Last month, Alibaba.com did a deep dive into the US B2B community. We wanted to continue to better understand what today's businesses need and want, what they are thinking for the future — for B2B and for the economy — and then ultimately use this information to be a better ally. To do this, we conducted our first-ever Alibaba.com US Small and Medium Business (SMB) Confidence Survey where we surveyed 5,000 US-based small businesses within B2B on their feelings on the changing economy, globalization, and digitization.

The survey found there is immense optimism — 62% of those surveyed are optimistic about the economy, saying the economy is gaining momentum or on its way up with a bright future — but there also is immense opportunity. Less than one third of businesses surveyed have been doing business online for more than five years, meaning the majority of ecommerce is still being done through emails.

According to the US International Trade Commission, the market for B2B global ecommerce is estimated at US $23.9 trillion – six times the size of the B2C ecommerce market. That's why, to help these businesses continue to grow and take advantage of the massive opportunity, we are announcing the beginning of B2B Tuesday: an initiative to celebrate, educate, and promote small- and medium-sized B2B business owners.

Every Tuesday from now on, we will be celebrating US B2B businesses, and helping them access and thrive on the global ecommerce opportunity. We will be sharing additional data, educational content, and new Alibaba.com tools and services to make it even easier and better for US businesses to do business with one another.

Today, for the first-ever B2B Tuesday, we are sharing some key insights from our survey:

• Businesses are optimistic — 46% of respondents are expecting their online B2B businesses to increase in volume.
• Businesses are digitizing — 54% of companies recognize the potential role ecommerce platforms, like Alibaba.com, can play in their businesses.
• Businesses are globalizing — Surveyed businesses conducting cross-border business cite the key benefits of cross border trade as:
  • More customers and more choices in suppliers (50%);
  • Revenue growth (47%);
  • Increased profit margins (41%).

Additional data and insights from the survey can be found in our press release — and even more will be shared on future B2B Tuesdays.

We're also celebrating small businesses in person, kicking off our first B2B Tuesday with a special Alibaba.com Build Up event. Hosted at our NYC office in the Meatpacking District, attendees will get information about how to build up their business from industry experts, business owners successfully using Alibaba.com, and Alibaba.com employees themselves.

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