In this episode, Blythe and Yikun Shao, Head of North America Supply Chain at Alibaba.com, discuss how the platform helps small and medium businesses with global sourcing and logistics. Shao highlights Alibaba's AI tools like language translation, image generation for product design, and logistics marketplace. He also details educational resources on trade compliance, managing cross-border shipping challenges, and navigating customs regulations.

LINKS:

• Yikun's LinkedIn
• Alibaba.com

QUOTES:

• "Nearly two thirds of businesses they plan on increasing their reliance on online sourcing, and including those bigger and more established businesses." - Yikun Shao
• "Using AI capability can also handle real time inquiries from multiple areas and provide even in some instances provide some industry insights, so that our business buyers and sellers can make more informed decisions." - Yikun Shao
• "We recently launched a smart assistant tool to help facilitate RFQ transaction and communication aspects on our platform. One of the functions is real-time language translation when buyers and sellers are communicating through a video chat, it helps provide translation services in real-time to at least 17 different languages. Since this new RFQ feature has been introduced, it has driven a 29% increase in quotes from suppliers for small businesses." - Yikun Shao

WATCH THE FULL EPISODE HERE

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