1688 is bringing millions of source manufacturers to Taobao.
In the past two days, we have paid attention to a trend: 1688 will start a comprehensive entry into Taobao in the near future. In the first phase of the plan, three Taobao stores: "1688 Strict Selection Taobao Store", "1688 Enterprise Self-Picking Tmall Store" and "1688 Industrial Expert Selection Tmall Store" Taobao direct stores have been put into operation.
As one of the "Four Little Dragons" that Ali has high hopes for, 1688 will cover Taobao with its core resources, that is, the supply capacity of millions of source manufacturers, which will further enhance Taobao's supply richness and price power advantages. The most important thing is to benefit Taobao users, which can be summarized simply: source goods and ex-factory prices are becoming the new normal of Taobao consumption.
First open three directly-operated stores
The 1688 carefully selected store on Taobao this time brings together the foundry resources of well-known brands such as Disney, Mercedes-Benz and Muji to accurately meet the shopping needs of price-sensitive groups such as young people, new middle class and exquisite mothers.
In the consultation with the shopkeeper, I learned that at present, the 1688 Yanxuan store mainly sells daily household and daily necessities. Initially, most of the goods with higher sales are daily necessities such as household department stores, and some popular products have been born. For example, a children's off-road toy car produced by a toy factory in Shantou was sold for only 1.99 yuan after coupons, and more than 20,000 orders were sold in a single day.
1688 enterprise self-procurement store is mainly engaged in office supplies and business consumables, and is focusing on ergonomic chairs and other hot-selling items. It is understood that among the sellers of 1688 enterprise self-procurement stores, 88VIP members account for 20%.
1688 Industrial Expert Choice Store mainly provides white-label supply, covering all categories of industrial products, including safety production materials, logistics packaging consumables, industrial control parts, etc. For example, hardware tools, safety protection, chemicals, instrumentation. It is reported that in the future, the store plans to expand to vertical segments such as lifts and industrial air coolers to create super single products.
Screenshot of 1688 industrial experts choosing Taobao store
In fact, 1688 Yanxuan is internally positioned as Tmall in the B2B field, and has an exclusive channel on 1688. It is a collection store-like section for buyers, and its pallets are mainly from white-label factory goods, brand replacement and big-name OEM. From this point of view, the three Taobao direct stores of 1688 have followed this route, and the three stores are marked with the label "1688 Official Direct Sales" under them, and the fans of the stores range from 30,000 to 120,000.
According to Ali insiders, these stores will be integrated into a channel similar to Tmall Supermarket in the future, and 1688 will be launched on Taobao to select the source factory goods. 1688 directly operated Taobao stores adopt semi-managed or fully managed methods, negotiate pricing with 1688, and hand over the goods to 1688, so that high-quality supply can be oriented to a wider range of users, and the certainty of poly distribution will be enhanced.
The person in charge of the operation of the first batch of merchants who settled in the 1688 Yanxuan Taobao store told the media that (we) settled in 1688 Yanxuan in March last year, and learned that the platform was going to settle in Taobao 3 weeks ago and signed up directly. "More than 300 orders have been sold for the 13 products submitted, and there are more than 100 best-selling tissue boxes. The overall feeling is still good. ”
The B-side has always been the 1688 basic disk
These big moves have made many people inevitably have an illusion: 1688, which has been doing B-end wholesale business for more than 20 years, is it going to make a comprehensive transformation to the C-end? The answer is no.
First, there was indeed a large influx of Class B and Class C buyers with ambiguous identities in 1688. For example, many female bloggers on Xiaohongshu have very vague identities and are difficult to define as pure B or C buyers. There are also some big C buyers who the platform thinks have potential B possibilities, such as the Bao Ma group, who not only buy in bulk by themselves, but also have the need to find factories for light customization and small wholesale, because they operate their own e-commerce purchasing groups. The shadow of private domain e-commerce can be seen behind it, which is also the unique advantage of 1688 as a B-end platform.
How to face and serve these consumers well? So on 1688, there are 1688 Yanxuan and 1688 PLUS member stores.
