Alibaba merchants gathered at the Gleacher Center at the University of Chicago on Wednesday evening for a reception to honor winners of its e-Business Champion contest. Merchants in attendance included those in town for the eBay conference taking place at the McCormick Place convention center beginning on Thursday.

The five winners of the North American Alibaba contest were EveAlexander.com, MomsOnEdge.com, BellPerformance.net, OnFair.com and DecoBreeze.com. The winners, who range from 1-person companies to one with 17 employees, told Alibaba.com their success stories about doing business online.

Alibaba also highlighted "Ablibaba.com eBay success stories" to highlight how eBay sellers can use Alibaba.com to help grow their businesses. The company also highlighted its new Export-to-China program in which Alibaba helps North American merchants to sell in the China marketplace.

In a podcast interview, Arthur Chang, Vice President of Global Sales for Alibaba, explained the Export-to-China program and described the ways in which sellers were using Alibaba.com in their businesses.

The e-Business Champion contest is being conducted globally, and finalists from each region will be sent to the global Alifest conference being held in China on August 2nd.

More about the event and contest winners can be found on the Alibaba blog.

http://aliblog.alibaba.com/aliblog