ALIBABA REPLACES WEITAO WITH GUANG GUANG

Alibaba has added a social-shopping function - modeled after RED - into its Taobao app. The function is called “Guang Guang” (“shop around”) and replaces the outmoded “Weitao” feature, as a way to share stories about products & discovery.

With the convergence of social and ecommerce happening at every turn in China, Alibaba is scrambling to fortify its social and community functions. Pressure to do this is coming from; (1)social apps, Douyin, RED, Weibo and others adding more ecommerce capabilities, (2)a growing concern by Alibaba for inbound traffic and retention of audiences (they rely a lot on inbound traffic from RED, Weibo, Douyin, WeChat, and those channels may raise more barriers to the flow of traffic), and (3)the competition (and ad costs) for traffic inside Tmall/Taobao have been steep (this social feature might offer a lower cost, ‘organic’ flow of customers for brands).

IMPLICATIONS FOR BRANDS:

Brands should take a serious look at how they can implement more social strategies on Tmall. Too often there is the notion that Tmall needs to be focused on ‘conversion’ where discovery and brand/audience cultivation should happen on social-first channels (eg. Weibo, Douyin).

In China, where all channels are (now) both social and ecommerce capable, brands need to each channel as both a POS and as a hub for brand experience and customer engagement.

In this context, Tmall is the most important POS and brands should be using the full complement of social functions to build engagement, service, together with awareness and consideration.

In addition to Guang Guang which is well designed for linking post-purchase WOM (word-of-mouth) with new purchases, brands should also look into how to better utilize Tmall Live to create brand stories and stimulate new awareness and interest.