To put it simply, 1688 is indeed involved in the consumer track, but it is not a C-end e-commerce, but a membership store model, that is, the online version of Costco and Sam's model that many people are discussing at the moment, focusing on mass sales, cycle purchases and scene purchases. It's just that because of the support of the source factory behind 1688, it has increased the ability to customize purchases.
Secondly, as a matter of fact, to this day, 1688 is still a pure-blooded Class B platform. Public data shows that 97% of the GMV on the 1688 platform currently comes from the contribution of small B buyers, but there are indeed many users of "big C and small B" who have poured into the platform.
According to the evolution of consumption routes, these big C's are potential small B's, and they will eventually grow into small Bs. For example, a mother may change from a family buyer to a blogger on Xiaohongshu and do a side hustle, or become an anchor with goods, or do purchasing business in WeChat groups. For another example, a university women's dormitory, through the 1688 "sister spelling", may buy a batch of goods later, and go to a small stall or market around the campus.
Finally, judging from the layout of the entire Ali, there is already Taobao Tmall on the C-side, and at the moment when the e-commerce traffic is at the peak, it is completely unnecessary to launch another C-end "1688". As some media pointed out, Ali just wants to optimize the experience of C-end users using 1688, and by the way, give more choices to the source manufacturers. Those merchants who have the intention of transforming to the C-end can use this new service as a "test field" to complete trial and error at the lowest cost.
Whether it is data, business layout, or genetic background, the B-side has always been the basic disk of 1688. 1688 has also said many times that the platform is determined to be B and regards small B as the first customer, but it will also serve these big Cs well through 1688 strict selection and other businesses. It can also be seen from this that the main course of 1688 focusing on the B-end will not change fundamentally.
Digital supply chain, broadening the supply moat
1688 insiders talked about the reason for entering Taobao at this time, revealing that they found in user research that there are two types of demand on Taobao that are growing rapidly, one is the demand for brand replacement and direct supply from big-name foundries, and the other is that Taobao enterprises have a great demand for self-procurement, and users have high requirements for the richness, uniqueness, professionalism and customization of supply. "The former is the advantage of 1688 strict selection, and the latter is a test of the ability to organize goods for special groups of people in subdivided fields, and it is also the strength of 1688 industrial products. ”
1688 carefully selected Taobao store quality commitment screenshot
Taobao has demand, 1688 has supply. At a time when the whole industry is anxious about traffic, the access of 1688 has made the almighty Taobao ecosystem more prosperous: manufacturers can use 1688 direct stores to face consumers, Taobao further enriches the pallets of white-label high-quality supply, and the price power is more competitive, and consumers can directly enjoy more quality-price ratio products and smoother fulfillment capabilities.
The large-scale entry of goods from the source factory may also touch the underlying logic of the price power system: strengthening the supply chain. It was also one of the three major strategies identified in 1688.
The acquisition of the ability of e-commerce platforms to sell prices is nothing more than the means of making profits such as price reductions and platform subsidies by merchants. However, the low price of bleeding in the short term will not be conducive to the prosperity of a healthy business ecology. Only by strengthening the supply chain, improving the efficiency of the supply chain, and controlling it from the source can we form a long-term and healthy price force.
At present, including Taobao, Douyin, Kuaishou, Pinduoduo, etc. are all in the upstream layout of the industrial belt. For example, Douyin e-commerce has released the "Douyin Industrial Belt Service Provider Rights" to provide multi-faceted support for businesses in the industrial belt, and Pinduoduo has also launched the "100 Production Plan" to recruit merchants in the industrial belt to settle in and start store broadcasting. Comparatively, 1688 has a first-mover advantage.
1688 insiders also revealed that the purpose of opening a store on Taobao is not to sell goods, but to test products in a larger market, incubate super single products, and turn them into goods in the 1688 digital supply chain, and enter the whole network for sales, so that 1688 will become a source of new products from the source of the whole network.
But for 1688, the road was challenging. For example, there are differences in consumption scenarios between source goods and platform retail. The road is long and difficult, at least not as simple as opening three Taobao stores.
I'm Tang Chen, and I'm interested in Internet technology and business stories. Original content, without permission, please do not reprint.
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This article is from the WeChat public account "Tang Chen Classmate" (ID: late-news), author: Tang Chen, 36 Krypton is authorized to publish.