Author | Editor Yan Ci Ge | After 8 years, Tmall Double Eleven Party has been cancelled. This year, Taotian will no longer hold the Tmall Double Eleven Party. As a symbol of the heyday of the Double Eleven Shopping Festival, the eight-time "Consumer Spring Festival Gala" has offi

| Editor of Yan Ci Ge

| After 8 years of work, the Tmall Double Eleven party was cancelled.

This year, Taotian will no longer hold the Tmall Double Eleven Party. As a symbol of the heyday of the Double Eleven Shopping Festival, the eight-time "Consumer Spring Festival Gala" has officially come to an end on the historical stage. The cancellation of the party that best reflected the atmosphere of the shopping festival also heralded the arrival of the second half of competition among e-commerce platforms.

There are early signs of the decline of Double Eleven. In 2021, Tmall will no longer release time-sharing battle reports intensively on Double Eleven, and will only provide one gmv data at the end. In 2022, various e-commerce platforms, together with Taotian, have chosen not to publish GMV data.

At midnight on November 12 this year, Taobao and JD.com released two battle reports respectively. Taobao mentioned that the total transaction volume has grown strongly, and the number of purchasing users has reached a new high. 589 brands have sold more than 100 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 46.5%, a record high; JD.com said that the number of shopping users has increased by more than 20% year-on-year, and purchase and sales live streaming orders have increased by 3.8 times.

Without GMV total data and overwhelming news, Double Eleven ended quietly.

According to Star Map data, including Tmall, JD.com, Pinduoduo and other comprehensive e-commerce and live broadcast e-commerce platforms, as of November 11, the cumulative sales of Double Eleven in 2024 reached 1.4418 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 26.6 %.

Total sales of the entire network during Double Eleven, Figure/Star Chart Data Official Weibo

Behind the no longer amazing growth rate of total sales during Double Eleven, competition among e-commerce platforms has gradually fallen into a stalemate, and the knife edge is constantly reforming inwards, each looking for a way to grow. , and eventually merged into a more secretive competition.

The party has been cancelled. Taotian’s Double Eleven this year lacked a bit of atmosphere.

From the first Mao Wan in 2015 to the last Mao Wan in 2023, there has been a stage that has disappeared. In addition to Eason Chan, Deng Ziqi, tfboys, Angela Chang, Li Yuchun and other top domestic stars who have appeared on the Internet, they also include Kobe Bryant, the Beckhams, Scarlett Johansson, Taylor Swift, Benedict ·International stars such as Cumberbatch.

Looking back at the golden age when the domestic Internet industry was booming, it was not uncommon for Internet giants to advance aggressively, but a party of this size and scale, which only created an atmosphere for a company's own shopping festival, was still unique.

The first Tmall Double Eleven Party teamed up with Hunan Satellite TV, picture/Tmall WeChat public account

The evening party was cancelled, and the disappearing Double Eleven festival atmosphere eventually became a footnote for e-commerce platform competition to enter the second half. As the e-commerce giant leading Double Eleven, Taotian is both a promoter and driven forward by industry trends.

The first is the decline in the growth rate of Internet e-commerce.

In the first half of 2024, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce, domestic online retail sales were 7.1 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.8%, of which online retail sales of physical items were 5.96 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.8%, accounting for 25.3% of the total social retail sales. %.

In the eight years since Maowan existed, from 2015 to 2023, the proportion of online retail sales of physical goods in total retail sales was 10.8%, 12.6%, 15%, 18.4%, 20.7%, 24.9%, 24.5%, and 27.2%, respectively. %, 27.6%.

It is not difficult to see that since 2020, the growth of Internet e-commerce has officially gone hand in hand with the growth of total retail sales. E-commerce is no longer the most important factor in consumption growth, and its proportion of total retail sales has stabilized at about a quarter. . The era of pioneering e-commerce infrastructure such as electronic payment and mobile Internet has passed. Internet e-commerce has turned to stock competition amid slow growth.

The second is the emergence of competitors and new e-commerce models.

JD.com’s 2016 Double Eleven order volume quickly broke the record. Picture/JD.com WeChat public account

From 2009 to 2015, there were seven consecutive Double Eleven Shopping Festivals. Taobao was the dominant player, while JD.com was catching up all the way, and the Tmall brand was established, which means The concept of b2c e-commerce is gradually being recognized. On Double Eleven in 2016, Star Map data showed that the sales of the entire network were 177.04 billion yuan, of which Taobao accounted for 68.2% and JD.com accounted for 22.7%. The latter can no longer be ignored, and the competition pattern of Double Eleven has shifted to two. A battle of giants.

