After being pre-exposed by the media, Tmall's new self-operated business "Cat Sharing" was quietly launched recently.
Previously, according to the "Late Post" report, Alibaba's B2C retail business group will open a Tmall self-operated flagship store, and the mobile Tmall App will also be renamed "Cat Enjoyment" for this purpose - in short, Ali will learn from JD.com to do self-operation.
On February 18, the mobile Tmall App updated version 12.00, and two content related to cat sharing appeared in the update log: one was the addition of "cat sharing self-operated", which is the official self-operated business; the other was the launch of the "cat enjoy flash sale" channel, and the discount of self-operated genuine products was launched every day at a fixed time.
However, according to 36Kr - Future Consumption Observation, the actual line time of Cat Share is delayed compared with this version update - at least after 4 days (February 22), search for words such as "Cat Share / Cat Enjoy Self-Operated" and other words, self-operated products will appear.
Comparison of search results on February 21 (left) versus February 22 (right).
In response to media reports, Ali tried to weaken the strategic level of the cat sharing business in its response, saying that it was "just an exploration project in the Tmall App". Less than a week after its launch, CatShare has not done much promotion and operation.
36Kr - Future Consumption After experiencing Cat Sharing, it can be simply understood that Ali has an integrated entrance to self-operated goods and a unified brand recognition of "self-operation".
Ali's self-operation is not a new thing, in addition to Hema, in the Tmall system, there are also Tmall supermarkets, Tmall international direct operations and other plates. However, due to the relatively dispersed business, the consumer side of the self-operated business has not been strong.
"Cat Sharing" tries to unify the project IP output and establish consumers' cognition of the direct operation of the cat system, forming a platform cognition similar to "buying and operating on JD.com". If it goes well, "Cat Sharing" may also become an important tool for Ali to jd.com, and the self-operated business it represents may also become a new growth point.
"Cat Enjoyment" learns Jingdong
Alibaba (Taobao Tmall) and JD.com represent two models of e-commerce – platform and retail.
Ali does platform business, belongs to B2B2C, brands /merchants settle in to open stores, sell goods to consumers, Ali draws transaction commissions from it, collects advertising fees; Jingdong does retail business (that is, self-operated), belongs to B2C, which first purchases goods from suppliers, and then sells to consumers, and provides warehousing, distribution and other services.
As tmall's official new self-operated business, CatShare adopts the Jingdong model - the front end is "Cat Enjoy Self-operated" and "Cat Enjoy International Self-operated" two self-operated flagship stores, and the back-end is built by the platform's self-built procurement team, providing customer service after-sales and logistics distribution.
According to a previous report by "Late Post", CatShare will first advance from the 3C category and open up more favorable cooperation conditions than JD.com to mobile phone brand owners. 3C digital has always been the core position of JD.com, coupled with the similarity of models, CatShare is therefore considered to be Ali's attempt to "copy JD.".
But as far as the current situation is concerned, the intention of Cat Enjoy Precision Sniper 3C Digital is not obvious. According to the official introduction, the main categories of cat sharing are divided into three categories: digital home appliances, personal care, and beauty makeup; specific to the goods on sale, from the price range and category distribution are relatively broad - down to affordable daily necessities, up to 3C digital home appliances, bags, watches and other luxury goods, high-end clothing, and even sell genuine Gundam handmade.
In terms of price, Cat Sharing is not dominant in the Tmall ecosystem. Take an Apple laptop Macbook Pro with the same configuration as an example, its price in Apple's official flagship store (third-party brand) and Tmall International Import supermarket (also directly operated by the platform) is lower than that of Cat Enjoy.
Compared with the price, CatShare emphasizes the optimization of the logistics experience. According to the official introduction, some cats enjoy home delivery of self-operated goods, which can be delivered on the same day/ the next day, and provide services such as non-door must pay / late arrival payment, appointment delivery and so on.
The competitiveness of the self-operated model also lies in this - to provide consumers with multiple guarantees from quality to timeliness, so as to achieve a better shopping experience. However, this requires the platform to be deeply involved in procurement, warehousing, logistics and other links, with large upfront investment and high difficulty in supply chain management, so JD.com has begun to build a set of warehouse logistics system since 2007; in contrast, the platform model is lighter, essentially selling traffic and earning commissions.
