Taobao Flash Sale: A "New Species" for Double 11, Activating a Trillion-Yuan Incremental Market
After 17 years of the Double 11 shopping festival, how can it still offer users a sense of freshness and new value? This year's answer is the addition of a new player - Taobao Flash Sale.
This year's Double 11 promotion officially kicked off at 8 p.m. on October 15th. As one of the main forces in the "Eat, drink, play, and shop all at Double 11" campaign, Taobao Flash Sale witnessed explosive growth in its debut at the promotion: sales of multiple product categories more than tripled year - on - year, and late - night snack sales in over 70% of cities increased by over 200%.
One might open the Taobao app at lunchtime, only to find a really cheap bag of cat food below and grab it before remembering they were there to find a meal. This may not happen to everyone, but it reflects the huge consumption potential between flash sales and the e - commerce promotion during this year's Double 11.
Users are highly receptive to flash sales. Thanks to the platform's upgrade to a comprehensive consumer platform, it offers "great products, great prices, and great services" across more scenarios.
In terms of product offerings, over 4 million local lifestyle service merchants are participating in the promotion through Taobao Flash Sale this Double 11. They are seeking new seasonal growth breakthroughs during this e - commerce event. This will also be the largest - scale Double 11 participation for local lifestyle merchants.
On the Tmall side, 37,000 brands and 400,000 brand stores have been fully launched on Taobao Flash Sale. They cover various fields such as digital appliances, beauty and personal care, and household items, including well - known brands like Apple, vivo, PurCotton, Decathlon, Dreame, and Moutai. Regarding pricing, the platform has launched three new initiatives - "Millions of Free Orders", "50% off Takeaways for 88VIPs", and "Cashback with Taobao Coins" - to stimulate the comprehensive consumer market encompassing "eat, drink, play, and shop".
The pursuit of "great service" has reached new heights. As promotions become a regular occurrence, users are placing more emphasis on high - quality experiences. Both the platform and merchants are working hard towards this goal. One of the most obvious changes is the shortening of fulfillment time. Thanks to the new flash - sale model in this Double 11, the logistics delivery time has been reduced to an hourly level.
In the long run, this Double 11 promotion, in which Taobao Flash Sale participates for the first time since its launch, is destined to be an important milestone in the new phase of in - depth integration between instant retail and e - commerce.
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Taobao Flash Sale: New Growth and New Battlefield in Double 11
Taobao Flash Sale creatively adopts a model that combines "long - distance e - commerce + short - distance retail". Brand merchants can now directly connect their offline stores to the system. Products will be simultaneously displayed on the flash - sale section of Taobao's main website and in ecological scenarios such as Ele.me. After users place an order, the store or the front - end warehouse will quickly fulfill it, with orders expected to be delivered within "4 hours", and some even within "1 hour".
The combination of the two will bring about new growth. During the Q2 earnings conference call of Alibaba, it was pointed out that when brand offline stores join Taobao Flash Sale and operate in an integrated online - offline manner on Tmall, it will offer consumers a brand - new shopping experience. It is estimated that there will be an additional 1 trillion yuan in transactions in the next three years.
The advantage of long - distance e - commerce lies in lower prices, while short - distance retail offers faster delivery, catering to different user needs. In the super - traffic arena of Double 11, flash sales and e - commerce complement and benefit each other. High - frequency takeaway users, while fulfilling their three - meal needs, are naturally driven to browse and purchase due to the Double 11 atmosphere on Taobao. Meanwhile, users participating in the promotion will also naturally increase their consumption of tea drinks and late - night snacks through flash sales.
Jialuo, the president of Tmall, revealed at the press conference that the incremental users brought by Taobao Flash Sale are high - quality targets for e - commerce conversion. It has become a new consumption trend for users to buy clothes, facial masks, etc. while ordering takeaways. Flash sales represent a comprehensive upgrade of the platform's delivery and service capabilities, allowing the business growth of flash sales to be deeply integrated with Tmall's brand advantages and bringing more opportunities to brands.
After their combination, a new business flywheel has started to spin rapidly. Since its launch at the end of April, Taobao Flash Sale has shown strong growth. According to the Double 11 press conference, its average daily orders have stabilized at 80 million. It has quickly achieved scale. The monthly number of transaction buyers has reached 300 million. Flash sales drove a 20% year - on - year increase in Taobao's daily active users (DAU) in August and a 25% year - on - year increase in monthly active users (MAU).
