On March 26th, the reporter learned from Taotian Group that the wholesale platform 1688, known as one of the "Four Little Dragons" of Alibaba Group, has launched a comprehensive "Taobao entry". Recently, three stores have been opened on Taobao, namely "1688 Strict Selection", "1688 Enterprise Self Procurement Tmall Flagship Store", and "1688 Industrial Travel Home Selection". In the future, these Taobao stores will be integrated into a channel similar to "Tmall Supermarket", and Taobao will launch 1688 strictly selected OEM source products.
Specifically, the 1688 Yan Xuan store mainly operates a home centered lifestyle category, with a focus on home furnishings and general merchandise. The product is positioned in the mid to high end price range, complementing Taobao's mid to low end pricing strategy.
1688 enterprise self purchased Tmall flagship store mainly deals in office supplies and commercial consumables, focusing on popular items such as ergonomic chairs. 88VIP members account for 20% of the buyers in this store.
1688 Industrial Expert Selection mainly provides white label (unbranded) supply from the source of origin, such as MRO products such as hardware tools, security and labor protection (industrial products with non production raw material properties), as well as industrial intermediate products such as micro motors and components, and various packaging consumables. In the future, the store plans to expand into vertical sub sectors such as elevators and industrial air conditioners, creating super single products.
When it comes to the reasons for joining Taobao, 1688 insiders revealed that during user research, they found that there are two types of demands on Taobao that are growing rapidly. The first is the demand for brand replacement and direct supply from large OEM factories, which happens to be the advantage of 1688's strict selection; The second is that Taobao enterprises have a high demand for self procurement, and users have high requirements for the richness, uniqueness, professionalism, and customization of the supply. The ability to group goods for special groups in specific fields is precisely the strength of 1688 industrial products.
The reporter learned that among the three stores that entered Taobao in the first phase of 1688, the one with the best sales performance currently is the 1688 Yanxuan store. According to data provided by Taotian Group, the user and supply of 1688 have fully revitalized in the past year. At present, there are over 65 million professional buyers in 1688, highly overlapping with users on Xiaohongshu. The average age of buyers is 25 years old, with the majority being women.
It is reported that for 1688, the comprehensive "entry into Taobao" can directly target a wider range of users, and the certainty of aggregation and distribution is stronger. At the same time, the more diverse demand scenarios of Taobao users are also conducive to nourishing and "training" the digital supply chain under construction of 1688, which is also its core strategic direction. (Zeng Qingyi)