news

alibaba and jd.com, who were previously incompatible, showed goodwill to each other on the eve of double 11. on september 26, according to market news, jd logistics and cainiao express will be connected to taotian and jd platforms respectively, and jd will also enable alipay payment before "double 11". according to some practitioners, the basic information on the logistics electronic form is not core secrets, and there are no technical difficulties in connecting the port. enterprises are more concerned about the details of deeper cooperation with customers and business data. at the same time, some e-commerce operation service providers have also opened up the ports between the platform and logistics providers to prepare for merchants to distribute goods.

from "old enemies" many years ago to today's competition and cooperation, the handshakes and peace talks between e-commerce giants are more like self-interested choices made after considering the situation, all in order to obtain more users and business increases in the fierce competition for existing stocks. . in fact, it is not difficult for an enterprise to add a new business interface to its competitors. what is difficult is to cross the "inner wall" and find a safe zone for both parties in the business-sensitive zone.

giants “tear down walls”

what was once the strongest wall in china’s e-commerce market seems to be gradually being torn down. on september 26, according to latepost reports, taobao and tmall will officially connect to jd logistics around mid-october. this also means that taotian merchants can choose jd logistics as the delivery logistics in the system. correspondingly, jd.com has also integrated cainiao’s self-operated express delivery brand cainiao express into the platform, and also connected cainiao’s parcel collection point cainiao post. perhaps during this year’s “double 11”, product information on jd.com’s platform will appear among rookies.

on the other side of the agreement on logistics cooperation between the two parties, jd.com will also access alipay payment on the eve of "double 11". from logistics to payment, alibaba and jd.com seem to be really ready to "shake hands and make peace."

although as of press time, the relevant persons in charge of taotian group and jingdong group have not confirmed the news to the beijing business daily reporter, merchants on taobao and tmall are already ready to accept such changes.

"this news has actually come out from the merchants a few months ago, and we are now waiting for the official notice from the platform." wang xiaohua, planning director of beijing chuxin e-commerce technology co., ltd., told the beijing business daily reporter that the company has already reached the level of agent operation business. the relevant ports have been opened to prepare for later distribution. "for merchants on taobao and tmall, this may be a relatively big 'variable' in this year's double 11." wang xiaohua said.

"the longer the 'double 11' front is stretched, the more merchants need to prepare." wang xiaohua judged that compared with price power, this year the platform will provide subsidies in terms of perception of more user services, such as logistics, after-sales, and even periphery of brand power direction. wang xiaohua believes that jd logistics’ advantages in warehousing will bring higher efficiency and greater scale to taobao and tmall merchants.

"heart wall" is difficult to solve

although the two giants have shown an inclusive attitude in the fields of logistics and payment, it is undeniable that alibaba and jd.com are still in a strong competitive relationship. on this year’s “double 11”, jd.com announced that pre-sales will begin on october 17. immediately afterwards, tmall proposed to start pre-sales on october 14. both are a week ahead of last year's pre-sale schedule. not only that, in taotian’s strong apparel category, jd.com and taotian have already started a price war, with both offering 50% off subsidies.

in other words, in the retail field, alibaba and jd.com are still fierce rivals. zhuang shuai, an expert in the retail e-commerce industry and founder of bailian consulting, believes that for the platform, logistics and payment are industrial service businesses and have limited impact on the main business.

taking jd logistics’ access to taobao as an example, logistics provider li dong (pseudonym) told a reporter from beijing business daily that if a taobao merchant uses jd express to deliver goods, it means that the merchant recognizes and cooperates with jd express, and jd express uses taobao’s electronic when the order is shipped, customer information will also be uploaded to taobao. "the address, phone number and other information on the order are not the core sensitive data of the business."

li dong further said that for express delivery companies, peers now know their customers' market positions, shipment volumes, categories, etc. this information is relatively transparent, and companies differentiate and compete in logistics prices and service quality. the more in-depth cooperation details and customer business data are what the platform and express delivery companies strive to keep confidential. as for the technical difficulty of jd logistics accessing taobao, li dong believes that the problem is not big. "taobao can provide a port. the difficult thing is whether the platform is willing to allow logistics companies to connect."

