Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on Forbes’ blog, but I was very curious to find out our retailer readers thoughts. Since it was published, 11 Main has gone live. I stopped by the site and found the merchandise quirky but very expensive. In a quirky turn of fate, the site is featuring “Made in America ” on its home page. Somehow I find that vaguely disturbing.

China’s Alibaba Group has been gathering attention in the US for some time. Its impending Initial Public Offering (IPO) is expected to potentially be the biggest in history, even if, as was reported in Bloomberg, it takes place during the dog days of US summer, on August 8. The date is ostensibly propitious, and parenthetically is the anniversary date of the Chinese Summer Olympics, which began on August 8, 2008. Clearly they like their eights in China.

While they wait for the eights, the company isn’t sitting just quietly. Today it launched a U.S. shopping website meant to disrupt the online retail marketplace, currently dominated by eBay and Amazon.com. The site, 11 Main, is so far available by invitation only and reportedly already has 1,100 retailers signed up and ready to sell.

This is potentially a truly disruptive play. And by disruptive, I mean it can completely change the marketplace pricing model. According to the Wall Street Journal, the site charges a commission rate of just 3.5 percent, which is somewhere between a third and a quarter of its chief marketplace rivals. Smaller retailers will have a very hard decision to make. Do they join the site and pass savings along to consumers, or keep prices constant and try to pocket the difference? The answer to that question could become the difference between success and failure for the new site, even with its partnership with ShopRunner (an alternative to Amazon Prime). If retailers try to keep the difference, I believe 11 Main will fail. If they pass along at least some of the savings to their customers, all bets are off. So just as Amazon.com has completely disrupted retail vertical markets like Consumer Electronics, it could experience a real turn-about, with 11 Main disrupting its own retail model.

A look into Amazon’s financials reveals that its profitability can be attributed to the ‘free money’ it gets through its Amazon Marketplace. If 11 Main takes a big portion of that, Amazon.com could be scrambling for new sources of profitable revenue. Disruptive indeed.

But the issue is bigger than just retail sales. Alibaba isn’t just going to be a retail marketplace it’s also a marketplace where retailers can BUY merchandise at a ridiculously low rate. Alibaba’s current retail site is actually aliexpress.com. But alibaba.com itself is pure B2B.

I’ve traversed alibaba.com before, and I can tell you it has had some serious upgrades in the past thirty days. If you’ve never seen the site, you really should visit. For example, cases for the iPhone 5s selling for $1.39 apiece with a minimum order quantity (moq) of 10 units. That’s a small business dream come true. Velour beach towel, 100% cotton with a minimum 3000 piece order sell for 20 cents apiece. And the supplier can actually crank out 100,000 units a month.

One big issue with alibaba.com and aliexpress.com has been counterfeit merchandise. The site has been cleaned up significantly. You can’t search on “Prada ” anymore, for example. You find variations on the theme (like Pra*a), but not the exact name. I compared that with another Chinese site, iOffer.com, which still advertises the actual brand names. To be clear, eBay has been accused of selling counterfeit product before as well.

The big winner in the Alibaba.com marketplace is definitely the independent and small retailer, struggling mightily to gain the attention and breadth of assortment he needs from suppliers hunting elephants like Walmart and Targets. Alibaba.com really does provide some amazing wholesale prices.

I confess to mixed emotions here. On the one hand, I’m in favor of most anything that gives the independent retailer a break. On the other hand, I wish we sourced product closer to home. I have no easy answers. The only thing I know for sure is there’s a new kid on Main Street and he’s going to make some noise.