Alibaba International has launched Marco, its AI solution to enhance global e-commerce operations and empower SMBs in cross-border trade.
The solution aims to assist e-commerce merchants across Alibaba's ecosystem, handling over 60 specific tasks across marketing, marketplace compliance, and customer service.
Key features
Key features driving the adoption of Marco include its ability to generate multiple, diverse visual variations from a single source image.
Moreover, it can create AI-generated product listings directly from images and can generate promotional text.
In late 2024, Alibaba International upgraded Marco's translation capabilities, resulting in a significant 30% increase in user satisfaction for major European language areas. The AI solution currently generates almost 40% of all search-optimised product descriptions across Alibaba International's platforms.
Marco's technology extends to e-commerce platforms in China that operate outside of the Alibaba ecosystem.
New AI agents
Alibaba International has also introduced three specialised AI Agents, designed to significantly ease the complex operational tasks of merchants in cross-border e-commerce, thereby enhancing their efficiency and productivity.
- The intelligent Refund Agent claims to analyse market insights generated from consumers and merchants, recommending optimal refund solutions and reducing costs by a significant 15%.
- HS Code Agent: The AI agent can automate customs classification, increasing accuracy by 23%.
- Merchant Recruitment Agent: It nearly doubles the success rate for email lead conversion by identifying and pre-qualifying potential sellers.
"The past year marks a significant shift in how we deploy AI to empower cross-border e-commerce, reflecting broader industry needs and trends," said Kaifu Zhang, vice president of Alibaba International and Head of its AI Business team. "Our approach combines deep, scenario-specific data with continuous learning loops, leading to increasingly powerful problem-solving capabilities. We're evolving beyond standalone generative models toward dedicated AI agents that can tackle a wider range of complex business challenges efficiently for merchants engaged in cross-border trade worldwide."
