Elsewhere, Shein has the highest growth rate at 183.45%, followed by Instacart at 174.99%. Kroger (NYSE: KR) ranks in the fourth spot at 81.92%, with Nike (NYSE: NKE) closest to the top five category at 54.16%. Other notable retailers include Etsy (NASDAQ: ETSY), Aliexpress, and Walmart (NYSE: WMT), with a growth rate of 26.16%, 13.51%, and 11.65%, respectively. Consequently, Alibaba’s U.S. e-commerce merchants have mainly focused on niche products like agriculture, food, health and beauty, and electronic and medical supplies. At the same time, Alibaba has increasingly implemented new directives seeking to entice American entrepreneurs to buy and sell goods on its platform. Overall, Alibaba’s U.S. venture is part of the company’s broader B2B expansion that targeted smaller players. The platform’s goal was to add 1 million local businesses. The firm embarked on a hiring spree and logistics build-out, but now it is facing another challenge with soaring inflation which will likely affect consumer spending. Overall, Alibaba’s growth rate in the U.S. is a positive sign for the company considering its parent firm faces challenges back home in China. In recent years, the government has moved to clip the influence of private sector tech companies, with Alibaba emerging as a casualty. On the flip side, Alibaba’s position in the United States is also threatened, courtesy of the prevailing hostility between the countries of the two parent companies. The significance of the situation was recently highlighted after U.S. authorities added e-commerce sites operated by Alibaba Group to the “notorious markets” list. The lists also entailed sites operated by Tencent Holdings, with the companies accused of engaging in or facilitating substantial trademark counterfeiting or copyright piracy.
