美国公司携手阿里巴巴进军中国市场

Part of Alibaba's growth strategy is to increase the number of small and medium-sized U.S. businesses listing their products on Alibaba-owned sites.

Founder Jack Ma says that will meet Chinese demand for foreign products and provide an opportunity for U.S. businesses.

Andrew Royce Bauer is a small business owner in the New York City area. His company, Royce, makes leather products that sell mainly at Macy's, but he is working with the UK's House of Fraser to begin selling his products to Chinese consumers via T-mall.

Online shopping is booming in China and demand for foreign products is also growing.

A recent survey by Nielsen found that 32 percent of Chinese respondents had purchased foreign goods online. The top products were clothing and accessories, followed by beauty items and mother and baby goods.

Alibaba founder Jack Ma says he wants to add 10 million U.S. small businesses to his site to sell to China's growing middle class. But Bauer and many other small U.S. business owners have concerns.

"So our main concerns is counterfeiting of Royce products. Currently if you go on Alibaba you can see Royce's products duplicated and sold for two-thirds below the cost of our retail prices," Bauer said.

Knock-offs are a big problem in China, but Alibaba and the Chinese government have vowed to crack down on counterfeiters.

The Chinese government wants China's economy to be driven more by consumer spending. As part of that plan it has lowered the barriers of entry for foreign companies wanting to sell directly to Chinese consumers through e-commerce sites, but that doesn't mean tapping into one of the world's fastest growing markets is easy.

Savio Chan is the author of "China's Super Consumers". He says Chinese consumers place a high value on U.S. products, but U.S. businesses need to invest in understanding their Chinese customers and that is best done by teaming up with someone based in China.

The costs and time involved can be large, but Bauer is making that investment.

"It's a big process to go through but we think in the long term as one of the largest markets in the world, China is worth it," Bauer said.