In 2017, Pinduoduo opened the door to an annual GMV of 100 billion with extremely low prices. Since then, it has increased year by year, gradually becoming a three-legged rival with Taobao and JD.com. In 2020, Douyin and Kuaishou, which rely on live-streaming e-commerce and interest e-commerce, respectively exceeded 100 billion GMV, and entered the stage of e-commerce platform competition, leading the landscape to a battle among the best.

In 2023, according to statistics from the Yuanchuan Research Institute, Alibaba e-commerce GMV is about 7.9 trillion yuan, Pinduoduo and JD.com are 4.1 trillion yuan, 3.7 trillion yuan, Douyin e-commerce and Kuaishou e-commerce are 2.7 trillion yuan respectively. and 1.18 trillion yuan.

From the perspective of growth rate, according to data from Dolphin Think Tank and New Maobang, the year-on-year changes of Douyin E-commerce, Kuaishou E-commerce, Pinduoduo, JD.com, and Alibaba in 2023 are 47%, 33%, 31%, 2%, respectively. -3%, the growth of traditional e-commerce has been firmly suppressed.

Finally, it is the reform of the e-commerce platform in the throes of pain.

JD.com has entered the apparel category and arranged live broadcasts of procurement and sales; Pinduoduo continues to introduce new products with “tens of billions of subsidies” to attract brand merchants; Douyin and Kuaishou continue to improve their supply chain and logistics facilities through trial and error in interest e-commerce. After

lost its unique traffic advantage, Taotian gradually became anxious about being overtaken. For its e-commerce business, Alibaba is trying to continuously reform, starting from Taobao Special Edition and Diantao launching independent apps in 2021, to 2023 facing Pinduoduo's price involution and launching "five major battles" such as price power.

According to a late post report, Alibaba is good at organizational adjustments. From the operating responsibility system in 2021 to diversified governance, and then to the "1+6+n" reorganization in 2023, they all imply an attempt to make the organization flexible and give Taobao , Tmall’s intention to reduce its burden.

To a certain extent, the traffic-oriented Maowan is the most conspicuous spokesperson in the era of Internet growth. Nowadays, the stage has disappeared, and Double Eleven has moved from festival to daily life.

Gameplay adjustment, Taotian’s Double Eleven first stabilizes merchants’ investment

, but consumers have ushered in the “longest” Double Eleven.

This year’s Tmall Double Eleven cycle lasts for 29 days in total, and pre-sales started on October 14. It is the earliest Double Eleven with the longest cycle, a full ten days earlier than last year. For comparison, JD.com and Pinduoduo have also advanced their pre-sales to October 14, and the total cycle length is not inferior to Alibaba.

Tmall’s Double Eleven will open pre-sales on October 14, picture/Tmall WeChat public account

Regarding this Double Eleven, Ali’s official statement is still “the largest investment”, including cross-store discounts of 300 off. 50 yuan, 30 billion yuan in consumer coupons and red envelopes, 3 billion yuan in merchant subsidies, and over 10 billion yuan in traffic investment. But this time, unlike previous years, the "low price" label is no longer widely used. Under the growth pressure of Double Eleven, Taotian’s publicity and reform strategies have obviously changed.

As early as July this year, according to 36Kr, Taotian held a closed-door meeting for merchants at the end of June after the end of 618 to announce strategic changes in the second half of the year. Among them, the search weight under the "five-star price power" system has been changed back to be distributed according to gmv, which means the end of the "lower the price, the higher the traffic" model.

html At the beginning of 2019, Wu Yongming, CEO of Alibaba Group, Chairman and CEO of Taotian, made it clear that he should shift to the traditional shelf e-commerce model represented by GMV, instead of following Pinduoduo’s traffic distribution model of exchanging orders at low prices at low prices, and focusing on the “conversion rate” traffic distribution model. . The price power strategy led by former Taotian CEO Dai Shan came to an end, and Taotian once again returned to its familiar position. On the consumer side, more efforts are focused on optimizing the user experience: the Taobao app homepage has become simpler and faster to launch, vigorously promote use now and pay later services, upgrade 88vip services, etc.

"Blindly low prices will set back the business environment, consumption and manufacturing. Taotian's prices refer to the competitiveness of the price band, and we compete at different price bands in each category." In response to the strategic change, Alibaba Group Vice President Summary from the President and President of Taobao Platform Division.

On the other hand, Taotian, which has withdrawn from low-price involution, has also focused more on the reform of merchant experience. When user traffic is no longer the core of e-commerce growth, how to retain merchants in the existing market has become the top priority of the platform.

