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Reporter of China Business Network: Chen Ting Editor of China Business Network: Zhang Haini

Just over half a year after its implementation, Taobao's "refund only" policy has changed.

On July 26, Taobao announced that it would optimize the "refund only" strategy, increase merchants' autonomy in after-sales service based on the new experience score, and reduce or eliminate after-sales intervention for high-quality stores. The relevant strategy will be officially implemented on August 9.

It is reported that after the new strategy is launched, for merchants whose comprehensive store experience score is ≥4.8 points, the platform will not actively intervene through Wangwang and support refunds only after receipt of goods, but will encourage merchants to negotiate with consumers first.

For merchants in other segments, the platform will grant them different degrees of autonomy based on their experience scores and industry nature. The higher the experience score, the greater the merchant's autonomy.

In addition, a reporter from the "Daily Economic News" learned that starting from September 1, 2024, Tmall will cancel the platform's annual software service fee (hereinafter referred to as the annual fee): new merchants who join from September will not need to pay the annual fee; for merchants who have paid the annual fee, Tmall will refund them in batches according to the settlement rules.

Also in July, according to 36Kr, Taobao weakened its absolute low-price strategy. Since last year, the system of allocating search weight according to the "five-star price power" has been weakened, and more emphasis has been placed on allocation according to GMV (transaction amount).

Previously, there was a saying in the industry: "Taobao and Pinduoduo are becoming more and more alike." Now, Taobao gives merchants more autonomy only in refunds, which shows that it still does not want to alienate itself from merchants.

Taotian is making frequent moves

According to the reporter, while Taobao has relaxed its "refund only" policy to give merchants more autonomy, it will also provide multiple after-sales service plans for merchants to choose from, guiding them to continuously optimize after-sales services and reduce disputes and financial losses caused by "refund only".

In addition, Taobao has also optimized the refund appeal process. After the merchant files an appeal, the platform will ask a third-party testing agency to conduct random inspections on the products. If the inspection passes, the platform will compensate the merchant for the loss.

There has always been controversy in the industry regarding only refunds, and many businesses have complained about it.

Cui Lili, professor of the Department of Digital Economy and executive director of the Institute of E-Commerce at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, told the reporter of "Daily Economic News" that in her opinion, refunds should only be made for some merchants with poor reputation, "I think adjusting this strategy is a return to fair values."

Pan Helin, a well-known economist and member of the Information and Communications Economics Expert Committee of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, told the reporter of "Daily Economic News" that Taobao's relaxation of the "refund only" policy is to balance merchants and customers, allowing merchants with higher ratings to have the option of refunding only, and loosening the policy for some merchants with good reputation.

From the launch to the relaxation of "refund only", it can be seen that how to improve consumer experience while protecting the rights and interests of merchants as much as possible, and reaching a delicate balance between the two is also crucial for Taotian.

In February this year, after emphasizing that "users first" is the core of the current strategy, Alibaba Group CEO Wu Yongming said in an earnings call: "Taobao Tmall Group adheres to the positioning of 'omnipotent Taobao' and provides different consumers with a shopping experience of good products, good prices and good services under the consumer grading system. It will definitely gain the trust of users and return to the growth track."

In terms of specific measures, since the end of December last year, Taobao has successively launched a series of measures, including a refund-only policy, free shipping service in Xinjiang, pay-later use, upgrade of the store experience rating system, and comprehensive transformation of the web version.

In May this year, when Alibaba released its latest financial report, it also pointed out that "we are increasing strategic investment in areas such as price-competitive product supply, customer service, membership system rights and technology, aiming to improve user experience, thereby increasing consumer retention and purchase frequency." Based on this strategy, Taobao and Tmall have intensively launched reform measures and increased investment in related fields.

It is worth mentioning that at the same time as the news of loosening the "refund only" policy, Tmall also announced that it would completely cancel annual fees starting September 1. It can be seen that while pursuing the improvement of user experience, Taobao also wants to appease merchants.

