Amazon’s next strategic maneuver is in voice technology. “As more and more consumers use Alexa for purchasing, Amazon will be a primary beneficiary,” said Karin von Abrams, senior analyst at eMarketer. “Amazon Echo is already the leading voice-enabled speaker in most advanced markets.”
AliPay in Play
Unlike Amazon, Alibaba doesn’t sell its own products, but instead functions as a platform for third parties and brands. The company has dual European objectives: to encourage top European brands to sell in China, and to establish and grow a consumer base within Europe.
To those ends, Alibaba has focused more of its efforts on AliExpress—its B2C retail platform—as well as its mobile payment service, AliPay.
"AliPay empowers local merchants to better target and connect with their Chinese consumers [as they] increasingly vacation overseas,” said Alba Ruiz, the company’s business development manager for Spain and Portugal.
This untapped ecommerce potential plays a big role in the company's future. "While its current consumer base is primarily Chinese, it’s possible that this payment option will gain ground in Europe, too, if it has major advantages over regional alternatives,” von Abrams said.
A Competitive Edge
Growing competition from these digital giants hasn't gone unnoticed. In an H1 2018 study from SLI Systems, retailers worldwide were asked whether (and to what extent) they considered Walmart/Jet.com, Amazon and Alibaba to be more or less threatening to their digital businesses vs. Q1 2017. The survey found that four times the number of respondents said they do worry about competition from Amazon, compared with 10% that consider Alibaba a threat.