Before Double Eleven, Taobao launched many reforms on the merchant side.In June, Taotian fully implemented a new merchant rating system, dividing the ratings into "store experience points" and "product experience points." At the end of July, Taobao optimized its long-criticized “refund only” strategy and launched a “return treasure” for merchants in early September.

Targeting Double Eleven, Taotian has invested more than 10 billion yuan to purchase traffic, cooperated with more than 200 Internet platforms, expanded customer flow for merchants, fully realized commission-free for major promotions and store broadcasts, and unbundled merchant shipping insurance. The transformation of

is also reflected in the extremely long pre-sale cycle. While Pinduoduo and JD.com both advertised “ready-to-sell” banners, Taotian resolutely returned to Double Eleven pre-sales from canceling pre-sales on 618 – not much Consumers like the pre-sale system. Pre-sale not only lengthens the cycle of the shopping festival and makes consumers wait longer, but also easily leads to disputes over price fluctuations.

On the other hand, pre-sales are welcomed by merchants. They can reduce the burden on the logistics and delivery supply chain, reduce the pressure of centralized returns and exchanges, and leave more time for stocking up.

In the face of the shopping festival, Taotian becomes more inclined to merchants.

E-commerce competition is tight, and Taotian can no longer be slow.

From c2c to b2c, from traditional shelf e-commerce to social e-commerce and content e-commerce, from traditional shopping guide channels to live broadcast room anchors bringing goods, the evolution of Internet e-commerce The market is constantly changing, and the success of new models is often rooted in changes in consumer groups.

Being in the midst of a torrent, Taotian has no time to dwell on the brilliance of Double Eleven that it single-handedly created - lower-cost and longer-cycle live streaming makes promotions happen every day, and consumers are no longer inclined to spend big on shopping festivals.

However, the competition among e-commerce platforms is far from reaching the end, and it has emerged from the fierce competition with Pinduoduo and Douyin. In 2024, Taotian will once again focus on improving the platform itself, trying to "find its own way" and refocus on the growth of gmv.

html In August, Alibaba released its second quarter financial report for 2024, in which Taotian Group recorded revenue of 113.373 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1%, becoming the only group among Alibaba's six major business groups to experience a decline.

Alibaba’s second quarter revenue, picture/Alibaba’s 2024 second quarter financial report

It is worth mentioning that Taotian Group’s China retail business revenue was 107.421 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 2%; China’s retail business directly operated and Other income was 27.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 9%. This part of the direct-operated business mainly comes from Tmall Supermarket, Tmall International and other businesses. The decline is due to Taotian's initiative to shrink its direct-operated business.

From the perspective of profits, Taotian Group ebita recorded 48.81 billion yuan, down 1% year-on-year. The financial report stated that it was mainly “due to increased investment in user experience (thus increasing consumer retention rate and purchase frequency) and technology infrastructure. Partly offset by narrower losses in certain businesses."

Taotian Group's second quarter situation, picture/Alibaba's 2024 second quarter financial report

Despite the decline in revenue and profits, Taotian Group has achieved "higher GMV year-on-year" driven by the increase in the number of buyers and the frequency of purchases. Single-digit growth, and order volume increased by double digits year-on-year." In the earnings conference call, Wu Yongming said frankly: "Taotian's priority is currently to improve the user purchasing experience, thereby promoting the growth of user purchasing frequency and GMV."

In the second half of the e-commerce platform competition, new situations are constantly happening.

Taotian is not the only platform that has returned to the merchant side to reform in the hope of winning more third-party merchants. The same is true for its "old rival" JD.com. This year’s Double Eleven, JD.com has completely canceled the registration process, automatically provided traffic support to merchants that meet the regulations, invested "10 billion subsidies for factory goods", 1 billion live broadcast subsidies, etc., and also optimized "eight core service tools" for merchant backends. The actions are also inconsistent. few.

When e-commerce giants try to find new growth in an era when the overall Internet traffic has peaked, cooperation has become a better choice. Alibaba and JD.com are moving toward mutual ecological opening before Double Eleven. Taobao and Tmall are connected to JD Logistics, while JD.com is connected to Cainiao Express, Cainiao Post, and Alipay. Earlier, Taotian also connected to WeChat payment to achieve a win-win situation.

As the main business that contributes 47% of revenue, the importance of Taotian Group to Alibaba is self-evident.When it is difficult for major e-commerce platforms to "win by surprise" and competition is in a stalemate, the biggest issue facing Taotian is still only one - it cannot be slower and must maintain the growth rate of gmv.Author of