Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba is acquiring US website Vendio, which specialises in e-commerce solutions for small and medium-sized businesses, for an undisclosed amount. Pop-up ads from Alibaba promising "New products. Bigger profits. More sales" are already appearing on the Vendio website, as the firms begin publicising the move. Alibaba hopes to gain access to the 80,000 US businesses that use Vendio, and has signalled an interest in expanding its reach further.

"At Alibaba.com, our goal is to make it easier for our customers around the world to do business by providing solutions that increase margins, productivity and competitiveness through e-commerce," says Alibaba CEO David Wei. "We continue to look for synergies and investment opportunities to grow our customer base, acquire additional technology and add new applications that will help our customer base grow and prosper."

The acquisition follows a series of reports about Alibaba’s desire to grow its business outside China. In April, Alibaba announced a USD100m three-month investment plan for its wholesale platform AliExpress, which will incorporate Vendio as a new business unit. Vendio will maintain its name and services, and will retain key staff, with COO Mike Effle becoming the new CEO and Rodrigo Sales, the current Vendio CEO, made a strategic advisor to the company.