Alibaba finally closes its door to the U.S. market after the sale of its U.S. shop 11 Main.

According to TechInAsia, a statement made by Alibaba said that they are closing off its U.S.-focused marketplace, something that shuts off speculations that they are trying to conquer the Western market by placing startup shops in the West. Although there was never a clear reason why the giant e-commerce business invested in such trade, a year after its opening, it finally revealed that it would be best if they just close it down.

Like Us on Facebook

Alibaba's move to close down 11Main was never really an all out drive as Alibaba decided to transfer its investments to OpenSky. 11Main's ownership will be transferred to OpenSky while the prior still enjoys 37 percent of OpenSky's shares. Other brands that were transferred to OpenSky include Vindio and SingleFeed and Auctiva. The merge allowed the Asian e-store to enjoy revenue from a U.S. based counterpart rather than profiting from a standalone store that offers little income compared with a partnership with a U.S. store.

OpenSky is known as a "social marketplace" that sells less known brands just like 11Main. If you go through their online stores, you will notice the absence of big name brands, instead, they concentrate on promoting start up businesses and functional commodities. OpenSky in view has around 50,000 merchant stores that operate and crowds the e-commerce  business, at least 2 million listed products for their 5 million members registered in the account.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Alibaba's priorities were taken into great consideration when their U.S. online store 11Main stumbled. Despite merchants putting their trust on Alibaba's capability to boost their business, there was never the amount of support expected from its main store in China, and that marketing strategies failed to put 11Main on top of recognition. In a statement from Alibaba regarding their websites, it said, "While 11Main's management will be integrated to OpenSky, 11Main's website will remain separate from OpenSky for now."

Key issues were fairly met and the move to integrate the business to a more solid ground is the best solution for 11Main.

Tagse-commerce, 11main, opensky, e-store, us market