Table A1. Representative quotes for... | Emerald Publishing

Table A1.

Representative quotes for first-order concepts

First-order concept	Representative quotes
Need for a flexible and responsive organization to comply with platforms’ requirements	“We decided to leave Alibaba even if the performance had been positive … the challenges faced in integrating the firm’s routines with the methodologies and timelines required by Alibaba created too much stress. Our procedures are not compatible with the need to ensure adequate responsiveness as requested by Alibaba’s standards … significant difficulties emerged in platform management and coordination among the firm’s functions and subsidiaries”. (Case E, Sales Manager) “We received some requests but unfortunately missed these opportunities because we were too slow in deciding the prices and the terms to propose to the potential buyers … if you are not responsive, buyers will switch to other suppliers faster than you”. (Case C, Sales Manager)
Compatibility of firm’s current strategies, competencies and resources in relation to CBEC	“In some instances, we needed to decline orders because they were too large and could not be satisfied given our limited production capacity”. (Case D, Entrepreneur) “We have several exclusive import agreements. For this reason, we were obliged to redirect several CBEC orders to local importers to avoid legal issues”. (Case A, Sales Manager) “We realized that we were not ready because we lacked knowledge concerning international sales, customs, logistics, currencies … and legal understanding of product labeling regulations.” (Case D, Entrepreneur)
Need for personnel dedicated to CBEC management	“Actively managing our presence on the platform requires almost a full-time employee … it is an expenditure we hadn’t considered”. (Case C, Marketing Manager) “The main issue was the lack of employees with enough time to ensure the continuous monitoring and management of this channel [CBCE]. We couldn’t even explore all the free tools provided by the platform … At a certain point, we decided to rely on an external service provider for uploading products on Alibaba, coordinated by our internal sales manager … still, the workload for the sales manager was excessive … precise and consistent platform management was not possible”. (Case D, Entrepreneur)
Overexpectations when approaching CBEC and the subsequent disillusionment	“Overall, we achieved favorable outcomes regarding views and positioning, but we did not achieve the sales and profits we expected. Our expectations were considerably higher … might require more time”. (Case A, Sales Manager) “We received few and very sporadic orders … We thought it would be much easier to find new customers from the international HoReCa segment and establish continuous supply relationships … We have received only a few one-time sales”. (Case B, CEO)
Need to approach CBEC with proper mindset and motivation	“We must admit that we failed to convey the motivation for using Alibaba and proper involvement to our foreign sales offices. Our sales managers perceived cross-border e-commerce as an additional and unneeded burden … they did not dedicate the necessary commitment and attention to managing the Alibaba sub-account assigned to their responsibility. Overall, we were definitely not able to manage our Alibaba presence consistently and with the needed effort”. (Case E, Sales Manager)
Effective use of marketing tools to gain visibility within the platform	“We have achieved visibility in the platform because we have effectively leveraged all the tools provided by the platform”. (Case A, Sales Manager) Given the initial positive performance, we decided to increase the marketing investments in the platform … We opted for both the traditional keyword advertising and the premium sponsored ads, which guaranteed use exclusivity on specific keywords … We secured the top position in searches”. (Case B, Export Manager)
Need for day-to-day engagement with the platform	“We did not put in the same efforts to monitor and manage our presence on Alibaba during all months … During some periods, we were overwhelmed by other commitments and priorities … We are aware that we did not use the platform to its full potential and that we overlooked it for entire weeks. This is probably a reason for our low sales”. (Case A, Entrepreneur)
Prompt and selective responses to buyers’ inquiries	“As suggested by Alibaba, we tried to reply as fast as we could to buyers’ inquiries …, but it was not always possible, and the platform penalizes sellers who take more than 24 h to reply to potential buyers”. (Case E, Export Back-office Manager) “You need to be selective with buyers. In several cases, some attempted to import alcohol into their countries, even though such importation is illegal, or alcohol consumption is prohibited by law in their respective nations … we learned to detect these kinds of buyers immediately”. (Case A, Sales Manager)
Engaging buyers and making them feel involved	“Alibaba allowed us to organize live streaming events during which we presented our products and answered real-time questions from interested buyers. We also proposed a virtual tour of our firm … This was extremely effective in making buyers feel involved and reduced the distance between us and them”. (Case B, Export Manager)
