16 Sep 2016
When it comes to e-commerce in China, whether business-to-consumer (B2C) or consumer-to-consumer (C2C), Alibaba is king. The company has handled the move towards mobile almost flawlessly, posting impressive mobile numbers in its recent second-quarter financial results.
"We see users responding very well to a highly personalised experience on mobile Taobao."
Daniel Zhang, Alibaba chief executive
After the result announcement, Alibaba chief executive Daniel Zhang shared another, to many observers even more impressive, accomplishment: users launch Alibaba’s shopping app Taobao an average of seven times every day for more than a total of 25 minutes.
That compares with about nine minutes on Amazon's mobile app and 16 minutes on Twitter's app on days when users visit.
Amazing stats for any app, more impressive in particular for an e-commerce app. Alibaba says it ships 40 million packages a day compared with less than 10 million for Amazon.
Why is Taobao so successful? Here are five key elements:
ANZ customer Xiao Lu Aus Goods has a very large Taoboa presence, exporting Australian goods to China and importing Chinese goods for customers living in Australia. The store is packed with not just products but social interaction and special features.
TaoBao is constantly adding new features to keep people on the app longer, increasing the chance they’ll buy products.
Social networking features are a part of Taobao’s DNA. Years ago, the site’s chat-with-the-seller feature was one of the major reasons it was able to beat out foreign competitor eBay.
Alibaba’s team realised Chinese consumers preferred a social buying experience offline and
Macro alias: SubscribeButton
the same was true online, especially in an age when ecommerce was still very new to most buyers and trust between buyer and seller had to be built.
Alibaba seems to be carrying on their online success model as it moves to mobile, adding features that make shopping on your phone even more like going to the mall with your friends.
Of course, it’s not all about social. Alibaba’s Zhang credits the social changes for the rise in how often users open the Taobao app but he said another factor was good automated product discovery features:
“We see users responding very well to a highly personalised experience on mobile Taobao. Product recommendations and the banner displays are automatically customised in accordance with individual user profiles. Merchants have also been empowered with a capability to customise the in-store displays by individual user profiles”.
So here’s the golden rule for making your e-commerce app sticky: make it social, make it personal, give users what they want.
Peter Cai is International Banking Service Manager at ANZ
The views and opinions expressed in this communication are those of the author and may not necessarily state or reflect those of ANZ.
16 Sep 2016
14 Sep 2016
09 Sep 2016