Critical Analysis of Marketing Strategy of Alibaba

Critical Analysis of Marketing Strategy of Alibaba
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Critical Analysis of Marketing Strategy of Alibaba
Executive Summary
This report focuses on Alibaba, a leading company in the e-commerce industry. Specifically, the report delves into the marketing strategies used by the company. The report provides a brief overview of Alibaba and then proceeds to outline the external operating environment for the company. Next, the report outlines key issues facing the company's marketing strategies. In this regard, the analysis identifies the inability of the company to expand overseas as a limitation that the company needs to deal with. Further, the company is prone to the influence of the Chinese authorities, which can adversely affect its operations if the government interferes. The report recommends that Alibaba makes more efforts toward marketing overseas. Moreover, the company needs to take advantage of technology to innovate more products.
The Firm
Alibaba (Also known as Alibaba Group Holding Limited) is a Chinese multinational holding company. It specializes in e-commerce, retail, the Internet, and technology. It was founded in 1999 by Jack Ma in his apartment. The founders believed that Alibaba should champion small businesses hoping that the Internet would level the playing field by allowing small businesses to leverage technology and innovation to expand their operations locally and domestically (Alibaba Group, 2022). It became the first company in China to deal in online business. The company has grown to become a multinational business with subsidiaries, namely; Taobao, Alibaba, and Tmall. In September 2014, Alibaba made an initial public offering, the largest. Today, Alibaba is one of the largest retailers and e-commerce companies. The company serves clients in China and overseas.
The company has developed an ecosystem that consists of consumers, merchants, retailers, and third-party service providers. Alibaba offers digital marketplaces for both merchants and consumers. The largest business for Alibaba is its core e-commerce operations (Yazdanifard & Li, 2014). The company continues to work towards becoming the leader in developing the infrastructure of commerce. Alibaba also invests in research and development to create innovative solutions facing commerce. Alibaba serves a wide range of clients from B2B (Alibaba.com), C2C (Taobao), and B2C (Tmall). Through Alibaba.com, the site connects suppliers with buyers. The suppliers sell products to other businesses looking for inventory for the firms. Manufacturers and wholesalers worldwide can obtain the products they need to run their businesses. The company’s C2C (Taobao) is an enormous online store operating on the C2C model. The system permits random people to sell their products directly between themselves. The company’s B2C is done via Taobao Mall (TMall), a commercial website where an organization or legal entity provides goods and services to final consumers.
External Operating Environment
(a) PESTLE Analysis
Political factors are a major factor for Alibaba. The uncertain political situation in China creates an uncertain future for the business. For instance, since Alibaba decided to list i...