1688, Alibaba's digital supply-chain platform for wholesale sourcing, said on October 13 that its buyers and source manufacturers can now open Accio, Alibaba's AI workbench for e-commerce, directly. The platform says the change covers more than 100 million annual active buyers and over 1 million source factories.
Buyers can sign in to Accio with their existing 1688 accounts. Sellers download a 1688 seller assistant inside Accio and link their store to start using it. Accio, which says it serves 10 million small and medium-sized businesses worldwide, focuses on the full e-commerce chain, from finding products and stocking up to closing orders, repeat purchases and store operations.
Most 1688 buyers are small businesses, many of them one-person operations, that source on 1688 and sell on Taobao, Tmall, Xiaohongshu, Pinduoduo, Douyin, cross-border marketplaces and instant retail. For them, Accio adds two main tools. A sourcing assistant covers both 1688 and Alibaba.com, letting buyers find suppliers, compare prices and send inquiries across 128 countries and regions. An e-commerce manager agent links Taobao, Tmall, Douyin, Pinduoduo and JD.com, so purchasing and store operations happen in one workspace.
The rollout lands as merchants prepare for the Double 11 shopping festival. Accio says it can pull data from multiple platforms automatically, produce a daily list of priority actions from a store diagnosis, trace ad problems to the product, campaign or budget, and turn original product photos into full sets of marketing images.
On the seller side, the 1688 seller assistant connects directly to the merchant back end and draws on years of 1688 business data. With a single natural-language instruction, it can spot trending products, create and publish listings, analyze ads, respond to prospective buyers and manage several stores.
Accio tailors the assistant to three types of factory. Spot-stock sellers get one-click product detail pages, automatic listing and batch optimization of titles and images. Custom manufacturers get an agent that learns the company's knowledge base, answers questions on process, lead time and quotes, and follows up on leads around the clock. Cross-border sellers get a daily multi-store dashboard showing where they are making or losing money.
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