and outcome certainty. They are cost-sensitive and strongly loss-averse, preferring to calculate ROI on the platform based on predictable rules and outcomes.

  • Some larger sellers even assign dedicated staff to study platform rules.

  • Many sellers cited uncertainty in semi-managed policies (e.g., unclear penalties for non-shipment) as a key reason they avoid joining new categories.

• Mid-tier sellers seek “demonstration effects.” With weaker R&D and supply chain control, they minimize risk by following proven products or top sellers.

  • Most mid-tier sellers said they prefer to “wait and see” until larger players or manufacturers join first.

• Sellers’ decisions are driven purely by operational cost calculations.

  • If the perceived risk of being caught is low, sellers see violating platform rules as a reasonable business choice.

  • Some sellers (especially in 3C and pet categories) said they take such actions to avoid customs or declaration risks.

Seller Structure Overview

Typical Alibaba.com Team Composition

Sellers’ operational teams usually consist of two functional groups:

• Operations:

  • Handle category acquisition and packaging: obtain product info from R&D, production, or sourcing teams and create listings and visuals.

  • Manage storefronts: list products, monitor traffic, and run/track marketing tools such as Direct Train or Top Ads.

• Sales:

  • Handle full client journey: inquiry response, quotation, follow-up, and issue resolution.

  • Manage fulfillment: place factory/warehouse orders, track shipments, and ensure buyer satisfaction.

• Owner / Manager:

  • In small firms, the owner is often also the e-commerce lead.

  • In larger firms, an independent e-commerce department may exist, with the owner overseeing:

    • New product R&D or selection decisions.

    • VIP client management and relationship maintenance.

• Some small firms or trading companies may have one person doing everything (from operations to logistics) or outsource the shipping tasks to warehouse staff.

Seller Types

Based on business scale, industry, and leadership style, we roughly categorize sellers into three types:

1. Rugged Type (粗犷型)

• Small enterprises or traders; decision-maker is the owner. Team size is minimal, usually one operator (sometimes the owner) and a few salespeople.

• Product decisions come from peers or personal observation; operational decisions depend on platform or merchant partners. Operate mainly on Alibaba.com or Alibaba + 1688.

• Little or no concept of refined operation; competitiveness comes from offline experience.

• Treat online operations as an extension of offline business, focusing on large-buyer acquisition.

• Know their existing customers but do not study user behavior beyond the sold product.

2. Scaled Type (规模型)

• Factories or small distributors with some R&D capabilities. Sensitive to industry trends with rich experience or unique information sources.

• Small-to-medium enterprises with one or more e-commerce teams and a dedicated leader.

• Product decisions come from peers and professional observation; may have R&D staff; rely on internal judgment; often operate on both B2B and B2C platforms.

• Practice refined operations focused on conversion rates, using Alibaba tools to make data-driven decisions.

• Differentiate online and offline operations; aim for both bulk orders and large clients.

• Have some understanding of customer cultures and behaviors in specific markets.

3. Smart Type (智慧型)

• Small-to-medium traders who know why buyers choose them and how to present their strengths.

• Have a professional e-commerce team and leader.

• Product decisions based on industry observation and data; team has clear specialization; decisions grounded in analytics; often operate across multiple platforms.

• Refined operations on listings and user feedback; use both Alibaba and off-site tools to analyze performance.

• Often no offline stores; have strong category- or product-level operational awareness.

• Deep understanding of industry and cross-cultural buyer behavior.