The increase in user activity, new - user acquisition, and re - engagement of lost users have, in effect, reduced Taobao's marketing expenses. At Alibaba's Q2 earnings conference, executives believed that this trend would expand in subsequent operations and would significantly boost e - commerce revenue in the medium and long term.
For the industry, this is a brand - new opportunity for structural growth. The long - distance e - commerce capabilities of Taobao and Tmall can provide rich and stable supply, which, combined with the fast - paced fulfillment process of flash sales, creates a new consumption scenario. The business growth of merchants has been remarkable: in July alone, 395 non - food brand merchants achieved monthly sales of over one million yuan on Taobao Flash Sale, and 66 brands exceeded ten million yuan. As of September, 260 Tmall flagship stores, including those of Midea, Dreame, Beurer, and Anessa, have joined Taobao Flash Sale, covering multiple categories such as 3C digital, beauty and personal care, sports and outdoor, clothing, department stores, mother and baby, and pet products.
Taobao Flash Sale is also being nourished by the over one billion traffic across Alibaba's e - commerce platforms. After Taobao Flash Sale products and services were displayed in the private domain of Tmall brand stores, in the days leading up to Double 11, flash - sale - related products also appeared in Taobao's search results and information feeds. Multiple products from brands like Veromoda and Only are shown to offer instant delivery services, providing users with better - priced products and more services while bringing greater growth potential to brands.
The huge incremental market is highly attractive and has become a new battlefield for industry giants. Almost all major players have set their sights on this lucrative market. Since the 618 promotion, they have been competing fiercely, constantly increasing their resource and manpower investment to gain a share.
Despite the external commotion, Taobao Flash Sale has shown strategic determination in adhering to its own rhythm and goals. Fan Yu, a partner of Alibaba Group and the Chairman and CEO of Ele.me, said in an interview: "The key performance indicators (KPIs) for the Double 11 flash - sale business are in two directions. Firstly, we focus on whether users' consumption experiences have improved. Secondly, we aim to see if we can bring new growth opportunities and even more growth to merchants."
Users' feedback has been positive. On the first day of Double 11 alone, 8 million users participated in the "Flash Sale Free Order" event. There was also a significant increase in the order volume of 88VIP members and the number of users placing flash - sale orders through the Taobao Coin channel. This has also significantly helped merchants' businesses. During Double 11, 88VIP users can receive up to 4 exclusive 50% off takeaway vouchers per day, and they will also unlock exclusive benefits such as an additional 95% discount later. All users can participate in the draw for over ten million free - order rights, which will undoubtedly stimulate greater growth in order volume and user numbers.
Market analysts believe that the three new initiatives of Taobao Flash Sale, through innovative cross - product system benefit stacking, will effectively build a three - dimensional operation system covering membership benefits, public interaction, and long - term retention. It is expected to drive both user participation and consumption conversion in the long run.
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Competing for Order Volume and, More Importantly, for the Ability of Fine - Tuned Operation
A few months ago, no one could have predicted that Taobao Flash Sale would accumulate an average of 80 million orders per day, which shows that it has firmly captured users' minds.
Taobao Flash Sale has maintained a steady pace. After achieving stable scale, its operational efficiency is constantly improving. Alibaba's executives explained at the earnings conference that efficiency cannot be discussed without considering scale. In the past, Ele.me had a good foundation, but due to the large gap in market share with competitors, talking about efficiency was meaningless. Currently, flash sales have achieved leading scale, and it is expected that operational efficiency will be rapidly improved to narrow the gap with competitors.
Behind this is the continuous improvement of fine - tuned operation capabilities. In the short and long term, Taobao Flash Sale will optimize user structure, order structure, and fulfillment efficiency.
36Kr learned that, for example, in terms of logistics, Ele.me is currently optimizing the incentive mechanism for riders' attendance to better match the continuously evolving order structure. In addition, the matching between merchants' order structures and traffic is also being optimized, including enhancing the influence of search recommendations and marketing on order structures, matching supply and logistics structures, and ultimately optimizing overall efficiency through multiple factors such as technology and dispatching.
There are also many innovative benchmark cases between brands and Taobao Flash Sale.
We learned that since the launch of the "Taobao Delivery within Hours" service (now integrated into Flash Sale) last year, Alibaba's e - commerce division has been considering transforming the supply of Tmall brands and Taobao's long - distance suppliers. In addition to Uniqlo, brands like Decathlon and Xidesheng have also joined the flash - sale model. According to information obtained by 36Kr, Taobao Flash Sale has established a dedicated team to design customized solutions for different brand merchants, prioritizing the relatively high - frequency demands within a few kilometers.
