Tmall will abolish annual fees in full, and its primary goal is to return to the growth of GMV.
1min read Alibaba announced that starting from September 1, 2023, Taobao will abolish the annual software service fee (hereinafter referred to as "annual fee") on the platform: new merchants entering the platform from September will not need to pay; for merchants who have paid the annual fee, Taobao will refund the fee in batches according to the rules.
Previously, merchants of different categories on Taobao had to pay annual fees of RMB30,000-60,000 per year. After the exemption, new merchants entering Taobao after September 1, 2024 will no longer need to pay the fee. At the same time, for merchants whose annual operating turnover reaches the full-year target in 2024, Taobao will fully refund the annual fee.
It is reported that before the cancellation of the annual fee, Taobao had already launched a series of measures to benefit merchants: it provided nearly 10 measures including AI operating efficiency tools, free business consultants, and parcel logistics subsidies to reduce operating costs and improve operating efficiency.
In 2023, Taobao continued to upgrade the brand operation system with the business move of abolishing the annual fee, focusing on the first goal of the whole platform - enabling brand merchants to grow their business.
From the performance of merchants on Taobao during 618, the series of measures have already shown a positive effect: 365 brands on Taobao broke RMB1 billion in sales during 618, and more than 36,000 brands doubled their sales. Among them, nearly 200 merchants who participated in 618 for the first time broke RMB10 million in sales, and 576 new brands created in the past three years took the first place in the trend category.
It was reported earlier that Alibaba's management team no longer wanted to pursue price cuts endlessly, and the goal of Taobao Group was to pursue the key data of the retail industry - gross merchandise volume (Gross Merchandise Volume, GMV) - instead of chasing the daily active users (DAU) and order volume, and focusing on price power.