"After joining the Taobao clothing overseas plan, our first monthly sales in the overseas market exceeded 400,000 yuan. Previously, when going overseas through agents, the annual overseas revenue was only 300,000. Huang Tao, co-founder of Early Rise Studio, didn't expect that a new attempt made in August would bring such an unexpected surprise.
Divine Wolf plus-size women's clothing was also sold overseas and won orders of more than 200,000 yuan within 7 days, and the overseas performance exceeded 1 million yuan in the first month. Its brand manager, Chen Qiaozhi, said: "This is an additional performance growth that does not need to be bothered. ”
These sellers have found a new growth point outside the domestic market of the Red Sea - Taobao Apparel Global Free Shipping Program. After joining the program, merchants can display and sell their products directly to global consumers through platforms such as Taobao App Overseas Edition, AliExpress, and Lazada.
The background is: in July this year, Taobao and Ali International launched the "Taobao Apparel Global Free Shipping Plan", which provides high postage subsidies by the platform to achieve free shipping for overseas consumers in the form of free shipping, and expands a low-cost and high-efficiency channel for domestic merchants to go to sea, helping them to gain customers overseas and open up new business space.
From the merchant's point of view, the "Taobao Apparel Global Free Shipping Plan" is a lightweight and simplistic project, and the "One Store to the World" makes it easy for stores to operate overseas. Merchants do not need to open stores independently, register independently, and ship products independently, nor do they need to consider cross-border logistics. After joining the program, domestic merchants can make their products reach overseas users, and only need to send the goods to the domestic consolidation warehouse after receiving the order.
Although Taobao Apparel's overseas plan also focuses on worry-free operation, it is different from the popular full-custody model of cross-border e-commerce, which allows merchants to retain their operational autonomy to the greatest extent and enjoy "0 returns, 0 refunds, and 0 shipping insurance".
Since August, the first batch of free shipping zones of the "Taobao Apparel Global Free Shipping Program" has been officially launched, covering Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau, China, to enhance the competitiveness of key categories in overseas markets and attract the attention of local Chinese consumers, such as Taobao overseas version of the Malay station in August, the number of users increased by 10% month-on-month.
The Asian region is just the beginning of the "Taobao Global Free Shipping Program". When more sites are opened, domestic Taobao clothing sellers will also face the vast Chinese market around the world, selling Chinese pallets and Chinese brands all over the world. So, what impact will Taobao clothing have on cross-border e-commerce? What kind of overseas experience will it bring to merchants? A few days ago, Ebang Power visited Taobao West Malaysia Headquarters Warehouse and Taobao Overseas Malaysia Station to experience the new changes after the global free shipping of clothing.
01 Only 2% of the return rate is allowed to go overseas, and 80% of the payment is settled steadily
Parcels of garment are fastened along a conveyor belt, and they fall down a long slide into different bags according to the destination area of the sheet, waiting to be transported to the various outlets by truck. This hectic scene plays out every day at Cainiao Malaysia's automated sorting center.
From sorting to parcel delivery, in addition to the scanning of face sheets, bag collection and other links, all have been automated, so that these parcels printed with "Taobao X CAI NIAO" in the local warehouse only need dozens of minutes to enter and exit. The link is extended, and it will only take 5-7 working days for overseas consumers to place an order for cross-border goods on the Taobao overseas version of the APP to receive the goods.
This time, Taobao Apparel has expanded the mode of cross-border free shipping for the first time, and added air free shipping services on the basis of free shipping by sea, adding another fire to the acceleration of cross-border performance timeliness. In Malaysia, for example, the logistics time for apparel free shipping products has been reduced from 20 days to 5 to 9 days.
From the merchant's side, after receiving the order, the merchant only needs to send the goods to the domestic consolidation warehouse, and the warehouse will be confirmed, with 0 returns, 0 refunds, and 0 freight insurance. Specifically, the overseas team of Tmall Taobao has launched a "local refund" service for after-sales, after consumers initiate a refund, they only need to return the goods locally, and the refund will be handled and paid by the insurance company, which greatly shortens the refund time and also bears the cost of return for the merchant.
