US rides China's e-commerce wave

Apples fit

Exports for the current season, which will end on Aug 30, are projected to increase by 25 percent from last season, "We anticipate that China will continue to be a major market for the 2017 Washington apple harvest season (Sept 1, 2017 – Aug 31, 2018)," said Lyons.

Kostick of 100% Pure echoed Kuperman's comments about creating jobs in the US.

"I need people to work here to manufacture the products. I need people to communicate with customers, to talk to Chinese factories. You also need to pay rent somewhere in the US, that creates jobs because someone has to build the building and hire people to work. The bigger the company grows, the bigger the responsibility it has for job creation."

"As they (Alibaba) look to bring on small businesses (in the US), that'll be a huge asset to drive their success," McPheters said.

In the US, Alibaba makes a very small minority investment in companies for one reason, "we want to support innovation and entrepreneurship here and we want to learn", said Kuperman, adding that Alibaba is offering educational assistance to US companies to promote "the integrated shopping experience", which she said is in much better shape in China.

Judy Zhu in New York contributed to this story.

Contact the writers at junechang@chinadailyusa.com and lindadeng@chinadailyusa.com