One of the momentous financial events of 2014 will be the initial

One of the momentous financial events of 2014 will be the initial public offering for Alibaba, the huge Chinese e-commerce company, expected to be one of the biggest IPOs ever. Part of Alibaba’s aggressive growth plan is a foray into the U.S. market, where it hopes to challenge Amazon (AMZN), Walmart (WMT) and other premiere merchants.

But the big retailers don’t have to worry yet, because Alibaba’s U.S. debut doesn’t involve one of its signature online mega-malls. Instead, Alibaba is quietly rolling out a small startup peddling something that might seem surprising for a Chinese firm: Americana.

(Disclosure: Yahoo [YHOO] owns 23% of Alibaba and stands to profit from the forthcoming IPO.)

Alibaba’s first U.S. site —11 Main — is meant to evoke the eclectic, upscale shops you might find in a quaint American town such as, say, Provincetown, Mass. or Sausilito, Calif. As 11 Main undergoes a kind of rolling soft launch, the site is impressing users with its artful minimalism and earnest effort to showcase American culture (while keeping its Chinese parentage out of the picture).

One section of the site, for instance, highlights products “designed in California.” There’s also a “coastal styles collection” that presumably refers to the East and West coasts of the United States, rather than the 1,200 miles of coastline from Qingdao to Guangzhou, along the East China Sea. With its quirky products, microbrands and appeal to personalization, 11 Main resembles not Amazon but Etsy, the popular online marketplace for artisanal goods from all over.

Still, journalists and retail analysts are pining for a clash of titans between the Chinese upstart Alibaba and the reigning American champ, Amazon. Forbes last year declared that “Alibaba is a threat to Amazon, eBay, Walmart and everyone else.” Time, in a recent review of the site, asked, “Should you ditch Amazon and eBay for Alibaba’s 11 Main?” Anybody who uses the site will quickly realize that’s like asking if you should shop for a car at a bicycle shop.

If you put aside the Amazon comparisons and forget about 11 Main’s deep-pocketed parent, the site seems like an interesting experiment that needs more heft if it’s going to succeed. On the plus side, 11 Main is a welcoming destination that accomplishes what a good retail site ought to do: It keeps you clicking around as you discover fun and interesting stuff you didn’t know you needed (okay, wanted). But it needs more merchandise and a stronger personality to become a bookmarked site shoppers will want to return to. Alibaba says such improvements are on the way.

To shop at 11 Main, you first need to provide your email address and wait for an “invitation.” Clever. That creates an aura of exclusivity, straight out of the Gilt playbook. Plus, it gives 11 Main your highly coveted email address before you even shop there. Still, it’s phony exclusivity. I registered for 11 Main using three different email addresses at the same time, with no obvious connection between them — and received my “invitation” to shop there on all three addresses almost simultaneously. Clearly an algorithm decided the appropriate amount of time had passed, and it was time to let me in.

You won’t find many brands you recognize on 11 Main, which seems to be the point. The site’s “About” section explains that 11 Main features “a hand-selected collection of shops and boutiques carrying items that help express one’s personal style.” Does that sound anything at all like Amazon, Walmart, or eBay? Not to me. Those sites are basically utilitarian catalogue operations meant to get you the GoPro (GPRO), Samsung or Nike (NKE) products you want as quickly as possible, at a price that seems fair.

At 11 Main, by contrast, you’re more likely to find funky alternatives to familiar products. Under tech accessories, for instance, I couldn’t find any products from Belkin or Otterbox, but I did find a cedar dockstation for the iPhone from a merchant called Dock Artisan ($100). There were some cute little stands for tablet computers from a supplier called ILoveHandles, which I put on my mental gift list for upcoming birthdays ($5 to $25). There were even modish smartwatches from a company named Cookoo, though I’m not sure I’d pay $130 to $180 for a brand I’ve never heard of before.

Other major categories of merchandise on 11 Main include fashion, jewelry, furniture, kitchen and bath gizmos, baby gear and sporting goods. Browsing the jewelry section leads you to page after page of handmade offerings from designers across America, which makes 11 Main perhaps the most ambitious Etsy copycat yet. It’s tempting to say Etsy better watch its back, yet the whole idea of an online marketplace for locally crafted products is relatively new, fresh and growing, and could become quite large. So there may be plenty of room for two big competitors and lots of smaller players in this new market for universally available niche products.

There’s one possible connection to Amazon: Some retail analysts have suggested Amazon could buy Etsy, which would put an Amazon division in direct competition with an Alibaba property. Still, that would be small, if lovingly crafted, potatoes compared with a full-blown Alibaba v. Amazon contest. That battle of goliaths is probably on the way, as Alibaba gets familiar with American tastes and probes for Amazon’s vulnerabilities. If it ever arrives, the showdown everybody’s waiting for ought to be lively.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/here-s-what-chinese-e-commerce-giant-alibaba-wants-to-sell-americans-170129631.html