In the early years, Ma Yun therefore regarded Jingdong's self-operated model as an outlier, and its evaluation at the Taobao full communication meeting in 2011 was repeatedly mentioned by the media: "Own procurement, self-sales, and own logistics, such a model cannot go for a long time." ”
But the increasingly heavy JD.com not only survived, but also won the 2016 cat and dog business super war; Ali, which adopted the platform model, also began to lead the construction of the rookie network in 2013. With the decline of traffic dividends and the slowdown in the growth of the number of users, e-commerce platforms have to pay more attention to the in-depth operation of existing users, and the relative advantages of the direct operation model on the experience side have begun to be highlighted.
This is especially evident in some categories such as 3C digital and luxury goods, which are high-priced and heavy consumption decisions. The price war of Pinduoduo's tens of billions of subsidies has been several years, but JD.com still occupies the consumer mind of digital products by virtue of its advantages such as platform self-operation endorsement and efficient logistics experience.
What CatShare wants to explore is to optimize the user experience in a direct-operated manner, complement the existing platform model, and build a unified brand awareness of consumers for Tmall's direct-operated business.
Unlike Jingdong, which started from scratch in the early years, Ali has a certain foundation in supply chain, logistics and operation - previously, the Tmall system has Tmall supermarket, Tmall international direct operation and other businesses, according to 36Kr - future consumption understanding, Cat Enjoy self-operated goods are mainly distributed by SF and Dan bird, the latter previously served Tmall supermarket.
Increase self-support investment
Although the platform model is the core, Ali's exploration of the self-operated model has already begun - acquiring Yintai, holding Gaoxin Retail, and opening up Tmall supermarkets, Hema and import direct operations (Koala Haishou, Tmall International Direct Operation) and other businesses.
In October 2021, Tmall Supermarket and import and export business group were upgraded to "B2C retail business group", and FC (Future Clients For Customer) division, B2C retail business group supply chain management center, and risk governance center were established. At that time, some Ali people interpreted the media that this reflected Ali's unprecedented determination to invest in its own business.
Benchmarking JD.com's self-operated project "Cat Enjoyment", it is said that Zhao Kun, general manager of the FC Business Department (empty), is responsible.
An important background of the "Cat Sharing" project is that the old rival JD.com is invading Ali's core categories such as clothing. Subject to the "two choices", JD.com's expansion in categories such as clothing has not been smooth. But the anti-monopoly policies since last year have given JD.com the opportunity to invade Ali's hinterland. According to 36Kr - Future Consumption Observation, during the Double 11 period last year, Bosideng, PEACEBIRD and other clothing brands that had withdrawn from Jingdong returned and appeared in Jingdong's official war report.
Due to the need for defense and countermeasures, the self-operated project "Cat Sharing" and the mobile Tmall App may play the role of JD.com in the next step.
In fact, Ali has repeatedly adopted similar alignment strategies against other competitors. For example, the main M2C factory directly operated Taote App to intercept Pinduoduo; another example, the Taobao live broadcast App upgraded to "Diantao", after several iterations, its short video + live broadcast product form is highly close to Douyin and Kuaishou.
In addition to external competitive factors, Ali's increased investment in self-operated business is also due to internal growth needs.
From the perspective of financial indicators, the importance of proprietary business is increasing. Alibaba's main revenue segment, China Retail Business, can be split into two parts: one is customer management income, that is, platform service fees, and the other is other income, mainly from direct business (i.e. Gaoxin Retail, Tmall Supermarket, Hema and Import Direct).
According to Alibaba's semi-annual report for fiscal 2022 (corresponding to March to September 2021), "customer management revenue" increased by only 9% year-on-year, and its share of revenue fell from 46% to 38%. The financial report explained that the low growth in customer management revenue stemmed from the slowdown in china's e-commerce market conditions and the increase in e-commerce market participants.
In contrast, the revenue scale of "other income" increased by 95% year-on-year, accounting for 27% of revenue, which was attributed to Gaoxin's retail consolidation and the contribution of self-operated businesses such as Hema and Others. Despite this impact, costs such as inventory and logistics have increased, and profit levels have also been compressed.
With user growth peaking, the consumer market sluggish, and platform competition becoming increasingly fierce, Alibaba urgently needs to find new growth points for its e-commerce business, and self-operation is one of them.
The difficulty of "copying a JD. On the one hand, Maoxiang is still in the early stage of trial operation, with reference to the growth path of Taote, its follow-up development requires Ali to invest a lot of resources in tilt; on the other hand, the e-commerce consumer market has become saturated, from Taote to Diantao, so far it has not been able to shake their respective goals.
But for Ali at this stage, this still has the value and necessity of investment.