Alibaba

Alibaba Launches Third-Party Platform, 11 Main, in US

Source: Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, Jun 11, 2014

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Tags: Alibaba Group, Asia/Pacific, China, Industry Dynamics, Market Development Models, North America, USA

A new Alibaba subsidiary is close to launching a marketplace in the US and has been on-boarding third-party sellers since late last year. 11Main.com has hand-picked eBay sellers to participate in the pre-launch phase.

The sites model is to charge sellers a 3.5% commission fee when an item sells with a $50 cap. There is no charge for selling printed books, DVDs and music. 11 Main is also actively encouraging sellers to consider lowering their prices since its selling fees are lower than eBay's. 11 Main does have a 5-cent listing fee per month in certain categories, but those fees are ignored for sellers who use its selling tools.

Alibaba acquired eBay listing tools Auctiva and Vendio in 2010. The companies gave it access to over 250,000 eBay sellers who at the time were responsible for an estimated 5% - 10% of eBay's listings. 11 Main is leveraging the companies both for their technology and their seller base as it builds out the new marketplace. This will provide a large boost, as many companies have tried to go up against eBay and failed due to the difficulty in attracting shoppers.

The site is laid out different than eBay sellers are allowed to upload banners and logos and items are arranged like social media site Pinterest. In addition to eBay, 11Main.com will also compete against Amazon who has a robust third-party seller market. 

UPDATE: Alibaba has officially launched 11 Main, hosting more than 1,000 merchants across categories including clothing, jewelry & accessories, and interior goods.