Right timing to switch from in-platform to out-of-platform buyer interactions	“We are aware that we made clear mistakes in managing contacts … contrary to Alibaba’s suggestions, once we obtained contact with potential buyers, we preferred to handle it through our regular channels … We sent them e-mails, but this approach intimidated and discouraged many potential buyers … It would have been better to build the relationship in the platform and switch to traditional channels later”. (Case E, Export Back-office Manager) “Alibaba is a valuable to get in touch with potential buyers. But at a certain point, you need to make them physically taste your product to close the deal … At least for our kind of products, this is a necessary step”. (Case C, Sales Manager)
Avoiding conflicts with firm’s other online and offline channels	“A few customers purchasing small quantities of products from our Amazon account complained because they discovered that we sold the same products on Alibaba charging lower prices … it was difficult for us to make them understand that sales on Alibaba are aimed at professional buyers who buy large volumes and deserve price discounts”. (Case C, Sales Manager) “Sometimes, buyers tried to bypass our exclusive distributors in their countries to pay lower prices. You have to be extremely careful. Otherwise, you create misunderstandings with your sales partners”. (Case A, Sales Manager)
Product innovation through interactions on the platform	“We received an unforeseen number of requests for private labeling … this was not part of our strategy. We reflected and decided to offer this new service to target a real need we found in the market … by the way, now we produce and sell private label products for customers outside the platform”. (Case C, Marketing Manager)
New knowledge from CBEC leading to innovations in marketing strategies	“On Alibaba, you can set a price range for your product and then negotiate the final price with each buyer …, but at the beginning, we did not know the most effective pricing strategy, and we started setting small price ranges. This created issues with buyers from some countries because they are used to having extensive negotiations on prices … and issues with changes in exchange rates that left us with tiny margins. Then we learned to set proper price ranges, which worked much better”. (Case C, Sales Manager) We replicated the keyword strategies we learned on other platforms such as Amazon … This choice was not effective and too expensive because you invest too much in too many target markets … We focus our keyword investments in Alibaba on a few target markets”. (Case A, Sales Manager) “After an initial settling-in period, however, we realized that our targeting strategies (i.e., large orders from major buyers) made us overlook that there were many small customers interested in our products … in a sense these customers have behaviors very similar to those of consumers on Amazon’s platform. But we couldn’t ignore this opportunity … we revised minimum order volumes and price ranges”. (Case B, CEO) “The Analytics section provided by Alibaba allowed us to monitor our KPIs [key performance indicators]. We were able to learn a lot about our potential customers … and optimize the pay-per-click campaign to focus on the countries from which we got most of the views for our products … We also knew a lot about our industry and main competitors”. (Case B, Export Manager)
Ability to access new buyers through a proactive strategy	“When we started our experience with the platform, I would say that we had a passive way of establishing contacts. We published the product description and waited for buyers’ inquiries …. Then we discovered the RFQ market, where buyers post their requests for quotation and, as sellers, we can provide our quotation. This was very interesting because the platform only allows up to 10 firms to provide their quotations … you compete against a smaller number of competitors. This was a very effective way for us to find new potential and interesting buyers.” (Case E, Export Back-office Manager)
Outsourcing to and cooperation with partners from the platform’s ecosystem to improve effectiveness	“Alibaba helped us to get in touch with a Chinese consultancy firm, [which] supported us in establishing and managing our Alibaba account.” (Case E, Export Back-office Manager) “We decided to participate in Alibaba’s Elite Partner Program, which allowed us to create relationships with many partners … through this program, we started cooperating with a Chinese marketing agency specialized in the Alibaba platform, and they helped us to fine-tune and to enrich our offering for Chinese buyers”. (Case B, CEO) “We almost immediately decided to outsource the time-consuming daily activities to manage our presence on Alibaba to an external skilled team … this partnership made use very effective and responsive and [we] received some interesting orders almost right from the beginning”. (Case B, CEO)
Views, requests for quotations, and single purchases eventually leading to repeat purchases and stable agreements	“We achieved positive results in visibility … about 2 million monthly views and almost 90 requests for quotations.” (Case B, Export Manager) “The platform served as a means to establish business relationships with a foreign importer … it took a lot of time to transform this contact into an order … much more time to establish a stable ongoing collaboration”. (Case C, Marketing Manager) “The contact on Alibaba subsequently led our firms physically meeting and them tasting our wine … now we have a continuous collaboration agreement with this restaurant”. (Case A, Sales Manager) “Many views but no sale … and you need to be careful with requests from buyers … some are unreliable or even trying to deceive you”. (Case D, Entrepreneur) “With one customer in the United States, we have established an agreement to supply a container of goods … every third month”. (Case E, Sales Manager)