An astonishing statistic is that since the launch of the "Taobao Apparel Global Free Shipping Plan" for a month, more than 200,000 Taobao merchants have signed up to join, and the sales of overseas orders of merchants have increased by nearly 500 times compared with before. By subsidizing freight on the platform to solve the pain points of merchants' returns, Taobao is expected to attract more and more domestic apparel merchants to join the competition in overseas cross-border markets.
It is worth mentioning that since the launch of the plan on August 2, the return rate of Taobao apparel global free shipping is only 2%, which is far lower than the average return rate of the domestic clothing industry in the field of e-commerce. From the perspective of the cost on the merchant side, the platform charges a 20% commission, covering all the return and exchange costs and the investment of overseas marketing resources, and the merchant can recover 80% of the payment, "as long as the goods are sent to the warehouse, the merchant can settle 80% of the payment steadily, which is equivalent to the receipt of the warehouse that is." ”
Compared with the recent hot full custody in the cross-border e-commerce circle, the worry-free operation launched by Taobao Apparel Overseas not only retains the independent pricing power and goods rights of merchants, but also encourages merchants to export their brands overseas. "Merchants can publish their own products and pricing, and the platform only does a good job of logistics and service hosting behind the scenes. The one who truly expresses their brand identity and aesthetic to consumers is the merchant. Kanshan, the person in charge of Taobao clothing operations, said.
The first batch of clothing merchants who followed Taobao to the sea have tasted the sweetness. These businesses include not only brands that take the high-end route, but also businesses in the industrial belt that focus on cost-effectiveness. Like the Taobao store Huashengge, which is mainly engaged in Song Jin clothing, most of the customer unit prices of goods are in the range of 1500-5000, and after signing Taobao's "Global Free Shipping Plan for Large Clothing", overseas GMV increased by more than 100% month-on-month in August. The single-day overseas turnover of merchants in the industrial belt has also increased by nearly 500 times compared with before, ranking first in terms of growth rate, of which the overseas turnover of stores accounts for 98.45%.
In fact, the launch of Taobao's "Global Free Shipping Plan for Large Apparel" is that Alibaba's advantageous supply represented by clothing is borrowing the east wind to expand the global market, connecting the advantageous supply of Taobao and Tmall represented by clothing with a large number of consumers on Ali's international overseas e-commerce platform, and providing merchants with a lower cross-border threshold.
02 Aiming at the overseas Chinese market, it will expand from Asia to Australia by the end of the year
As a benchmark for Taobao clothing live broadcast stores, overseas Chinese fans often appear in Huashangge's live broadcast room, and they are usually active in the middle of the night. "They'll say, I've just gotten up and watched you live." Chen Yu, the manager of Huashangge, said.
Huashangge's main Song Jin clothing has a natural attraction for some overseas Chinese with homeland complexes. After signing Taobao's "Free Shipping Plan for Large Clothing", Huashangge's overseas GMV increased by more than 100% month-on-month in August. Chen Yu is also looking forward to more overseas orders, and even considers that when overseas sales reach a certain scale, he will design and develop unique styles for overseas markets.
Unlike other cross-border e-commerce platforms that mainly serve local customers, Taobao Apparel aims at the overseas Chinese market, including international students, overseas workers, or immigrants of Chinese descent. Overseas Chinese and domestic consumers have similar aesthetics and figures, making it possible for domestic goods to be sold globally.
In the past wave of going overseas, clothing is not a core category, and there are very few brands going out. The "Global Free Shipping Plan for Large Apparel" focuses on Chinese apparel brands and design aesthetics to go to sea, encouraging a large number of original style merchants to go out, which will be the first large-scale overseas of China's trendy clothing.
Apparel is one of Taobao's most competitive categories, and the richness and originality of goods are higher than those of other platforms. At present, there are about 2 million new clothing stores opened on Taobao every year, with more than 100 million products for sale, attracting more than 100 million overseas users to buy clothing products on Taobao every year.
Most of the sellers represented by iFashion merchants on Taobao are influential original brand stores, which have the characteristics and advantages of fast updating, high frequency, and diversified styles. In the past, most offline brands could only launch new products on a quarterly basis, but on Taobao, the frequency of new products on apparel merchants can be greatly shortened to weekly.