For example, Decathlon is a relatively high - frequency brand in clothing retail, but less so compared to convenience stores. There is no need for large - scale inventory for instant retail, and the stores can be used directly as warehouses. The core issue is how to connect the instant - retail system. Taobao Flash Sale provides the option for instant - delivery orders, matches the corresponding inventory, and connects to a suitable delivery system.
Since Decathlon joined Taobao Delivery within Hours, its order volume has exploded, with a significant month - on - month increase, quickly reaching the average daily scale on other platforms. During the March 8th promotion this year, cycling and outdoor clothing and footwear were the most popular categories, with the sales of spring fitness, mountain - climbing and camping, and outdoor windbreakers generally increasing by over 200%. The sales of an outdoor camping buckle cup increased by 350%, and that of a new large - capacity outdoor mountain - climbing backpack exceeded 450%, making them best - selling products.
Jiang Rui, the person in charge of Decathlon's instant - retail business, said that the high efficiency of Taobao Delivery within Hours has significantly increased orders. The order explosion on March 8th reflects users' huge demand for instant retail. In the next step, both parties will jointly explore more sports - related consumption scenarios and further tap into consumption potential.
Of course, this also requires high - level cooperation from brands. The more proactive brands are, the more success they can achieve. In response to the new flash - sale scenario, Chando has comprehensively adjusted its product - selection strategy, warehousing layout, and supply chain. It designed its product portfolio according to the "6:3:1" principle, with 60% being best - selling products and 30% being emergency makeup products. Warehouses in different cities are configured differently, with a significant increase in the inventory of popular products. Multiple delivery options are used to achieve within - hour delivery. Within less than two weeks of its launch, Chando ranked among the top 5 in the beauty category on Taobao Flash Sale.
Now, with the strong momentum of the comprehensive consumer platform, Chando has chosen to deeply engage in Taobao Flash Sale. Based on the multi - warehouse model, it quickly adjusted its product - portfolio structure according to the characteristics of instant consumption. Different from a small - scale trial entry, the brand has comprehensively reconstructed the product selection, warehousing, and supply chain of its Taobao Flash Sale store.
Chando's determination to "heavily invest" is also reflected in its significant investment in inventory and the supply chain. In terms of inventory, it is configured differently according to the warehouse coverage to support different services such as "within - hour delivery", "half - day delivery", and "same - day delivery". At the same time, the inventory of popular products has been significantly increased to fully meet consumers' instant needs.
The cross - business collaboration mechanism is also a great test of the team's cooperation ability for a collaborative business like Taobao Flash Sale. Fan Yu told 36Kr in an interview: "In this process, 88VIP and Taobao's general membership are important linkages."
Take 88VIP as an example. This group of users has always been very important for Alibaba's e - commerce. Around these users, whether it is flash sales, Fliggy (Alibaba's travel platform), or Taopiaopiao (Alibaba's ticketing platform), there can be a main line related to the 88VIP business to connect different businesses. Based on some basic capabilities, different businesses can achieve greater synergy, resulting in a result greater than the sum of its parts.
In this regard, although transactions occur in different business and functional departments, from the perspectives of consumers and merchants, they have different consumption and business needs and hope to complete related activities in the most suitable scenarios. These business scenarios will naturally be combined. Ultimately, all these consumptions contribute to Alibaba's overall revenue.
Of course, in addition to business collaboration, technology is also a core element in this year's Double 11. Currently, Alibaba's e - commerce division is exploring generative AI technology more deeply, and the teams related to Taobao Flash Sale and e - commerce are also collaborating closely.
Kaifu, the president of Taobao and Tmall's intelligent search and recommendation department, revealed that this year is the first time Taobao and Tmall have systematically applied large - language models to various aspects of search, recommendation, and advertising, resulting in significant growth. This means that Taobao and Tmall are starting to use AI as a productivity tool to help merchants and brands reduce operating costs, including store operation, material production, marketing, and customer service.
New merchants joining Taobao Flash Sale have also benefited from these applications. In August, 77 brands achieved monthly sales of over ten million yuan on Taobao Flash Sale, and 490 brands exceeded one million yuan. After over 4,000 authorized Apple stores were launched, the pre - sale of the iPhone 17 series on Taobao Flash Sale exceeded last year's full - day sales in less than one minute.
As Chu Duan, the president of the Taobao platform, said at the press conference: "Flash sales have become a super - growth driver for brands' businesses."