First-order concept	Representative quotes
Need for a flexible and responsive organization to comply with platforms’ requirements	“We decided to leave Alibaba even if the performance had been positive … the challenges faced in integrating the firm’s routines with the methodologies and timelines required by Alibaba created too much stress. Our procedures are not compatible with the need to ensure adequate responsiveness as requested by Alibaba’s standards … significant difficulties emerged in platform management and coordination among the firm’s functions and subsidiaries”. (Case E, Sales Manager) “We received some requests but unfortunately missed these opportunities because we were too slow in deciding the prices and the terms to propose to the potential buyers … if you are not responsive, buyers will switch to other suppliers faster than you”. (Case C, Sales Manager)
Compatibility of firm’s current strategies, competencies and resources in relation to CBEC	“In some instances, we needed to decline orders because they were too large and could not be satisfied given our limited production capacity”. (Case D, Entrepreneur) “We have several exclusive import agreements. For this reason, we were obliged to redirect several CBEC orders to local importers to avoid legal issues”. (Case A, Sales Manager) “We realized that we were not ready because we lacked knowledge concerning international sales, customs, logistics, currencies … and legal understanding of product labeling regulations.” (Case D, Entrepreneur)
Need for personnel dedicated to CBEC management	“Actively managing our presence on the platform requires almost a full-time employee … it is an expenditure we hadn’t considered”. (Case C, Marketing Manager) “The main issue was the lack of employees with enough time to ensure the continuous monitoring and management of this channel [CBCE]. We couldn’t even explore all the free tools provided by the platform … At a certain point, we decided to rely on an external service provider for uploading products on Alibaba, coordinated by our internal sales manager … still, the workload for the sales manager was excessive … precise and consistent platform management was not possible”. (Case D, Entrepreneur)
Overexpectations when approaching CBEC and the subsequent disillusionment	“Overall, we achieved favorable outcomes regarding views and positioning, but we did not achieve the sales and profits we expected. Our expectations were considerably higher … might require more time”. (Case A, Sales Manager) “We received few and very sporadic orders … We thought it would be much easier to find new customers from the international HoReCa segment and establish continuous supply relationships … We have received only a few one-time sales”. (Case B, CEO)
Need to approach CBEC with proper mindset and motivation	“We must admit that we failed to convey the motivation for using Alibaba and proper involvement to our foreign sales offices. Our sales managers perceived cross-border e-commerce as an additional and unneeded burden … they did not dedicate the necessary commitment and attention to managing the Alibaba sub-account assigned to their responsibility. Overall, we were definitely not able to manage our Alibaba presence consistently and with the needed effort”. (Case E, Sales Manager)
Effective use of marketing tools to gain visibility within the platform	“We have achieved visibility in the platform because we have effectively leveraged all the tools provided by the platform”. (Case A, Sales Manager) Given the initial positive performance, we decided to increase the marketing investments in the platform … We opted for both the traditional keyword advertising and the premium sponsored ads, which guaranteed use exclusivity on specific keywords … We secured the top position in searches”. (Case B, Export Manager)
Need for day-to-day engagement with the platform	“We did not put in the same efforts to monitor and manage our presence on Alibaba during all months … During some periods, we were overwhelmed by other commitments and priorities … We are aware that we did not use the platform to its full potential and that we overlooked it for entire weeks. This is probably a reason for our low sales”. (Case A, Entrepreneur)
Prompt and selective responses to buyers’ inquiries	“As suggested by Alibaba, we tried to reply as fast as we could to buyers’ inquiries …, but it was not always possible, and the platform penalizes sellers who take more than 24 h to reply to potential buyers”. (Case E, Export Back-office Manager) “You need to be selective with buyers. In several cases, some attempted to import alcohol into their countries, even though such importation is illegal, or alcohol consumption is prohibited by law in their respective nations … we learned to detect these kinds of buyers immediately”. (Case A, Sales Manager)
Engaging buyers and making them feel involved	“Alibaba allowed us to organize live streaming events during which we presented our products and answered real-time questions from interested buyers. We also proposed a virtual tour of our firm … This was extremely effective in making buyers feel involved and reduced the distance between us and them”. (Case B, Export Manager)