Previously, merchants in different categories on Tmall had to pay an annual fee of 30,000 to 60,000 yuan. After the exemption, new merchants who join Tmall after September 1, 2024, will no longer need to pay this fee. At the same time, Tmall will fully refund the annual fee for merchants whose operating turnover from January to August 2024 reaches the annual target.

In addition, Taobao Tmall told reporters that it has launched a number of business-friendly measures for all merchants on the platform since April, including business advisors, Dian Xiaomi customer service robots, picture spaces and other important business services will be provided to merchants free of charge. This series of measures will benefit tens of millions of merchants on the Taobao Tmall platform and help merchants, especially small and medium-sized merchants, to significantly reduce operating costs.

In July, there was also news that Taobao secretly launched a new overseas project called "Global Free Shipping Plan for Large Clothing". Taobao Clothing will provide high postage subsidies and free shipping directly to overseas consumers. Merchants have the right to set prices and goods independently, and do not need to open another store or consider cross-border logistics. After receiving the order, they only need to send the goods to the domestic shipping warehouse, and the goods will be confirmed upon arrival at the warehouse, with 0 returns, 0 refunds, and 0 freight insurance.

GMV as the top priority?

Since the beginning of this year, Taotian Group has also weakened its absolute low-price strategy and weakened the allocation of traffic by price.

According to 36Kr, in the first half of this year, the five-star price power of many categories has been cancelled one by one. This year, the focus of Taobao's assessment has also shifted to GMV and AAC (average customer volume), and no longer pursues high DAC (order volume) brought by low prices.

At the earnings conference in May this year, Wu Yongming said that improving product competitiveness, efficiency, customer service and consumer experience, thereby driving GMV growth and user consumption frequency, is the top priority this year. He said: "We believe that only after significant progress has been made in these areas, increasing GMV and CMR (customer management fee) will be a natural result."

In addition, according to media reports, on July 24, there was news that Douyin e-commerce had recently adjusted the priority of its business goals, no longer putting "price power" first, and would focus on pursuing GMV growth in the second half of the year. In response to this news, Douyin did not respond to the reporter from the "Daily Economic News".

In this regard, Cui Lili told reporters that as various platforms are adjusting their low-price related strategies, it can be expected that the effectiveness of the low-price competition strategy has become lower and lower. After going through it together with the merchants, the platforms found that the benefits of this strategy have bottomed out.

However, according to the reporter's understanding, Taotian is still expanding the supply of "low-priced" goods.

On March 26, 1688 officially announced its full entry into Taobao. Prior to this, the outside world had already noticed that 1688 had recently opened three stores on Taobao - 1688 Selected Taobao Store, 1688 Enterprise Self-Purchase Tmall Store and 1688 Industry Experts Selected Tmall Store.

According to insiders from Alibaba, these 1688 Taobao stores will be integrated into a channel similar to Tmall Supermarket, and will launch 1688's strictly selected original factory goods on Taobao.

In January this year, the "Taobao Factory" business, which focuses on direct supply from source factories, was fully upgraded. It launched a new product commission incentive plan for industrial belt manufacturers and introduced two major commission preferential policies, with the highest discount rate up to 95%, and the maximum discount for ordinary goods is 50%. In addition, for branded goods, Taobao launched the "10 billion flash sale festival" for the first time in April with a 10 billion yuan subsidy, continuing to increase the "real subsidy, real money saving" and offering a 30% discount on top of the lowest price on the entire network.

It is worth mentioning that according to the latest financial report, in the quarter ending March 31, Taobao Tmall's total merchandise transaction volume and number of orders both achieved double-digit year-on-year growth. In the quarter, Taobao Group achieved revenue of 93.216 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4%, and customer management fee income increased by 5% year-on-year.

Although GMV has achieved double-digit growth, CMR has only increased by 5%. In order to further improve the return on investment and merchant penetration, Taobao will further launch commercial products. On July 2, Alimama disclosed that its "full-site promotion" will be fully launched in the near future.

In the fierce e-commerce competition, e-commerce platforms have come up with various tricks to improve their competitiveness while constantly facing various choices. In an ideal e-commerce ecosystem, both platforms and merchants should be able to make money, and consumers can also enjoy reasonably low-priced goods and good services.