Recently, Taotian Group announced two major news about reducing the burden on merchants.
Starting from August 9th, Taobao will officially implement an optimized "refund only" strategy, which will enhance merchants' after-sales autonomy based on the new version of the experience score and reduce or cancel after-sales interventions for high-quality stores. For merchants with a comprehensive store experience score of ≥ 4.8, Taobao will not actively intervene or support refunds after receiving goods through Wangwang. Instead, it encourages merchants to negotiate with consumers first. For other segmented merchants, Taobao will grant varying degrees of autonomy based on their experience and industry nature. The higher the experience score, the greater the merchant's disposal power.
Starting from September 1st, Tmall will cancel the annual software service fee for the platform. At that time, new merchants who move in will not need to pay. Merchants who have already paid the annual fee will be refunded in batches by Tmall according to the settlement rules.
In the largest e-commerce circle with only buyers, Pinduoduo's unlimited preference for consumers' "refund only" has now become almost standard. At the end of 2023, Taobao announced that it will allow "refund only" support in certain circumstances, and Meituan recently announced that "refund only" will be included in its daily service system.
Half a year later, Taobao made another adjustment to its "refund only" policy, indicating that while responding to e-commerce competition and attracting traffic, Taobao has been balancing and adjusting how to serve buyers well while comforting sellers.
On April 10th this year, Jack Ma sent an internal open letter to Alibaba, stating that he needs to recognize himself and return to the customer value track. According to Alibaba's fiscal year 2024 performance, the GMV of Taobao and international e-commerce businesses achieved double-digit year-on-year growth; The number of new merchants joining Tmall in the first quarter of 2024 increased by 60% year-on-year.
Give merchants more autonomy in disposal
According to Taobao's strategy, for "refund only", merchants will be given more autonomy in disposal. At the same time, Taobao will provide multiple after-sales service plans for merchants to choose from, guiding them to continuously optimize after-sales service and reduce disputes and asset losses caused by "refund only". In addition, Taobao has optimized the refund appeal process only. After the merchant initiates an appeal, the platform will request a third-party testing agency to conduct random inspections on the goods. If the inspection passes, the platform will compensate the merchant for the losses.
Since the beginning of this year, major e-commerce platforms have successively launched "refund only" policies, effectively protecting consumer rights. However, it cannot be ignored that while "refund only" protects consumers, it is also exploited by some "wool party" and damages the rights and interests of some normal business operators.
Leo, a seller from Yiwu who has worked on various e-commerce platforms in China, told Time Weekly reporters that he currently specializes in overseas foreign trade, such as SHEIN and TEMU, and may try Amazon's new low-priced version in the future. The competition in domestic e-commerce is too fierce. Leo said that the "refund only" policy in domestic e-commerce has a significant impact on sellers' profits, which can easily lead to a situation where a single transaction is not only for nothing, but also involves human and material resources. And the slogan of "refund only" is "no reason to return", which the merchant cannot afford just the shipping cost. At most, I am now working as a supplier for online stores and not directly facing the terminal myself, so as to avoid losses, "Leo said.
Taobao has stated that it has optimized "refund only" based on store experience, taking the lead in exploring beneficial ways to balance user experience and merchant rights. While ensuring consumer rights, significantly optimize the business environment and form a more benign and healthy e-commerce ecosystem.
Cui Libiao, General Manager of Hangzhou Yingdong Education Technology Co., Ltd. and Dean of Hangzhou Digital Industry College, believes that Taobao's optimization of the "refund only" policy is appropriate, as it is guiding the e-commerce platform ecosystem towards a healthy development.
Cui Libiao said that it has been difficult for sellers in recent years, with declining sales, unlimited prices, high return rates, and high traffic costs. If sellers make less money and stop opening stores, the e-commerce ecosystem will disappear. So it's right to rest and recuperate, give sellers a breath, and weather the storm together. 'Refund only' violates fair trading rules, and the national market supervision department should intervene. Taobao's choice is right, it should be up to the merchant to decide whether to only refund, rather than the platform blindly pleasing buyers. Fairness is the cornerstone, and we cannot fill the city of e-commerce platforms with the bones of sellers.
Tmall 30000 to 60000 annual fee free
Previously, merchants in different categories on Tmall had to pay an annual fee of 30000 to 60000 yuan. After the official implementation of annual fee exemption, except for newly settled merchants, Tmall will fully refund the annual fee to merchants who achieve the annual target of operating turnover from January to August 2024.
It is reported that before the cancellation of the annual fee, Taobao and Tmall had launched a series of beneficial measures: providing nearly 10 measures including AI operation efficiency improvement tools, free business advice, and parcel logistics subsidies to all brands and merchants, reducing operating costs and improving operational efficiency.
Since the beginning of this year, Tmall has continued to upgrade its brand management system, with the cancellation of annual fees as a representative of the Huishang action, fully focusing on the first goal of the entire platform - to enable brand merchants to achieve business growth. From the performance of Tmall merchants during the 618 shopping festival, the series of actions has formed a clear positive effect: 365 brands have achieved over 100 million transactions on Tmall 618, and over 36000 brands have doubled their transactions. Among them, nearly 200 merchants who participated in 618 for the first time sold over 10 million yuan, and 576 new brands established within 3 years won the first place in the trend category.
Alibaba's 2023 fiscal year annual report disclosed that merchants on Taobao and Tmall can purchase pay for performance, information flow promotion marketing, and display marketing services to attract traffic to their stores. In addition, merchants can obtain off-site traffic from third-party partner websites. Taobao and Tmall merchants can also purchase advanced store software to help upgrade, decorate, and manage their online stores.
In their letter to shareholders in the 2023 fiscal year annual report, Cai Chongxin and Wu Yongming stated that Alibaba's "user first" strategy will ensure that user experience is given top priority in business strategy and product design, and improving user experience will increase user retention and repeat purchases. On the Alibaba platform, merchants can find the most dynamic, segmented, and high-frequency online consumer group.
The annual report shows that in the fiscal year 2024, the number of annual active consumers who spend more than RMB 10000 on Taobao has achieved sustained growth. In the fiscal year 2024, the proportion of annual active consumers who spend more than RMB 10000 on Taobao remains the same as in the fiscal year 2023.