Office Depot and Alibaba, through a co-branded online business-to-business wholesale marketplace, said the arrangement will allow each to benefit from the other’s respective strengths. Under Smith, who joined the company in early 2017, Office Depot has doubled down on expanding its services beyond its traditional copy-and-print-type offerings. The Alibaba collaboration marks “a bigger step” for Office Depot than even the CompuCom deal, Smith said in an interview. “The reason we partner with Office Depot is their breadth of (business customer) relationship and their assets providing service to small businesses. The global B2B e-commerce marketplace was valued at $23.9 trillion, Office Depot and Alibaba said Monday, citing data from the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Source: Forbes March 04, 2019 23:40 UTC