A week after the launch of the Taobao apparel global free shipping zone, overseas clothing consumption preferences and trend hotspots have been brewing on Taobao. A few days ago, Taobao released the "Inventory of the 5 Major Clothing Trends in Southeast Asia", Oriental aesthetics continued to "circle fans" overseas, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan fashion trends changed in seconds to "Character Guide", and Korean-style black, white and gray, and Malay tropical dopamine presented a diversified color trend.
Taking advantage of the trend of Taobao clothing, domestic merchants can also get a glimpse of the different preferences and needs of consumers around the world. "At present, there is not much difference between the preferences of customers at home and abroad, but after the number increases and the customer base expands, the difference can definitely be seen." Chen Yu, the manager of Huashangge, also said, "I hope to make Song Jin's clothes more modern in the future, and I also hope to spread the traditional Chinese aesthetics to more and farther places."
At present, the first phase of the "Taobao Apparel Global Free Shipping Plan" covers Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and other Asian regions, and will expand from Asia to Australia at the end of the year, and then gradually realize global free shipping. Users in Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau, China, open the Taobao App and see the channel entrance of "Free Shipping" on the Home.
For resident users in the above places, Taobao will also release exclusive coupons for clothing, and all users can receive a coupon of "99-10 yuan" and "249-50 yuan" every day, which can be used across stores. In addition, from August 2, a limited number of "200-100 yuan" clothing coupons will be issued every day.
From the consumer side, Taobao's "Big Apparel Global Free Shipping Program" provides it with more cross-border free shipping products and faster cross-border fulfillment timeliness.
03 Open a new path for Tao sellers to "sell the world in one store".
Taobao set its sights on the broader international market very early, trying to open up cross-border e-commerce channels for Tmall Taobao merchants.
In 2016, Tmall Taobao's overseas business was launched, bringing merchants the opportunity to "sell globally in one store", mainly through the overseas version of Taobao to serve the overseas Chinese market, and linked with Lazada and AliExpress's "Taobao Select" channel to reach Southeast Asian and Korea consumers. As of October 2020, the Taobao app has reached consumers in more than 200 countries and regions.
Tmall Taobao will also launch a "cross-border supply platform" in 2022, and Tmall Taobao merchants only need to sign a contract with one click to start overseas business with "zero operation". When a merchant signs a contract with the "cross-border supply platform", the products in its Tmall Taobao store will be automatically synchronized to the cross-border supply platform.
The Taobao apparel global free shipping plan is the first time to go overseas in an industry dimension. Taobao and Ali International focus on large clothing categories, driving the apparel industry and Chinese original brands to go overseas on a large scale. In the plan, Taobao Apparel is responsible for merchant investment, and Alibaba International Digital Business Group is responsible for overseas logistics and user operations, mainly connecting Taobao and Alibaba International's retail e-commerce platform.
This time, Taobao took clothing as a key category to go overseas and launched a free shipping plan. In the field of cross-border e-commerce, SHEIN also started by relying on clothing, and then moved towards the road of expanding categories and opening up the platform. At present, it seems that the difference between the two is obvious, whether it is the user side, the former is for the overseas Chinese market, and the latter is for overseas local consumers; On the merchant side, SHEIN is currently mainly engaged in its own business, with merchants providing goods as suppliers, while Taobao focuses on the platform model.
Taobao clothing going overseas and Taobao clothing merchants going overseas are more like looking for new increments in cross-border e-commerce after domestic e-commerce is gradually saturated. As Kanshan said, "If domestic merchants are still dominated by the domestic market and do not have so much energy to develop goods specifically for overseas consumers, and only regard overseas as a new growth channel and a business that lowers the refund rate of domestic business, then Taobao apparel global free shipping plan is a project that can be tried lightly." ”
This has also become an opportunity for "Tao" sellers to transform into cross-border e-commerce. For example, the main cost-effective women's clothing Taobao store off the shelves of the senior sister, participated in the "big clothing global free shipping plan", a new overseas project, the current overseas average daily GMV has increased by nearly 50% compared with July, and also appeared in the overall overseas transaction list TOP20.
Liu Sheng, the manager of the removed senior sister, has begun to put some energy overseas, and even considered how to obtain long-term benefits overseas in the later stage, "If this is a new opportunity, then you must be prepared now."
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