logistics fulfillment capabilities are an important factor for e-commerce platforms to maintain user repurchase rates. previously, relying on the retail market, alibaba and jd.com established a logistics team to serve themselves through capital cooperation and self-built logistics. in the industry, tongda express delivery companies such as zto, yto, and yunda are often referred to as "alibaba express delivery". jd logistics is gradually growing with the help of jd mall. jitu express is unable to access taobao and jd.com due to its ambiguous relationship with pinduoduo.

however, the situation in which platforms and logistics providers operate independently has changed in recent years. in october 2021, jitu express acquired best express for 6.8 billion yuan to gain access to taobao. by march 2023, liu qiangdong, the founder and chairman of the board of directors of jd.com, allowed jitu and tongda express to access jd.com.

the seemingly open actions are driven by platform business strategies. taobao's introduction of jitu can stimulate competition among tongda express delivery companies, and merchants can gain advantages in logistics options and prices. the entry of tongda express into jd.com coincides with jd.com's low-price strategy. the entry of more logistics companies can also reduce the cost of jd.com's logistics.

it can be seen that alibaba and jd.com do not just laugh away their grudges. the giants' move to "tear down the wall" has not actually shaken each other's core business areas. the explorations by both parties are still profit-seeking behaviors after carefully weighing the pros and cons.

towards competition and cooperation

“in recent years, as new platforms with strong traffic orientation and lower customer acquisition costs such as douyin and xiaohongshu have gradually carved up the market, the people and goods of the old e-commerce platforms led by taobao and jd.com have begun to migrate, and the platform’s defensive capabilities have also gradually weakening," jiang rong, an e-commerce research expert, said frankly. nowadays, the alliance between alibaba and jd.com is more about "time and momentum".

on the eve of this year's "double 11", some e-commerce practitioners have already felt that business growth is weak. an executive from a leading live broadcast agency revealed to a beijing business daily reporter that because the consumer market has become more rational and users’ willingness to consume has shrunk, some categories that sold well last year, such as smart home and other new brands, will no longer be sold this year. the number of new brands in the live broadcast room has also become smaller.

for alibaba and jd.com, in addition to increasing the frequency of low penetration rates, strengthening their user service capabilities and deepening the value of the entire e-commerce sales chain is a greater challenge. in the field of logistics, jd logistics still needs to continue to expand its operating capabilities. in the first half of this year, jd logistics’ revenue from external customers was 59.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.2%, accounting for nearly 70% of total revenue. cainiao express, which was born in june last year, also needs to undertake more express volumes to achieve scale effects in its business and accelerate domestic business growth.

"the very real problem is that in the incremental market period, everyone is a competitor, competing for territory and users. the market means that you have and i don't are all effective." jiang rong pointed out, but in the current stock market, users with a more transparent space for comparison, the openness between platforms allows users to have more choices. "no platform will want to risk losing users by building walls against each other. shaking hands and making peace is obviously a wiser choice." .

more and more internet companies are trying to move from the fierce competition in the past to a competitive and cooperative relationship. in june last year, wechat moments for the first time allowed advertisements to "jump" directly to the taobao app site, which means that alibaba has accelerated the speed of tearing down the wall with tencent. in september this year, the relationship between the two ushered in a big step, and taobao announced that it supports wechat payment. prior to this, jd.com’s “old rival” dangdang also announced a strategic cooperation with it. dangdang’s official flagship store was launched on jd.com; xiaohongshu and kuaishou also reopened product external links, and tmall’s products and services appeared frequently on douyin. live advertising. “jd.com’s self-operated categories will also allocate a sum of money for marketing on all platforms.” an insider close to jd.com revealed.

"beyond the pure competition model, interconnection can bring more room for development and customer acquisition for merchants and platforms. only a larger cycle can bring more opportunities." jiang rong said.

beijing business daily reporter he qianqiao xinyi