taobao increases "global free shipping", may xiyin welcome new rivals?
2024-10-01
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yangcheng evening news all-media reporter shen zhao
there’s something new happening on the cross-border circuit recently! on september 26, hong kong, regarded by many companies as the first stop for overseas expansion, will join the "free shipping zone" in the next three months; and a few days ago, taobao also announced a comprehensive upgrade of its overseas strategy to "taobao tmall" "overseas growth plan", which was originally only open to apparel merchants, has now been expanded to include opportunities for merchants in all industries. this means that taobao has expanded global free shipping from clothing categories to the entire industry. both of the above two projects are attracted by taobao and tmall, and alibaba international is responsible for overseas logistics and user operations.
some analysts believe that the popularity of fully managed and semi-managed overseas models in recent years may be alibaba’s counterattack to win back overseas merchants and consumers that have been diverted by platforms such as temu and tiktok. zhang yi, ceo and chief analyst of iimedia consulting, said that in the face of today's fiercely competitive overseas markets, taobao needs to effectively match core resources such as talents, funds, logistics, and payment methods to achieve a breakthrough in the existing landscape.
after three years, taotian fights cross-border again
this is not the first time taobao has made efforts to do cross-border business. as early as may 13, 2021, tmall taobao announced an overseas strategic upgrade. at that time, taobao and tmall launched a lightweight overseas model, which will solve the pain points of sellers going overseas in one fell swoop and help merchants easily go overseas. at that time, the one-stop shop launched by taobao and tmall has integrated product exposure, exclusive marking, off-site traffic, logistics, after-sales, etc. the hosting model is similar.
however, in 2021, mainland logistics will be full of uncertainties and overseas port blockades will occur frequently. the risks for cross-border merchants will further increase, and small and medium-sized sellers will not dare to get involved easily. traditional cross-border sales often focus on independent websites or opening stores on amazon. at that time, most domestic cross-border e-commerce platforms had not attracted enough attention.
in the past few years, the cross-border track has become more and more popular. cross-border platforms such as temu and shein have become more and more influential overseas. the fully managed and semi-managed cross-border e-commerce models are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. even alibaba international station, aliexpress, and even amazon’s global stores have started a full/semi-managed business.
three years have passed, and taotian has once again raised the banner of cross-border development. how is it different from before?
in mid-july, taobao launched the "global free shipping plan for large apparels" as a pilot in the apparel industry, leading merchants to expand overseas markets. under this plan, the platform focuses on the apparel industry, provides merchants with high overseas postage subsidies, and directly provides free shipping to overseas consumers, helping merchants to grow rapidly overseas.
since the launch of the plan, hundreds of thousands of clothing merchants have signed up to participate, including tmall merchants jiaoxia, taobao merchants chic joc, meiyang, etc. a clothing merchant signed up with the mentality of giving it a try, and earned an extra 200,000 yuan in one day.
compared with the fiercely competitive domestic e-commerce environment, the overseas projects focus on "0 returns, 0 refunds, and 0 freight insurance." after two months of testing, taobao's overseas model has been successfully implemented, and merchants have achieved significant results. the store visits and order volume of participating merchants have increased significantly, and the single-day overseas order sales of some merchants have increased nearly 500 times year-on-year. the proportion of overseas transactions for some merchants has even reached more than 50%, and overseas markets are becoming the "second curve" of transaction growth for many merchants.
after the apparel industry ran through the model, on september 23, taobao also announced a comprehensive upgrade of its overseas strategy to the "taobao tmall overseas growth plan", that is, it was originally only open to apparel merchants, but now it has been expanded to include opportunities for merchants in all industries. this means that taobao has expanded global free shipping from clothing categories to the entire industry.
it is worth mentioning that hong kong, which has always been regarded as the first stop for chinese companies to go overseas, joined taobao’s “free shipping zone” on september 26. taobao announced that it will invest 1 billion yuan in the next three months to support the "free shipping to hong kong" campaign. consumers who spend 99 yuan or more on taobao can enjoy free shipping. currently, 92% of the products on taobao support official direct shipping to hong kong, and the delivery time has been shortened to 3-4 days. to facilitate consumers to pick up goods, the number of official taobao self-pickup points and self-pickup lockers in hong kong will be increased to 800.
can the same "routine" be used when involved overseas?
in 2024, a high-frequency word mentioned by e-commerce merchants is "volume". today, when china's major e-commerce platforms generate hundreds of millions of packages, package price, package service, and package quality have become the norm for e-commerce merchants. “if you can’t do it domestically, then go overseas” has become the thinking of many businesses. however, temu and shein have also been frantically recruiting investors in the past few years, leading chinese businesses to go overseas with low-cost fully managed services. under such circumstances, what changes will the entry of taobao and tmall bring to the cross-border e-commerce platform that is already a red sea?
in fact, the "universal taobao" has a larger number of merchants and skus than temu and shein. taobao has previously had many overseas chinese shopping needs in china and a mature consolidation model. but at the same time, the "universal taobao" has not yet established a good brand mentality among non-chinese groups. compared with temu, shein and other platforms that have swept overseas social media in the past few years, taobao is more like an "outsider" ". moreover, taobao is still an app based in china, and cross-border e-commerce often needs to be localized and adapted according to the shopping habits and consumption characteristics of consumers in different countries, and based on this, it can create connection and trust with consumers. this is for taobao. language is still a big challenge.
in addition, in the past few years, temu and shein have opened up the minds of overseas users with their low prices. although the same "routine" can still be used, the cost for latecomers can only be higher than that of the former.
there are many challenges, how can taobao break through the cross-border situation?
it is worth mentioning that, according to information released by taobao, “compared with other cross-border platforms, merchants participating in taobao’s overseas expansion have independent pricing and cargo rights. after receiving orders from overseas consumers, merchants only need to ship the goods. just go to the domestic container warehouse, and the goods will be confirmed upon arrival. "such a rule is indeed looser for merchants than other platforms. this "taobao and tmall overseas growth plan" can be said to provide a new opportunity for merchants to enter the international market at a low threshold and low cost.
"taobao's overseas expansion, from a strategic point of view, not only means 'arm wrestling' within ali, but it is also a sure way for ali to enter the huge overseas market." zhang yi said that chinese products are currently the world's most popular products. , especially the main supplier in developed countries, taobao has great supply chain advantages, and leveraging alibaba’s original logistics advantages accumulated in overseas b-side trade to work together to expand overseas business cannot be underestimated.
zhang yi analyzed that the biggest challenge taobao faces when going overseas is that the current global e-commerce market (especially the 2c market) is extremely competitive, and overseas markets are relatively unfamiliar to taobao. in such a situation, taobao needs to solve how to effectively match problems with core resources such as talent, capital, logistics and payment methods, as well as market barriers established by existing e-commerce platforms in various regions, are also needed to successfully achieve international expansion.
