Alibaba.com, a small business e-commerce company, has unveiled AliExpress, an e-commerce platform offering smaller-quantity orders, instant online transactions and an escrow service to protect buyers and sellers.

AliExpress has been developed for businesses that need smaller quantities available for immediate shipment. Alibaba.com will invest more than USD 100 million in the new e-commerce platform. Escrow payment protects users who make an online transaction at AliExpress by holding the buyer’s payment in a separate account and alerting the supplier that payment has been made so they can ship the goods. After the buyer received the item(s), payment will be released to the supplier.

Alibaba.com launched a beta test of AliExpress in September 2009. Currently, there are more than three million listed products from more than 40 consumer products categories. Alibaba plans to make the platform available to international suppliers as well.