The “invitation-only” site will host more than 1,000 upscale specialty shops and boutiques that sell clothing, accessories, interior goods, arts and crafts — and it plans to keep adding more. The site aims to create an online experience that resembles your local “Main Street” shopping experience.

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The new site appears tailored to American tastes with a clean look and modern layout. 11 Main says sellers and their products will be subject to review by the site — perhaps an effort to combat the bad reputation of Taobao, Alibaba’s version of Amazon that is rife with counterfeit goods. There are guidelines for product quality, customer service, photography and even background choice. (Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, owns The Washington Post.)

Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru told the AP she believes Alibaba won’t find it easy to break into the already-crowded online shopping industry. “U.S. e-commerce is crowded and relies on high marketing expenses to rise above the clutter,” she said. “The hope is high. We’ll see if they live up to expectations.”

But 11 Main thinks they can offer merchants something existing sites don’t. “There are many small shop owners that are looking for broader platforms, but when they look at the broader platforms, those are not necessarily structured to support their brands or their identities,” Mike Effle, president and general manager of 11 Main, told the Wall Street Journal.

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E-commerce is indeed crowded, but boutique e-commerce — Etsy, for example — is a niche that has fewer major players, most of which aren’t familiar to the masses. Sellers may opt for sites such as eBay or Amazon, which more people know, but in doing so they compromise the ability to personalize their retail space.

Susan Berry, who sells her Oshun Spirit brand of natural skin care and beauty products, has already joined 11 Main. “I’m always looking for alternatives to eBay,” she told the Journal. Berry has sold on eBay since 2001, but worries about relying too heavily on one site.

11 Main promises brands creative control over their space on the site — and the ability to personalize it with photo and video, unlike the generic listings of major e-commerce sites such as Amazon, eBay and even Etsy, a site for sellers of vintage and handmade goods.

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And with Alibaba behind it, the site has access to tons of money for marketing.

An 11 Main spokesman told the Journal the company has a “robust marketing plan” to support the growth of the shops featured on the new site, but declined to share specific plans or how much it plans to spend on advertising.

That was part of 11 Main’s appeal for Tiger Bachler, one of the site’s beta vendors who owns Alys Grace, a small chain of upscale clothing stores in California’s Bay Area. “We’ve been struggling with the ability to reach a large audience being a small business,” she told the AP. “We anticipate [11 Main] will be able to give us a wider audience with their marketplace expertise and marketing power.”

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Cost is part of the site’s appeal. Brands will pay a 3.5 percent commission, the same that Etsy charges. But that is half what most other major U.S. shopping sites charge, according to the Journal. Without ads or retailer fees, commissions are how the site will make money, the AP said.