This story was delivered to BI Intelligence "E-Commerce Briefing" subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here.At Davos last week, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba announced a 12-year deal with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to help organize the Games, according to CNN Money.The deal, which Bloomberg reports is worth roughly $800 million, will see Alibaba supply technology to the IOC, build a new shopping platform for Olympic merchandise, and develop an Olympic-affiliated digital TV channel in China. This will level Alibaba with other top Olympic sponsors, like Coca-Cola and Samsung.The formation of the e-commerce marketplace has implications for both parties:The move better exposes the Olympics to a major market in China. Chinas e-commerce market is growing rapidlythe country generated $609 billion in online sales during 2015. And Alibaba is the first Chinese company to get involved with the Olympics in this way, according to CNN Money. The deal could better engage China with the Olympics, which in turn, may help better expose the IOC's Olympic merchandise to some of that market.More importantly, it could help Alibaba hit critical global targets. As it strives to increase its presence outside China, Alibaba has been working to bring in half its revenue internationallywhich it's thus far failed to do, according to Bloomberg. On its own, the deal improves Alibabas stature by putting it on par with other top sponsors. But even more, an internationally designed marketplace could help the company reach new audiences, enabling it to grow sales by exposing previously unfamiliar customers and potential merchant partners to the marketplace.The marketplace will have considerable counterfeiting roadblocks to overcome if it wants to see success, though. Alibaba is in the midst of tackling a massive counterfeiting problemin the year leading up to last August, the firm removed over 380 million counterfeit listings. That recently landed some of its marketplaces back on the US Trade Representatives notoriety list. The popularity of Olympic goods could exacerbate counterfeiting, potentially angering the Olympic committee, which closely guards its trademarks. The firm will have to find a way to better combat the issue, or else it might pose a major hurdle to the platforms success, and ultimately, the firms international reputation as a successful e-commerce outlet.E-commerce has been on the rise in the last several years, thanks in large part to titans in the industry such as Amazon and Alibaba. E-commerce will truly become the future of retail, as nearly all of the growth in the retail sector now takes place in the digital space.BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, forecaststhat U.S. consumers will spend $385 billion online in 2016. Moreover, BI Intelligence predicts that number willgrowto $632 billion in 2020.This is hardly surprisingconsidering e-commerce's healthy growth. Thoughthe U.S. retail average growth rate in the first half of 2016 was just 2% for total retail, it was 16% for e-commerce.The number of online shoppers has grown by nearly 20 million from 2015 to 2016. And these 224 million shoppers are spending more, as the total amount spent online grew from $61 billion in the first quarter of 2015 to $68 billion in Q1 2016. Finally, these customers are transacting more frequently, as the number of online transactions has risen by 115 million from 2015 to 2016.But all of this shopping online creates its own set of challenges, both for consumers and the companies that are trying to get their products onto shoppers' screens and into their shopping carts. In short, you need a plan.And to create your ultimatee-commercebattle plan, you need the right intel.BI Intelligence is here to help.Our team of industry experts has you covered on topics such as:Shopping cart abandonmentMarketing effectivenessMerchandise returnsCustomer satisfactionSocial media monetizationMobile paymentsAccommodating shoppers at the 11th hourAnd much moreInterested in getting the full bundle of nearly 80 reports' Here are twoways to access it:Subscribe to anAll-Accesspass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensureyou stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >> START A MEMBERSHIPPurchase & download the full bundlefromour research store.>>BUY THE REPORTSJoin the conversation about this story
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