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Hangzhou enterprises jump on board the e-commerce bandwagon
July 21, 2009, Tuesday
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A government project to hand out coupons to join Alibaba, an online B2B marketplace, has business owners thinking in ways they never expected. Nie Xin has the details.
The passion for electronic commerce among enterprises in Hangzhou has never been so high.
"I answered more than 50 phone calls in three hours about our platform and the e-commerce coupon project. Almost one in five calls was from small and medium-sized enterprises and private entrepreneurs. They usually booked the e-commerce coupons immediately after consulting," says Tong Min, telephone operator for the project "Alibaba EC Coupon."
Since June, Alibaba began sending out free e-commerce coupons to small and medium-sized enterprises and private entrepreneurs in Hangzhou.
Alibaba (http://china.alibaba.com/) is a business-to-business platform in China and one of the most important e-commerce brands worldwide. It has more than 14 million registered enterprises.
The e-commerce coupons aim to help small and medium-sized enterprises become more cost-efficient by doing business online.
According to the 2009 commerce blueprint of Hangzhou, 11,000 enterprises in Hangzhou, including 1,000 foreign enterprises, will join Alibaba through the e-commerce coupon project.
To assist the enterprises and advance the project, Hangzhou Municipal Government has prepared a fund to back the project.
"With an e-commerce coupon, the enterprise can register to be a member of Alibaba. They will be provided e-commerce platform services for one year and other supplementary services from Alibaba," says Wu Minzhi, a vice director at Alibaba.
The membership fee to join Alibaba is 3,800 yuan (US$) per year.
With the 2,500-yuan coupon, the enterprise only has to pay 1,300 yuan to join while the government chips in another 1,300 yuan while Alibaba absorbs the remaining 1,200 yuan.
The first batch of coupons were sent in June. Most were sent to domestic trade enterprises. More than 5,000 enterprises applied for the coupons.
In the second wave, small and private entrepreneurs were included. It's the first time that private entrepreneurs in Hangzhou were included in the e-commerce project.
Hao Jianhua has had a stall in Qianjiang Retail Market for two years, selling plastic products. From the middle of 2008 to the beginning of 2009, business suffered due to the financial crisis and he was forced to lower prices.
"Many stall owners closed due to high rents," says Hao.
When Hao learned of the Alibaba e-commerce coupon, he decided to give it a try even though he didn't understand a lot about it.
After paying 1,300 yuan, Hao opened his Alibaba account and started selling his plastic products online.
"I am not too familiar with the operation of the online system, but I am very happy to see that some purchasers from other cities in Sichuan and Shaanxi have asked about the prices of my products. I had never thought that I could sell my products to interior cities," says Hao.
Alibaba's Wu says: "Establishing an e-commerce platform is one of the most efficient ways small and medium-sized enterprises can save money in the financial crisis. It's the wave of the future."
So far more than 7,000 enterprises have set up e-commerce platforms at Alibaba this year.
Applicants for the Alibaba e-commerce coupons should be based in Hangzhou. More information and application forms are available from the Alibaba e-commerce coupon hotline at (0571) 8505-1411 or 8505-1499 (10am-5pm).
E-commerce blooms
Wikipedia defines electronic commerce as the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems, such as the Internet and other computer networks.
The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily due to widespread Internet usage.
E-commerce spurs and draws on innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange, inventory management systems and automated data collection systems.
Modern e-commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least once in the transaction's lifecycle, although it can encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail as well.
The passion for electronic commerce among enterprises in Hangzhou has never been so high.
"I answered more than 50 phone calls in three hours about our platform and the e-commerce coupon project. Almost one in five calls was from small and medium-sized enterprises and private entrepreneurs. They usually booked the e-commerce coupons immediately after consulting," says Tong Min, telephone operator for the project "Alibaba EC Coupon."
Since June, Alibaba began sending out free e-commerce coupons to small and medium-sized enterprises and private entrepreneurs in Hangzhou.
Alibaba (http://china.alibaba.com/) is a business-to-business platform in China and one of the most important e-commerce brands worldwide. It has more than 14 million registered enterprises.
The e-commerce coupons aim to help small and medium-sized enterprises become more cost-efficient by doing business online.
According to the 2009 commerce blueprint of Hangzhou, 11,000 enterprises in Hangzhou, including 1,000 foreign enterprises, will join Alibaba through the e-commerce coupon project.
To assist the enterprises and advance the project, Hangzhou Municipal Government has prepared a fund to back the project.
"With an e-commerce coupon, the enterprise can register to be a member of Alibaba. They will be provided e-commerce platform services for one year and other supplementary services from Alibaba," says Wu Minzhi, a vice director at Alibaba.
The membership fee to join Alibaba is 3,800 yuan (US$) per year.
With the 2,500-yuan coupon, the enterprise only has to pay 1,300 yuan to join while the government chips in another 1,300 yuan while Alibaba absorbs the remaining 1,200 yuan.
The first batch of coupons were sent in June. Most were sent to domestic trade enterprises. More than 5,000 enterprises applied for the coupons.
In the second wave, small and private entrepreneurs were included. It's the first time that private entrepreneurs in Hangzhou were included in the e-commerce project.
Hao Jianhua has had a stall in Qianjiang Retail Market for two years, selling plastic products. From the middle of 2008 to the beginning of 2009, business suffered due to the financial crisis and he was forced to lower prices.
"Many stall owners closed due to high rents," says Hao.
When Hao learned of the Alibaba e-commerce coupon, he decided to give it a try even though he didn't understand a lot about it.
After paying 1,300 yuan, Hao opened his Alibaba account and started selling his plastic products online.
"I am not too familiar with the operation of the online system, but I am very happy to see that some purchasers from other cities in Sichuan and Shaanxi have asked about the prices of my products. I had never thought that I could sell my products to interior cities," says Hao.
Alibaba's Wu says: "Establishing an e-commerce platform is one of the most efficient ways small and medium-sized enterprises can save money in the financial crisis. It's the wave of the future."
So far more than 7,000 enterprises have set up e-commerce platforms at Alibaba this year.
Applicants for the Alibaba e-commerce coupons should be based in Hangzhou. More information and application forms are available from the Alibaba e-commerce coupon hotline at (0571) 8505-1411 or 8505-1499 (10am-5pm).
E-commerce blooms
Wikipedia defines electronic commerce as the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems, such as the Internet and other computer networks.
The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily due to widespread Internet usage.
E-commerce spurs and draws on innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange, inventory management systems and automated data collection systems.
Modern e-commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least once in the transaction's lifecycle, although it can encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail as well.
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