Alibaba recently adjusted its e-commerce strategy, focusing on integrating 1688 with its international sites. According to titanium media reports, it is expected that within the next two years, the cross-border business of 1688 will exceed its domestic business volume. Currently, the proportion of AI-automated procurement transactions based on API, MCP, or Agent-to-Agent protocols has exceeded 30%. In terms of supply chain collaboration, 1688 is transforming B2B procurement into ‘AI-organized supply’, prioritizing the establishment of a stable supply pool around approximately 40,000 high-quality merchants. Although the completion rate of infrastructure for domestic and foreign trade data is about 40%, and further integration with downstream sales data from Amazon, TikTok, etc. is needed, AI has already achieved an efficiency improvement of 20% to 30% in areas such as intelligent replenishment, automatic price comparison, and supplier screening.
It is expected that within two years, the cross-border business of 1688 will exceed its domestic business in size. Currently, the proportion of AI-automated procurement transactions based on API, MCP, or Agent-to-Agent protocols exceeds 30%. 1688 is reengineering its cross-border supply chain collaboration, promoting B2B procurement towards an “AI-driven supply” model, with priority given to establishing stable supply pools around 40,000 high-quality merchants. Although the infrastructure for domestic and foreign trade data is only about 40% complete, and further integration with downstream sales data from Amazon, TikTok, etc. is needed, AI has already improved efficiency by 20% to 30% in areas such as intelligent replenishment, automatic price comparison, and supplier screening.