In beta since September 10, 2009, and officially launched yesterday, AliExpress allows customers to tailor orders to the needs of their small businesses, offering smaller-quantity orders, instant online transactions, and an escrow service to protect buyers and sellers.

With this agreement, AliExpress merchants can now avail their customers with PayPal as a fast and secure payment option. Businesses will now be able to easily source goods through AliExpress using PayPal in their preferred local currency. PayPal is one of the leading online payment platforms in the world with more than 84 million active accounts and more than 8 million merchants in 190 markets and 24 currencies around the world.

The alliance will provide customers around the world with the convenience and protections that PayPal has built over its 12-year history, in addition to the escrow service offered on the AliExpress site.

"AliExpress is designed to help even the smallest businesses to be more competitive because they can offer customers more unique products, at better prices through the benefits to global trade," said David Wei, CEO of Alibaba.com. "Our work with companies such as PayPal is crucial, because we want to make sure we are meeting the needs of our customers by making payment as fast, safe and easy as possible."

"With millions of customers using PayPal in 190 global markets, when you offer PayPal, you open your business to the world," said Scott Thompson, president of PayPal. "At PayPal, we share Alibaba.com's commitment of giving small businesses every tool they need to succeed, including the ability to conduct fast and safe online payments. For this reason, we couldn't be more excited to be working with AliExpress."

Alibaba.com launched a beta test of AliExpress in September 2009. Currently, there are more than three million listed products from more than 40 categories.