After Banning US Businesses, Alibaba lets US Small, Medium Businesses to Sell on Platform

China’s e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba will allow small and medium-sized US businesses to sell on Alibaba.com. US businesses, until Tuesday, were only able to buy merchandise on the platform. Alibaba is looking to juice its growth, which has been held in check by Amazon and threatened by trade tensions between the US and China. Alibaba says the platform has 10 million active business buyers in more than 190 countries and regions. One third of the order volume is from US businesses, says John Caplan, president of North America B2B and globalisation at Alibaba Group. Sellers will have to pay an annual registration fee of about USD 2,000, but it won’t charge commission for each sale, unlike Amazon, Caplan said.