With Alibaba.com said to be soon entering the U.S. market, Bizrate Insights, a division of Connexity (formerly Shopzilla), surveyed over 3,500 online buyers over three days recently and found that 63% are still not familiar with the Chinese e-commerce giant. Interestingly, respondents not familiar with the Alibaba brand or website, skewed toward younger generations and women (who traditionally are the decision makers behind the lion’s share of retail).

Of those who are familiar with Alibaba, 65% are likely to interact with (browse or purchase from) a Chinese e-commerce company in general. But this grows significantly to 80% for those who have browsed or purchased from Alibaba already.

Only 11% of U.S. shoppers in the survey have either browsed or purchased through the site. About 26% have not visited the site, but have heard of it. Among those who have heard of or interacted with Alibaba, 35% say they would not even browse, much less purchase from a Chinese e-commerce company.

Among the concerns most expressed by survey respondents about Alibaba.com were:

• Long delivery windows
• Distrust/fear over security of personal and payment information
• Prefer to “Buy American”

“Alibaba could pave the way for more Chinese ecommerce companies to gain a customer base in the U.S.,” says Hayley Silver, Vice President, Bizrate Insights, a division of Connexity, Inc. “But it will be an immediate challenge for the company to overcome its lack of name recognition among U.S. shoppers and to reassure them that their transactions and information will be safe and secure.”

See Bizrate Insights’ Online Consumer Pulse at Connexity.com for charts and more detailed information or click here: http://connexity.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Online-Consumer-Pulse-Alibaba-10-14-14_Final2.pdf

Methodology: The Bizrate Insights Alibaba Study #1 was conducted via the Bizrate survey platform and offered to online buyers immediately after purchasing from the Bizrate Network of over 5,000 e-commerce retailers in the US and Canada. Data from the Bizrate Insights Alibaba Study #1 was collected from 3,548 online buyers from October 10th – 13th, 2014.

Bizrate Insights‘ omni-device buyer and abandonment surveys enlighten 5,000+ retailers about the consumer experience on their site and their competitors’ sites. More than 26 million Bizrate surveys are submitted annually worldwide and overall ratings are syndicated to sites like Google and Bing to promote retailer reputations.

Connexity, Inc. (http://www.connexity.com) is a technology driven marketing solutions company that leverages almost twenty years of ecommerce expertise to enable retailers and brands to understand their consumers better, acquire new customers at a lower cost, and increase sales. For retailers, Connexity offers a range of marketing solutions including search marketing, syndicated product listings, targeted display advertising, and the Bizrate Insights customer feedback program. For marketers and their agencies, Connexity delivers targeted audiences on any device through a programmatic media buying platform.

Headquartered in Los Angeles, the company operates sites and business services in the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany including Bizrate, Beso, Shopzilla, Retrevo, TaDa, PrixMoinsCher, and SparDeinGeld. Connexity, Inc., formerly Shopzilla, Inc., is owned by Symphony Technology Group (STG).