Right timing to switch from in-platform to out-of-platform buyer interactions	“We are aware that we made clear mistakes in managing contacts … contrary to Alibaba’s suggestions, once we obtained contact with potential buyers, we preferred to handle it through our regular channels … We sent them e-mails, but this approach intimidated and discouraged many potential buyers … It would have been better to build the relationship in the platform and switch to traditional channels later”. (Case E, Export Back-office Manager) “Alibaba is a valuable to get in touch with potential buyers. But at a certain point, you need to make them physically taste your product to close the deal … At least for our kind of products, this is a necessary step”. (Case C, Sales Manager)
Avoiding conflicts with firm’s other online and offline channels	“A few customers purchasing small quantities of products from our Amazon account complained because they discovered that we sold the same products on Alibaba charging lower prices … it was difficult for us to make them understand that sales on Alibaba are aimed at professional buyers who buy large volumes and deserve price discounts”. (Case C, Sales Manager) “Sometimes, buyers tried to bypass our exclusive distributors in their countries to pay lower prices. You have to be extremely careful. Otherwise, you create misunderstandings with your sales partners”. (Case A, Sales Manager)
Product innovation through interactions on the platform	“We received an unforeseen number of requests for private labeling … this was not part of our strategy. We reflected and decided to offer this new service to target a real need we found in the market … by the way, now we produce and sell private label products for customers outside the platform”. (Case C, Marketing Manager)
New knowledge from CBEC leading to innovations in marketing strategies	“On Alibaba, you can set a price range for your product and then negotiate the final price with each buyer …, but at the beginning, we did not know the most effective pricing strategy, and we started setting small price ranges. This created issues with buyers from some countries because they are used to having extensive negotiations on prices … and issues with changes in exchange rates that left us with tiny margins. Then we learned to set proper price ranges, which worked much better”. (Case C, Sales Manager) We replicated the keyword strategies we learned on other platforms such as Amazon … This choice was not effective and too expensive because you invest too much in too many target markets … We focus our keyword investments in Alibaba on a few target markets”. (Case A, Sales Manager) “After an initial settling-in period, however, we realized that our targeting strategies (i.e., large orders from major buyers) made us overlook that there were many small customers interested in our products … in a sense these customers have behaviors very similar to those of consumers on Amazon’s platform. But we couldn’t ignore this opportunity … we revised minimum order volumes and price ranges”. (Case B, CEO) “The Analytics section provided by Alibaba allowed us to monitor our KPIs [key performance indicators]. We were able to learn a lot about our potential customers … and optimize the pay-per-click campaign to focus on the countries from which we got most of the views for our products … We also knew a lot about our industry and main competitors”. (Case B, Export Manager)
Ability to access new buyers through a proactive strategy	“When we started our experience with the platform, I would say that we had a passive way of establishing contacts. We published the product description and waited for buyers’ inquiries …. Then we discovered the RFQ market, where buyers post their requests for quotation and, as sellers, we can provide our quotation. This was very interesting because the platform only allows up to 10 firms to provide their quotations … you compete against a smaller number of competitors. This was a very effective way for us to find new potential and interesting buyers.” (Case E, Export Back-office Manager)
Outsourcing to and cooperation with partners from the platform’s ecosystem to improve effectiveness	“Alibaba helped us to get in touch with a Chinese consultancy firm, [which] supported us in establishing and managing our Alibaba account.” (Case E, Export Back-office Manager) “We decided to participate in Alibaba’s Elite Partner Program, which allowed us to create relationships with many partners … through this program, we started cooperating with a Chinese marketing agency specialized in the Alibaba platform, and they helped us to fine-tune and to enrich our offering for Chinese buyers”. (Case B, CEO) “We almost immediately decided to outsource the time-consuming daily activities to manage our presence on Alibaba to an external skilled team … this partnership made use very effective and responsive and [we] received some interesting orders almost right from the beginning”. (Case B, CEO)
Views, requests for quotations, and single purchases eventually leading to repeat purchases and stable agreements	“We achieved positive results in visibility … about 2 million monthly views and almost 90 requests for quotations.” (Case B, Export Manager) “The platform served as a means to establish business relationships with a foreign importer … it took a lot of time to transform this contact into an order … much more time to establish a stable ongoing collaboration”. (Case C, Marketing Manager) “The contact on Alibaba subsequently led our firms physically meeting and them tasting our wine … now we have a continuous collaboration agreement with this restaurant”. (Case A, Sales Manager) “Many views but no sale … and you need to be careful with requests from buyers … some are unreliable or even trying to deceive you”. (Case D, Entrepreneur) “With one customer in the United States, we have established an agreement to supply a container of goods … every third month”. (Case E, Sales Manager)

Source(s): Authors’ own work